The Truth About Tom Cruise's $200 Million Space Movie

There's a pretty crazy story behind Tom Cruise's latest high-octane project.

According to a report by Deadline, Cruise, along with director Doug Liman (who worked with Cruise on 2014's Edge of Tomorrow) and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, managed to secure an insanely hefty budget for his upcoming space movie. Deadline says that, according to sources, Liman, Cruise, producer PJ van Sandwijk, and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie spoke to representatives from Universal Pictures over Zoom; in the end, the studio agreed to a $200 million budget. The group even managed to make this pitch without a script in place, though Liman is reportedly also writing the film.

So, why is this budget for the currently unnamed film so big? Well, space movies usually require a pretty huge financial commitment in the first place, but this film has a big twist: Cruise wants to actually be launched into space for the shoot, which explains why Musk is getting involved as well. Here's everything we know about Tom Cruise's most ambitious project yet.

Back in May of 2020, Cruise revealed that he was in talks with Musk to develop a film shot entirely in space, but this expensive development means this project could become a reality soon. After Musk reignited American space travel late that month with the SpaceX launch from Florida, shooting two American astronauts into space, Liman and Cruise brought the controversial figure on board for their film.

Though the project clearly hasn't taken shape beyond Universal's enormous financial promise, audiences have every reason to believe that Cruise and Liman fully intend to move ahead with this film. It simply remains to be seen when this film could actually go into production, even beyond the enormous technical hurdle of launching Cruise into space to film it. As Deadline reports, McQuarrie and Cruise are currently working on Mission: Impossible 7, so it may be a while.

Nobody can doubt Cruise's sheer commitment, though, especially when you consider the major stunts he's already pulled off. Among other high octane acts, Cruise has scaled the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and hung from helicopters and planes for the Mission: Impossible franchise, all of which he pulled off without a stunt double.

With the coronavirus crisis preventing most film production from resuming right now, there's not a lot of information about Cruise's next film, but as the star prepares to head beyond Earth, we'll keep you updated as best as we can.