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Tom Cruise to pull off first civilian spacewalk for new movie

LONDON - Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has flown fighter jets in Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and climbed the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011).

And he may soon be scaling new heights if all goes to plan.

Ms Donna Langley, the chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, told BBC News in a recent interview that Cruise, 60, aims to take a rocket to the International Space Station to film his new movie.

“Tom Cruise is taking us to space. He’s taking the world to space. That’s the plan,” she said.

“We have a great project in development with Tom, that does contemplate him doing just that.”

She added that “hopefully”, the American actor will become “the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station”.

Ms Langley said the film’s plot was pitched to her by Cruise and American director Doug Liman via Zoom during the pandemic.

“The majority of the story actually takes place on earth, and then the character needs to go up to space to save the day,” she revealed.

She added that Cruise’s character is “a down-on-his-luck guy who finds himself in the position of being the only person who could save Earth”.

Cruise has previously worked with Liman, 57, on Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) and American Made (2017).

They are reportedly working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and business magnate Elon Musk’s company SpaceX on the film, which will make it Hollywood’s first narrative feature shot in space if successful.

Sources said the film’s production budget is estimated to be about US$200 million (S$288 million), but Ms Langley said “we haven’t got that far yet”.

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