Space: the film industry’s final frontier

Is space the new cultural hotspot? Look out, Pinewood Studios – you could be a fading star, writes Charlotte Cripps

Actor Yulia Peresild, left, director Klim Shipenko, right, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, members of the prime crew of Soyuz MS-19 (Roscosmos Space Agency)

Could anything be as exciting right now as the new James Bond film, No Time to Die? Yes, quite frankly. Filming is taking place on the world’s first movie to be shot in space.

This week, Russian actor Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko blasted off in a Soyuz MS-19 spaceship alongside veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to the International Space Station, likely beating Tom Cruise in the race to make the first film in orbit. The movie will be titled Challenge.

Its plot involves a female surgeon (played by Peresild) who is sent to a space station to perform heart surgery on a crew member in zero gravity. Filming is expected to take 12 days before the three head back to Earth.