Universal commits $200 million for Tom Cruise & Doug Liman’s space movie

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It was only a matter of time before it happened, but Tom Cruise will be heading to space for his next feature-film. It was announced earlier this year that Tom Cruise would be partnering with Elon Musk's Space X and NASA to shoot a film in outer-space on the International Space Station. Doug Liman (EDGE OF TOMORROW) will be directing the film as well as penning the script, and it was revealed last week that Universal Pictures was in talks to pony up the dough for the space adventure.

Well, according to Deadline, Universal has given the project a production commitment of around $200 million. What did Tom Cruise and Doug Liman have to do to score that much cash? Not a hell of a lot it turns out. Deadline's sources said that all it took was an "exuberant Zoom call" with Tom Cruise, Doug Liman, and Christopher McQuarrie. The project was pitched with no script, but honestly, I can't imagine anyone turning down the concept of Tom Cruise in space. It pretty much sells itself. As for McQuarrie's role in this project, it's said that he'll be a story advisor as well as a producer alongside Cruise and Liman. Additionally, that $200 million is only an estimate at this stage, and I think it's safe to say that we'll see that figure rise once the project moves forward. It ain't cheap to make a movie where you're only pretending to go to space, let alone one where you go for real.

While many suspected that Tom Cruise might be saving a trip to outer-space for one of the upcoming MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE sequels, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has previously teased teased that they've worked out some more crazy Earth-bound stunts for Tom Cruise to tackle in the new films. "We've figured out three obscene things that he's doing that I'm terrified of, that make the helicopter chase look like tinker toys," McQuarrie said. Speaking of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, production on the next installment(s) of the long-running franchise was underway before COVID-19 forced them to shut-down. As a result, the release dates of the two films were pushed back, with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 now set to hit theaters on November 19, 2021, with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 8 following on November 4, 2022.