On October 17th, Russian actress Yulia Peresild, film director Klim Shipenko and cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky successfully returned to Earth after filming the first movie in space. They landed in early hours in Kazakhstan.
The actress and the film director have been in orbit since October 5 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The cosmonaut Novitsky has been there since April 9. All he members of the crew are in good health.
Peresild and Shipenko shot the first ever film in open space.
The crew traveled to the orbital laboratory that was used as one of the main sets for the movie. A drama film has a working title “The Challenge”. According to the scenario, Ms. Peresild plays a surgeon embarking on an emergency mission to save the life of an ailing cosmonaut. In total, about 35-40 minutes of screen time should have been filmed in orbit.
The film is a joint project of Roscosmos, Channel One and the studio Yellow, Black and White. Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov also took part in the filming.
The successful mission of the Russian filming crew is not only a significant step in cinematography, but is considered as another Russian victory in space.
In May 2020, a similar project was presented in the US. American actor Tom Cruise and film director Doug Lyman should take part in another filming on the ISS. It was reported that the flight was planned for October 2021, and it should be carried out in cooperation with SpaceX. However, no other details have been revealed so far.