It was not long ago when actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman announced that the daredevil actor would be the first to shoot a movie in space with the help of Elon Musk's Space X and NASA. And if you know anything about the Mission: Impossible star, he is not shy about doing his own stunts.

Unfortunately, much like the original space race, the Russians are going to beat us to it.

A new film entitled The Challenge has been announced to be the first feature film to have actual footage filmed in outer space and the crew isn't wasting any time. In fact, the film's director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild, accompanied by cosmonaut Anton Shkaplervov took flight the morning of October 5th and are headed for the International Space Station to begin production on the space shoots.

The story revolves around a doctor from Russia who takes on a mission to get to the International Space Station to help save a cosmonaut 's life. According to Deadline, the film crew will spend 12 days shooting the project and according to a quote from the director, the preparation to become a space traveler was an intense experience.

We underwent an accelerated course of many important elements that the cosmonauts study over many years. We tried to master them in four months. Of course, this is very fast. We had a lot of theory, practice, endurance, sports - everything imaginable. It seems to me, this is a rather feasible task - naturally not to become a cosmonaut at the level of Anton and other professionals but to prepare as a participant of a space flight. The entire time we worked very hard. Despite our cheerful disposition and smiles, we got very tired. Had I been told this once again, of course, I would come here understanding the matter. But I still would come.

The Challenge is rumored to release sometime in 2022.

Tags: The Challenge Tom Cruise Elon Musk Space X movie Russian