Tom Cruise to Film a Movie on the International Space Station

"We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA's ambitious plans a reality," per a Tuesday tweet from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, and what better way to accomplish that than to fly Tom Cruise to the International Space Station to make a movie? NASA announced Tuesday it has signed on to the plan to do just that, CNN reports, though it's not clear exactly when the actor will get there—or how he'll get there, as Russia is currently the only country that is able to get humans to and from the ISS. SpaceX and Boeing have been working on spacecraft that would be able to transport humans to and from the station, and Deadline reports that SpaceX is reportedly working on the Cruise-NASA project.

While films including a Cruise-narrated documentary have been shot on the space station, this will be the first "narrative feature film" shot there. The New York Times reports footage for television commercials has also been shot in space. Other than the genre—action-adventure—little is yet known about the movie, which is said to be in its early stages, with no studio yet attached. "We will say more about the project at the appropriate time," a NASA rep says. (More Tom Cruise stories.)