Does Tom Cruise Have A Wingman In Space?
So: who is going to fly to ISS with Tom Cruise? @Axiom_Space has a deal with @SpaceX to fly private astronauts to ISS. Sources report Axiom's former @NASA astronaut employee @CommanderMLA Michael López-Alegría is expected to be on the Cruise flight. pic.twitter.com/JTJJI9hY49
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 8, 2020
Keith’s note: Looks like Mike LA may have a new call sign: “Goose”.
“goose” .. hope not … we know what happened to goose.
If this comes to pass and it’s really for a movie what about the film crew?
There are any number of very small, very high quality video cameras – race cars for one use them extensively. And of course there are rocketcams. Also, most but not all movies now use digital rather than film media – the crossover point was 8 years ago. So deploy several of these cameras and operate them remotely.
You still need a director, camera operator, cinematographer etc. Not all that can be done remotely.
say only 20% of the production was staged on orbit. Also, we need to be thinking 21st century. If this was done by CGI , yes you would have a larger crew. But this is the real deal – captured in space . A bit of value added by a bigger crew lost seems a good trade.
I’m wondering if production will take place after the Axiom Space module attaches to ISS,
https://www.axiomspace.com/…
Much of ‘it’ was done quasi-remotely for the vomit comet filming of Apollo 13 crew cabin sequences…and decades earlier filming some of the carousel sequences in 2001: A Space Odyssey. As Bones suggests, it’s the 21st century. Gotta think outside the box.
Don’t you mean “Mike Lopez…uhm ah…from Algeria!”
Don’t remember the flight but a PAO actually stumbled into that one.
Tom Cruise plus 2 camera / sound / production experts, and one NASA Commander astronaut. All the shots they need will be well scripted, with story boards etc. It is possible that they will need shots of Cruise on the ascent (and descent), so that will be a bummer probably for Tom Cruise, as he will have to be acting while he wants to just experience the feeling. But overall the shoot will be well scripted, including camera angles and all that kind of stuff. Everything will be tight and well thought out beforehand, for sure. Lots of cameras.
One again – I have been on expeditions – Everest specifically – where major TV efforts were undertaken. The crews are much smaller than you think. I was part of one so I speak from actual experience. Often times the actual participants (stars) also operate cameras and sound gear especially ion the dangerous parts of the mission and in tight places.. Cruise certainly knows how all that works by now. Mike LA is a super smart guy. I’d be surprised if it is more than the 2 of them since they are going to likely fly up in a ship that is carrying other passengers and cargo. Not certain even Cruise has the funds to buy a dedicated Falcon 9/Dragon mission.
Mr. Cruise apparently has a net worth of $570 million, so I’m fairly sure he could afford a dedicated Falcon 9/Dragon flight. I think the real question is whether he’d want to spend such a large fraction of everything he owns on it. I doubt it, but maybe he can raise most of the money from a film studio. As far as the number of people required, would I be wrong to think the productions you’re familiar with (the Everest ones you mentioned) are television documentaries? The expectations and practices for a feature Hollywood film are probably different. Which means they would have to adapt if this idea is going to be viable.