On Thursday, a UK-based company that claims to be producing Tom Cruise’s upcoming film in space said it plans to attach the first-ever space movie studio and sports arena to the International Space Station as early as 2024.
Called Space Entertainment Enterprise, or S.E.E., the company also announced it is working with commercial space station builder Axiom Space, which has its own partnership with NASA to build and attach an experimental space station to the ISS. That station is called Axiom Station, and Axiom hopes to launch its first module, called Axiom Hub 1, to the ISS by 2024. The company will then build out the space station before eventually separating it from the ISS in 2028 and making it a free-flying vehicle.
But while Axiom Station is attached to the ISS, S.E.E. plans to attach its own module to the growing space station in December of 2024. Dubbed SEE-1, the module will be available to individuals who want to film or live stream content in space, “including films, television, music, and sports events,” according to a press release announcing the news. Animated videos and images of SEE-1 on the company’s website show the module as a giant white sphere, though there were no available designs of what the interior will look like.
Though the module will belong to S.E.E., it is being built by Axiom Space. According to the S.E.E. press release, it will be an inflatable module that will stretch up to 6 meters, or nearly 20 feet, in diameter. S.E.E. says that it will allow third parties to also use the studio for their own projects. No costs or estimated budgets were provided for the project, nor did S.E.E. detail how much it would charge others to use the studio.
“Adding a dedicated entertainment venue to Axiom Station’s commercial capabilities in the form of SEE-1 will expand the station’s utility as a platform for a global user base and highlight the range of opportunities the new space economy offers,” Michael Suffredini, Axiom’s CEO, said in a statement.
With today’s announcement, S.E.E. also revealed itself to be the production company behind Tom Cruise’s mystery space movie. In 2020, NASA announced that it was working with the famous actor to potentially send him to the International Space Station to film a project. The actor’s ride to space is reportedly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which is used to ferry NASA astronauts to and from the ISS.
Later, NASA confirmed in a podcast that Axiom was going to be involved in getting Tom Cruise to orbit. While Axiom builds space stations, it has also contracted with NASA and SpaceX to buy rides on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to send private individuals to the ISS. Axiom’s first private astronaut mission on a Crew Dragon, called Axiom-1, is scheduled to take flight in March. However, there’s no set date or confirmation for Tom Cruise’s flight. As for what Cruise plans to film up in the cosmos, all that’s been reported so far is that director Doug Liman is involved and that the film will not be a Mission: Impossible movie.
S.E.E. was co-founded by producers Elena and Dmitry Lesnevsky. Their company boasts an impressive list of consultants of former Viacom and HBO executives. The company says it’s currently looking for investors on the Tom Cruise space project, which Deadline reported in 2020 would have a budget of at least $200 million.
However, it’s possible the budget could be even higher, given how much going to space costs. Just one seat on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is thought to run around $55 million, plus NASA charges additional fees for private astronauts using the space station’s facilities while in orbit. S.E.E. says it plans to conduct a fundraising round soon.