Doug Liman to direct Tom Cruise's space movie

Doug Liman is to direct Tom Cruise in a movie filmed in space.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the Mission: Impossible actor was teaming up with Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX and officials at America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to make the first-ever feature film to be shot in outer space, and the news was swiftly confirmed by NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, who revealed it would be filmed on the International Space Station (ISS).

Now, editors at Deadline have revealed that Cruise came up with the idea with his frequent collaborator Liman, who has directed the actor in Edge of Tomorrow and American Made. In addition to directing, Liman is also writing the first draft of the screenplay and will produce alongside Cruise.

However, back in 2018, The Terminator director James Cameron revealed to Empire magazine that he discussed making a movie on the ISS with Cruise many years ago.

"I actually talked to (Cruise) about doing a space film in space, about 15 years ago," he said. "I said, 'Tom, you and I, we'll get two seats on the Soyuz (spacecraft), but somebody's gotta train us as engineers.' Tom said, 'No problem, I'll train as an engineer.' We had some ideas for the story, but it was still conceptual."

Liman and Cruise, who are both pilots, have work on other projects to complete before focusing on the space movie. Liman, who has also directed Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity, is currently in post-production on Chaos Walking, starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland, while Cruise is to reprise his role as Ethan Hunt for two more Mission: Impossible movies, which were due to begin filming before the coronavirus caused the production to shut down. He will also be heading out on a promotional tour for Top Gun: Maverick, which was pushed from summer to December due to the health crisis.