Yulia Peresild, 36, one of Russia’s most famous actresses, will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 5 alongside film director Klim Shipenko, 38.

Humans have been exploring the space around planet Earth for 60 years, so most of the spectacular “firsts” have already been claimed, but Russia thinks it’s still good for one more: the first movie filmed in space. It’s also in a competition with the US to claim the achievement, just like in the old days.

They may run across some fellow filmmakers aboard the space station, including Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman, who are both scheduled to visit in October to create a film.

According to Science Times, one of NASA’s steps toward commercializing space stations includes allowing visitors and filming the first movie in space, which will feature Tom Cruise and be directed by Doug Liman.

With the clock running down to the scheduled October 5 blast-off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, Peresild told AFP, “I really want us to be not only the first but also the best.”

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said on Thursday that its crew had been chosen to star in the film “Challenge.”

Although the specific date of Cruise’s launch has not been published, the Russians’ departure in the first few days of the month implies a desire to beat the Americans.

Pereslid, who has been cast in the film, is a well-known Russian actress who has been in a number of films. She knocked out hundreds of individuals who auditioned for the role in a bid for international fame.

She and the rest of the crew will go through normal cosmonaut training before launching to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft.

Aside from its lofty ambitions, however, nothing is known about the picture.

The team will occupy two of the three seats on Russia’s Soyuz expedition to the orbiting space station.

They will have to undertake centrifuge testing, vibration stand tests, introduction and training flights in a zero-gravity plane, and parachute training, among other things, according to Roscosmos.

A casting notice by the Russian space agency Roscosmos in November 2020 stated that it was looking for “a real superhero to go to the stars … at the same time as becoming a big international star”.

The female lead in the film had to be between the ages of 25 and 40, a Russian citizen, weigh between 50 and 70 kg, and have a “chest girth” of up to 112 centimeters.

“Additionally, she must be able to run 1km in three and a half minutes or less, swim 800 metres freestyle in 20 minutes, and dive from a 3-metre springboard with an impressive technique.”  It was not necessary to have any prior acting experience.

According to CNN, the release date for the film has yet to be determined. It will be created in conjunction with Russia’s space agency, Channel One, and the Yellow, Black, and White studio.

The Call’s funding has also remained a mystery. But it’s no secret that space travel is expensive: a single ticket on a Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station costs NASA tens of millions of dollars.

Last year, Russia’s Konstantin Ernst stated that the film will not be a science fiction picture, but rather a realistic representation of near-term space flight.

“It’s a movie about how a person in no way connected with space exploration, due to various reasons and personal debt, ends up a month later in orbit,” Ernst said in a September 2020 interview. “That’s all I can tell you.”

Peresild’s prior credits include parts in famous Russian TV shows and a number of patriotic war films, including Battle for Sevastopol (2015), in which she played Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a young Soviet lady who joined the red army and became an expert sniper.