In 2020, it was revealed that Cruise was working with NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX on a movie that would be shot at the International Space Station. The feature would be the first narrative film to be shot out of this world.

The ambitious project received renewed interest in 2022 when Universal chairman Donna Langley spoke about it with BBC News, sharing that the story — which was pitched to her by Cruise and his Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman during the pandemic — “actually takes place on earth, and then the character needs to go up to space to save the day.”

The hope, she added, is that Cruise will become “the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station”.

On Monday, Cruise himself spoke out about the space-set action-adventure in an interview on the red carpet at the ET-hosted New York City premiere of his current film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

“We’ve been working on it diligently and we’ll see where we go,” he told Variety, noting that a production start date has not yet been formalized.

First, he’ll need to complete Dead Reckoning Part Two, with writer and director Christopher McQuarrie telling the outlet they’ll “hit the ground running” on that film as soon as the press tour for Part One ends.

ET also spoke with Cruise at Monday’s event, where he opened up about his deep love for making blockbuster films.

“[I hope] the people are entertained… In my movies, whatever genre that I’m making, I want them to be entertained,” he explained. “And [I want to] make high-quality cinema that is made for the big screen.”

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One hit theaters on Wednesday, July 12.