Universal Studios committed over $200 million back in May to create the first-ever action movie shot literally in outer space starring Tom Cruise and it’s just been revealed they did so without a single page of the script being written which is unheard of for a budget that high.
According to Deadline, all it took was a Zoom call between studio execs, a very excited Tom, his Mission Impossible director Chris McQuarrie, and a very good pitch from the film’s eventual writer Tom Liman, who directed Tom's blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow.
But, there’s actually more to the story because while $200 million might sound like a huge sum of money, it’s really not for a project of this magnitude.
In fact, blockbuster movies based in outer space shot on earth in studios typically cost more. For instance the last Star Wars ran up $275 million in expenses.
Elon Musk’s Space X and NASA are also involved in the production which will help keep costs down reasonably and when you consider they’ll be guaranteed to make history with the production $200 million is kind of a steal.