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Filmmaker certain first-ever movie shot in outer space bound to ‘pay off’

During the stay at the ISS, film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild shot about 30 hours of footage
Klim Shipenko (on screen) Mikhail Japaridze/TASS
Klim Shipenko (on screen)
© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. The first-ever motion picture filmed in outer space can break even and earn good box office revenues, film director Klim Shipenko said during a TASS-held press conference.

"I think that the movie will pay off, I have such expectations, and they are not unfounded. There is a worldwide interest, people from different countries are writing to us. It seems to me that, if it goes international, the film will pay for itself," the moviemaker said.

During their stay at the International Space Station (ISS) Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild shot about 30 hours of footage.

"It is about 30 terabytes (that were filmed at the ISS), that's a lot, more than 30 hours. I think that after editing, about 25-35 minutes of this footage will end up in the movie. <...> Views of the Earth were filmed for future use. We had a good camera, so I decided to shoot everything on it so that there was a minimal use of graphics," Shipenko said.

Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko returned from the ISS on Sunday. They are now in Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), where they are undergoing rehabilitation after the historic spaceflight.

Peresild and Shipenko spent 12 days onboard the ISS. They were shooting the first-ever movie in outer space about a woman doctor who travels to the orbital outpost to save a cosmonaut’s life. The film is a joint project of Roscosmos, Russia’s Channel One and the Yellow, Black and White studio. Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov also have parts in the movie. Novitsky had been on a space mission since April 9. Shkaplerov and Dubrov are continuing their spaceflight mission onboard the ISS.