Tom Cruise’s space movie isn’t getting off the ground if that means shmoozing with Donald Trump.
An anonymous source told Page Six that the movie star’s space movie, in which he would reunite with Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, isn’t moving forward because it would need NASA coordination—and Trump’s approval. Those sources claim Cruise didn’t want to cross that line.
“From what I understand, they would need NASA coordination to do the movie, and supposedly Tom Cruise did not want to ask Donald Trump for a favor,” the source told the site. “You’d need permission from the federal government.”
“Tom didn’t want to ask for political reasons,” they added.
The revelation comes after Cruise claimed in August that “scheduling conflicts” were the reason he turned down Trump’s Kennedy Center Honor.
The would-be space film was first reported in 2020, when Deadline revealed that Cruise was in early talks with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and NASA. It’s unclear how far along the project was in development, as there reportedly was no screenplay at the time.
Trump-appointed NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was publicly supportive in 2020, tweeting, “NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station! We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA’s ambitious plans a reality,” per NPR.
Cruise apparently did not want to find out whether or not the second iteration of Trump’s administration would support the film.
One thing he can be sure of is that he lives rent-free in the president’s brain, as Trump has often found reasons to reference the action film star. Just last month, when describing the “handsome” pilots who flew the B-2 bombers that hit Iran’s enrichment facilities, Trump described them as “perfect specimens” who “looked like Tom Cruise… but taller.”
Previously, at a Michigan rally in 2019, Cruise was top of mind again for Trump, who again likened the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilots to the star. “Honestly, they’re better-looking than Tom Cruise,” he said at the time.
Despite seemingly having an open invitation to become one of the president’s Hollywood buddies, Cruise has so far steered clear of the president’s controversial path.
The Daily Beast has reached out to both Cruise and the White House for comment.
