Tom Cruise Grounded His Space Film Over Needing Donald Trump’s Approval
https://www.danlalondefilms.com/post/tom-cruise-grounded-his-space-film-over-needing-donald-trump-s-approval
Tom Cruise Grounded His Space Film Over Needing Donald Trump’s Approval
https://www.danlalondefilms.com/post/tom-cruise-grounded-his-space-film-over-needing-donald-trump-s-approval
43 Comments
There’s something not right about this explanation.
Film companies need permits and permission to film all sorts of things. It’s part of doing business. It’s not calling in a favor from somebody on the government side to grant the permit.
As much as I like Tom Cruise and his movies, I’m just not understanding the idea of obtaining a permit for something is the equivalent of having to ask president Trump for a favor.
Was he going to crash a DC-9 into a volcano or something?
This is how we get a Kevin Sorbo space film.
No matter who wins, we lose.
Smart. He understands how Trump works. Like most mob bosses, it’s never a one way street – and even something as simple as a photo opt is something Cruise knows will detail so much of what he’s built in the industry – regardless of his personal beliefs.
They needed official coordination and approval from the feds for a project involving the ISS. Cruise didn’t want to submit a request to the Trump administration.
If only there were some way to film a movie about space without actually going into space.
Hopefully someday Hollywood will figure out how to get over this seemingly insurmountable hurdle.
> Cruise has avoided politics for most of his career, and it makes no sense for him to start now
Not asking Trump for a favor IS avoiding politics.
Tom Cruise could be a full ass Republican and I could just imagine him (or basically any of his characters) not wanting to do Trump some groveling favor. Wish more people were like that.
Politics bad. Cults totally fine tho.
Xenu is unhappy with this outcome.
“Yeah I just decided I had enough on my plate with *one* cult and just didn’t want to get involved with another”
Seems pretty standard for going to space to mess with the ISS.
Suddenly Tom Cruises weird Scientology nonsense doesn’t matter one fucking bit. Go Tom!
Would Trump have even known about this request had he not publicized it?
This feels like routine federal govt stuff that the president never even hears.
Tom Cruise supports Scientology as one of it’s biggest namesakes and monetary donations. Scientology operates literal slave ships that won’t dock in countries that would prosecute them for slavery.
Fuck Tom Cruise and Scientology.
Why? dt does things without any approval every day.
In the past the reason was stated that the reason he stopped is because the russians made the same type of film and cruise didn’t want to be second.
The russian film was the first to film scenes on the ISS [source](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/20/star-quality-russia-premieres-first-feature-film-shot-in-space#:~:text=In%20The%20Challenge%20a%20surgeon,his%20joy%20in%20beating%20Hollywood.)
That’s a convenient excuse for grounding a film that’s been stuck in pre production for over 6 years.
Delayed so long that it went from “first movie shot in space” to “first Hollywood movie shot in space” to ” we’re just not going to do it, and it’s Trump’s fault”
What’s insane about this is that both Top Gun movies got a tonne of support from the military and are effective propaganda tools that align with recruiting goals. So clearly that’s not the issue for Tom. They must have already tried to collect the favor and it wasn’t tenable with the artistic vision.
Cruise is a smart man. I wouldn’t want to deal with a “what’s in it for me”, loud mouth narcissistic POTUS in order to make a movie. He is smart to wait for a reasonable, stable POTUS.
Tom Cruise can wait him out.
Does Trump have to fucking ruin everything?
Honestly it’s kinda awesome tom cruise would need approval anyway. Definitely going to see this movie
Glad to hear the MAGA cult and Scientology won’t be forming an alliance anytime soon.
Could Bezos swoop in and send him on a specially tailored “tourist flight” like he did for Katy Perry? I mean it may have to be a bit longer or maybe more than one? I guess I don’t know what the original plot/plan is.
I think he’s a kook but bravo to him on this.
wow, Tom Cruise redeemed himself. But I will point out that instead of NASA they could just use NACA as *2001* did so this entire stunt is a stupid waste of time. Movies are made on computers now.
>Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, politics should stay out of entertainment and sports, in my opinion.
These things have been entwined since forever
And even with all that batshit he doesn’t want to support the current administration. Wild.
Never thought I’d agree with Tom Cruise.
Honestly, makes me like Tom a bit more
Doesn’t absolve him from being a piece of shit but okay I guess.
When even the Scientologists think you’re taking the authoritarian bit a little too far.
Yeah I would t want to owe that favor.
“Tom Cruise Crazy” is its own level on top of the CoS stuff! There’s even a whole song about it!
Tom has done some things that made me question his sanity. This actually makes me think he has some left.
You know this is all publicity. Tom Cruise is like a Warlock of Scientology. According to them he has super powers and shit.
To be fair, it is probably a terrible idea to try and film a movie in space.
Content is one thing but an actual movie, probably better off faking it.
Cruise is beyond talented and dedicated. But he’s also craaaaaaazy. But this choice makes me think better if him.
There’s all the crazy scientology stuff…
But fuck it’s hard to hate Tom Cruise as an otherwise naive normal guy. He seems awesome.
Rare W from Tom Cruise. He’s still a piece of shit, but this gets a thumbs up from me. I additionally approve how he treated crew members during the pandemic
This is the dumbest article you could link on this. It addresses no questions and asks no important obvious questions (it only some clickbaity assertions). The only saving grace is it links the source of the actual original reporting: [PageSix quoting an anonymous source](https://pagesix.com/2025/12/10/entertainment/tom-cruise-didnt-want-to-ask-donald-trump-for-a-favor-to-get-his-outer-space-movie-off-ground-source/). And that single direct quotation is the basis for the entire article.
I know entertainment journalism sometimes has different standards than normal journalism, but this is still pretty empty level stupidity from “the New York Post’s renowned gossip column”. That another blogger simply rewrites, sometimes verbatim, the entire thing without originality and even manages to misinterpret that, and that you link to that derivative blog, OP, is pretty poor form.