USDEC 11, 2025
Why Tom Cruise Chose Not To Seek Donald Trump’s Help For His Epic Space Movie
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Tom Cruise reportedly avoided asking Donald Trump for a favor to help launch his ambitious outer space movie, sources told Page Six.
While Cruise has largely remained apolitical in the public eye, he said he did not want to ask Trump for political reasons.
In 2020, Cruise first announced plans to shoot a film in outer space. He intended to work with director Doug Liman, known for Edge of Tomorrow, and had cooperation from NASA and SpaceX.
Highlights
- Tom Cruise avoided asking Donald Trump for favors to launch his outer space movie due to political concerns and not wanting to alienate fans.
- The space movie project involved filming aboard the International Space Station and required federal approval and NASA cooperation.
- NASA initially supported the project, with then-administrator Jim Bridenstine expressing excitement before leaving NASA and deleting related tweets.
Tom Cruise allegedly avoided asking Trump a favor to help launch his movie
Image credits: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
The project would have involved filming aboard the International Space Station, a move that required federal approval.
A source familiar with the matter told Page Six, “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. You’d need permission from the federal government.”
The source added, “Tom didn’t want to ask for political reasons.”
According to the source, he did not want to risk alienating fans by appearing to court Trump.
This aligns with reports that Cruise declined a 2025 Kennedy Center honor from the former president, citing scheduling conflicts.
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
The project initially received support from then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a Trump appointee. In 2020, Bridenstine tweeted that NASA was excited to work with Cruise on a film aboard the space station.
“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,” he said.
That tweet has since been deleted, and Bridenstine has left NASA. Space insiders say there have been no further discussions within the agency about the project.
Universal Pictures reportedly expressed interest in the space movie. However, it was a challenge to shoot the movie since it was unclear if Cruise, 63, could even get insured for a space-set feature.
Cruise is known for performing his own stunts, but the extreme environment of space added a new level of risk.
Universal Pictures reportedly expressed interest in the space movie
Image credits: Paramount Pictures
Liman, who would have directed the film, told Deadline that the goal was to make a meaningful movie, not just a promotional gimmick.
“I’m more excited about going to space, not less … but our goal is to make something great. A lot of people are trying to do gimmicky things like, ‘Oh, it’s in space.’
“I’m not interested in doing something that’s a just promotional gimmick. I want to make a film that people watch in a hundred years, when maybe there’s hundreds of movies shot in outer space and there’s nothing special about it being in outer space. That’s the goal of everything I do,” he said.
Trump has himself used his position to demand things of Hollywood.
He was recently reportedly pressing one of his billionaire friends, Larry Ellison, the billionaire owner of Oracle and the parent company of Paramount Studios, to bring back a new installment of his favorite Rush Hour series.
