How Much Would It Cost to Film in Space?

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 2, 2009

WesAndersonSpace

While the rest of us were stumbling around a backyard dressed like Zin’rokh, Destroyer of Worlds, Access Hollywood was busy running a brief interview with Wes Anderson in which the director claimed that he would love to shoot a film in space. Or at least get some of the scenes for a movie by actually filming in outer space.

For some reason, many other outlets decided it was news even though the only options here are that Anderson was joking or is crazy. As we all know, jokes only work as headlines for The Onion, and “Wes Anderson Is Crazy” wouldn’t even have been fresh information back in 2002.

But it got me thinking.

With so many people mocking the situation and claiming how outlandish it is, I decided I wanted to know just how (in dollars and cents) outlandish it really is.

So, I turned to an expert on the matter – the 5-year old that lives next door – who told me that it “costed eleventy billion dollars.” Since that didn’t seem right, I checked with NASA, and they claim that it costs around $450 million per shuttle mission.

That would essentially be the cost of Anderson capturing home movies of himself waving to mom with the vacuum of dark nothingness behind him. To actually shoot George Clooney in the suit doing a space walk might cost a few dollars more. And it doesn’t seem as if the International Space Station has accommodations for a dolly track.

I suppose Anderson could always get his straight-on, slow motion hero shot on a handicam, but why would he?

So, in short, for Anderson to make it into space, it would cost more than the most expensive movie ever made (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End at $300 million) before the cameras even start rolling. Add to that the average budget for a Wes Anderson joint ($25 million), and you have a grand total of $475 million to get the film in the can (plus the $15 million needed to market a film). So somewhere nearing $500 million (aka Half A Billion Dollars).

Of course, if he were really serious, he’d do it in IMAX 3D.

What do you think?

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chille

Well it may be outlandish now but in 20-30 years who knows

Clark

In between 5 year olds and NASA, there are a number of other more useful sources for such info. E.g., SpaceAdventures.com could tell you how much it cost to send Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil, to the Int. Space Station recently for a couple of weeks. Rumor is that it cost around $35M. He didn't make a film but he did participate from there in a global festival with people such as Peter Gabriel and Shakira participating to raise money for his foundation.

Space Adventures expects by 2012 to be able to send 2 private individuals at a time to the ISS. So if Anderson took himself, an actor, a script, some camera equipment and drafted in some of the ISS crew as actors, making a film is certainly feasible for a cost of something like $100M. (Note that several IMAX documentary type films have already been shot on the ISS and the old Russian Mir space station and those involve big bulky cameras.)

He could supplement filming in orbit with shots made on cheaper suborbital space trips. E.g. by 2011 Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic firm will be flying 6 people at a time at $200k a seat up to 100km for 5 minutes of weightlessness. Also, for $4500 per person the company ZERO-G can provide him with 25 second long episodes of weightlessness on their plane that flies a sequence of parabolas. Some of the scenes in Apollo 13 were filmed in such a plane.

By 2015, Robert Bigelow, billionaire owner of Budget Suites, plans to have his own space station in orbit (see BigelowAerospace.com, he already has 2 prototypes in orbit) and to bring visitors there for something on the order of $15M per person for month long stays. His habitats will be much roomier than the ISS and also, as privately owned and operated facilities, they will be more amenable to commercial operations such as film-making. If Anderson begins developing his story and script now, by mid to late in the next decade, he has a very realistic chance to make his film in orbit for a budget considerably smaller than the big budget films you mention.

Anderson may not ever make a character based film in space, but in the not so distant future, someone surely will.

Jordan

Virgin Galactic. I think it's 250k a seat and only takes 3 days of prep- which is included in the price. You could throw a couple million at that and be abl to do it reasonably easily/not with a budget that was to insane atall

How Much Would It Cost to Film in Space?

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