Tom Cruise's space movie won't be "gimmicky"

Asked about the project, Doug told Deadline: "I'm more excited about going to space, not less ... but our goal is too 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.

"With Swingers, it's very meaningful to me that lots of people who watch it weren't even born when it premiered here.

"If I ever shoot a movie in outer space, the question will be what could I do that you couldn't do on Earth that makes for a great piece of entertainment, that's better than if you didn't do it it space.

"Again, its also about technology and storytelling... you can run a line from Swingers all the way through to this potential film in outer space."

Doug has been working on his XR immersive short Asteroid and is excited about the possibilities the project has made him consider.

Admitting there isn't a real update for the space film as yet, he added: "I've just finished this [Asteroid] so I'm now processing what next and what I learned, part of it will be how the audience reacts to it. You'd rather I give you more concrete answers but you're getting me totally raw... I don't know where it leaves me.

"I know I want to do more in space... I am more excited about this idea of characters who have no business of going into space after making this. In the way, I was excited after The Bourne Identity.

"My movies are all anti-heroes. Tom Cruise is a coward in Edge of Tomorrow; he's a full on criminal in American Made; Matt Damon kills people for a living in The Bourne Identity; and Brad and Angie both kill people for a living [Mr. and Mrs. Smith].

"I'm interested in like my kinds of characters going into space and I love that in Asteroid, we got to cram five of them into this teeny second-hand capsule."

Movie bosses teased last year that it was hoped Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning star Tom would make history by being blasted into space for the film.

Universal Pictures chair Dame Donna Langley told the BBC: "We have a great project in development with Tom that does contemplate him taking a rocket to the Space Station.

"And hopefully he will become the first civilian to do a space walk outside of the International Space Station. He will play a down-on-his-luck guy who finds himself in the position of being the only person who could save Earth."

Plans for the movie first emerged in 2020 with Elon Musk's SpaceX and NASA both involved in the project.