The Challenge (2023 film)

• Oleg Novitsky as Cosmonaut Ivanov (the sick cosmonaut)[11]
• Anton Shkaplerov as a cosmonaut
• Pyotr Dubrov as a cosmonaut
• Mark T. Vande Hei as a cosmonaut

The screening process began on 15 March 2021,[12] as a joint project between Roscosmos, Channel One, and Yellow, Black and White. The streaming service START is taking part in the creation of the tape.[13][14] The filming equipment was launched on Progress MS-17[1] and returned on Soyuz MS-18.

According to Konstantin Ernst, Director General or CEO of Channel One, the motivation of the filmmakers is to confirm Russia's leadership in the space sector and to restore the prestige of the cosmonaut profession in the eyes of the younger generation (Yulia Peresild herself did not dream of space flight as a child).[10] The unique experience of express training for non-professional flight may subsequently be useful for the real need to send scientists or doctors into space.[15] The development of the project will be covered within the framework of the Evening Urgant program, whose members moved to the cosmodrome a week before launch.[10]

About three thousand applications were submitted for the main role, for which Peresild was ultimately chosen.[10] On 14 May, the Interagency Committee approved the composition of the ISS main and alternate crews for the period 2021–2023.[16] Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov was chosen to be the ship's commander, while Klim Shipenko and Peresild flew as spaceflight participants. The backup crew was cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, cameraman Alexey Dudin and actress Alyona Mordovina,[15] Mordovina being the first woman to pass the cosmonaut screening since 2012.[12] Due to the allocation of seats on flights to the International Space Station, the flight of the director and actress necessitated rearranging mission lengths of the professional astronauts and cosmonauts, including extending the mission length of the on-orbit crew, U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei and his Russian cosmonaut opposite number, from 6 months to 1 year.[17]

The crew members began training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on 24 May.[18] To prepare for filming, Shipenko trained intensively, dropping 15 kilograms (33 lb) of weight.[10] On 23 July, the prime crew participated in a four-hour simulation inside a Soyuz replica while wearing the Sokol suit,[19] and on 28 July, the back-up crew completed the same exercise. According to back-up commander Artemyev, the performance of the two back-up spaceflight participants was outstanding.[20]

The dress-rehearsals for the movie happened after the scheduled spaceflight training each day.[21] On 30 July, the spacecraft had its pre-launch preparation started,[22] and on 31 August, the medical committee announced that both the main and reserve crew were healthy for space flight.[23]

On 12 September, First Channel aired a reality show called The Challenge: The First in Space, about the specifics of the selection and training of project participants.[15]

The ISS, where a portion of the production takes place

Principal photography began on 5 October, when Shkaplerov, Peresild, and Shipenko flew to the ISS aboard the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-19 manned transport spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. While on the ISS, Klim Shipenko shot about 30 hours of material (30–40 minutes of film),[24] as well as performing the functions of director, art director, makeup artist, and production designer. Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov will appear in the film,[25] with Dubrov and Mark Vande Hei assisting in the production.[26] Shkaplerov will also appear in some scenes.[27]

Of all the footage filmed in space, about 30% was filmed in the Nauka module, another third was filmed in the Zvezda module, and the remaining 30% was shot on the rest of ISS modules.[28] It is planned that the footage filmed in space will be approximately 35 minutes of the final timing of the film.[10]

They left the ISS on 17 October, aboard Soyuz MS-18, with Commander Oleg Novitsky.[29][30] After the successful landing of Soyuz MS-18, Dmitry Rogozin revealed that Ernst had paid Roscosmos for Shipenko and Peresild's seats.[31]

The ground-based filming started in Moscow and the region of Moscow Oblast in mid-June 2022 and ended in October, the last footage filmed at the world's largest operating Baikonur Cosmodrome. Some of the locations the crew filmed were the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and the Voronovo sanatorium.[32] In addition, a pavilion was erected specifically for the film, imitating the RKA Mission Control Center of the Roscosmos State Corporation. Here, Miloš Biković, the star of Klim Shipenko's film Serf, joined the film crew.[33]

On New Year's Eve, Channel One released the first musical number,[37] and the first teaser trailer was released on 1 January 2023.[38] The second trailer was released on 7 March 2023.[39][40]

On 6 April, for the premiere of the film, the descent module of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft was installed in Manezhnaya Square on Okhotny Ryad Street.[41]

The Challenge is planned to be released by distributors since Central Partnership company, which is part of the Gazprom-Media holding in the Russian Federation is scheduled to be shown in theaters across the country on 12 April, but was later postponed to 20 April 2023. As reported by Vedomosti, Central Partnership has developed a new cinema format that contains technical characteristics similar to IMAX, called CosMAX.[42]

• Quine, Tony (2022). "Alyona's Adventures in Wonderland". Spaceflight. 64 (3): 27–31.