I.S.S.

I.S.S. (2024)

The war on earth will be decided in space.

Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as a conflict breaks out on Earth. U.S. and Russian astronauts receive orders from the ground: take control of the station by any means necessary.

Date of release
2024-01-19
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (441)
Runtime
1h 36m
Genres
Science Fiction, Thriller
Director
Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $6.7M
  • Budget: $20M
  • Earned 0.3× its budget

I.S.S. is a 2023 American science fiction thriller film directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and written by Nick Shafir. The film stars Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr., Masha Mashkova, Costa Ronin, and Pilou Asbæk. The film follows two groups aboard the International Space Station—one of American astronauts and the other of Russian cosmonauts—who fight each other for the control of the station after a war starts between their countries.

Production

In December 2020, Nick Shafir's screenplay I.S.S. was included on that year's "Black List" of most-liked unproduced screenplays. In January 2021, it was announced that the film had been greenlit for production by LD Entertainment with Gabriela Cowperthwaite directing. Chris Messina and Pilou Asbæk were reported to star in the film. In February, it was reported that Ariana DeBose had also joined the cast.

Masha Mashkova was cast as Weronika after the original actress for the role dropped out upon getting sick and suggested Mashkova for the part. Costa Ronin was cast because Cowperthwaite had been impressed by his performance on The Americans. He improvised his line about the trees in Russia.

I.S.S. began filming at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, in February 2021. The set was designed to resemble the actual International Space Station. Cowperthwaite described it as "surreal" when Russia invaded Ukraine while the film was in post-production. She did not consider I.S.S. to be "a political movie" but did intend for it to show how "the brunt" of geopolitical conflicts "falls on the little people."

In the original script, Dr. Kira Foster was researching microbes instead of mice. Scott Kelly's memoir Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery was used as research for the film and inspired how the mice react to zero gravity.

Cowperthwaite said of the film, "I come from these earnest documentaries and dramas and stuff like that, but I love a fun ride. I’m a popcorn-chomping moviegoer...And so being able to be entrusted, with that world, that genre, whilst maybe bringing some of that humanity that I feel is more my tool set into it felt like a very fun challenge."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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