The film project was proposed in 1997 by Russian movie mogul Yuri Kara, who gained nationwide fame as the director of a Soviet-era thriller called "The Crew," which was released in 1980. Kara hopes to get his leading actor on Mir this spring so the film can premiere in April 2001, the 40^th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s launch on the world’s first piloted spaceflight.

Work on the science fiction flick - which will be titled "Tavro-Cassandra" - already is well under way. The screenplay was made public in December 1997 and then nine actors and pop stars competed for the chance to become the first show-person in space.

“One of the (actor) candidates collapsed in the centrifuge and even confronted a clinical death.”
     

Four were men; three were women. A few dropped out of the running because they couldn’t find time to go through the rigors of cosmonaut training. Others failed to pass extensive medical training – which Kara said was not surprising.

"What could you expect from actors whose lives consist of festivals, acting, parties and drinking?" Kara said. "One of the candidates collapsed in the centrifuge and even confronted a clinical death."

Three actors were fit enough to pass the medical exams – Steklov, Olga Kabo and Natalya Gromushkina. But only Steklov remains an active cosmonaut-candidate.

"If an actor flies to Mir, it will certainly be Steklov," said Mark Belakovsky, chief of the Foreign Relations Department at Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems, the nation’s leading space medicine establishment.

"Steklov is in excellent physical shape and he is an easy-going person, which is very important for a space flyer.

Steklov completed an accelerated, four-month training course at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, also known as Star City, last year. And Kara said his leading man already has learned the most important an actor can know about filming aboard Mir.

"If your hand is trying to reach any control handle or button in the spacecraft, you should immediately hit it with your other hand to be sure that you won’t touch them and cause any damage," the director joked.

More seriously, Kara said the movie project – which already has been granted tentative approval by the Russian government – would serve to boost the stature of a nation hit by hard times since the 1991 fall of the former Soviet Union.

"This movie is very important not only for the art but for the state. The first man in space was Russian and it would be really symbolic if the first actor in space was Russian as well," he said. "I’m sure that people pretty soon will be making movies on Mars and the moon. But somebody should make a first step, and I hope it will be Russians."