Two filmmakers from Canada have both beat Tom Cruise and Russia's Channel One TV in being the first to shoot a movie in space.

Felix & Paul, a VR studio based in Montreal, have completed a 360-degree virtual reality movie shot from the International Space Station.

Film industry heavyweights such as actor Tom Cruise and direct Doug Liman have been coordinating with SpaceX and NASA to shoot a $200 million movie aboard the space station.

Meanwhile, Russia's Channel One TV is rushing to get actors on board the station for a secretive television program called "Challenge."

All of them were beaten to the punch by Felix & Paul, which announced the completion of their latest project.

The studio, which was founded by Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael in 2013, stitched together hours of 360-degree footage by 10 different astronauts to create their movie titled "Space Explorers: The ISS Experience."

The pair of filmmakers said they had more than 200 hours of footage for their four-part VR series. The movie, co-produced by Time Studios, is meant to give viewers an immersive experience of what it is like to live in zero-gravity on the ISS.

"Audiences no longer only have to watch stories about human spaceflight. We can really make them feel like participants and experience an astronaut's journey from within," Lajeunesse said.

The VR series will explore the daily lives of astronauts living on the space station, from their training on the ground to their daily activities aboard the 21-year-old facility. One part of the series also includes VR footage of the astronauts conducting spacewalks outside of the station.

Felix & Paul said it had to develop specialized equipment to capture the footage. They also had to coordinate with astronauts on how to operate the equipment in the vacuum of space.

"When you work in an environment like this, you really cannot improvise. At the end of the day, you have just a few human beings in space, and they are in a dangerous environment - the most hostile environment known to man," Lajeunesse said.

Traditional films have been shot at the ISS in the past but nothing like the 360-degree footage captured by Felix & Paul. In 2002, IMAX cameras were brought on board for the short film "Space Station 3D." In 2012, space tourist Richard Garriott also shot and directed an amateur short film.