Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 3:03AM Paramount Feels the Need, the Need for 'Top Gun 2'!
Christopher McQuarrie, Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, is working on an idea. An idea that could forever change the landscape of modern cinema as we know it. An idea so simple, yet so complex. An idea that some of us have been waiting (literally*) our entire lives for... An idea that goes by the name of Top Gun 2.
It's time to kick the tires and light the fires because another trip to the danger zone is happening. And it's happening with Tom Cruise.
Grumblings about a sequel to the 1986 classic (I said "literally" because Top Gun was released the year before I was born*) have been ongoing since June when producer on the original film turned billionaire Jerry Bruckheimer let slip in an interview that he had been “recently approached again to start talking about [a sequel]." Well today things became official as offers went out to Bruckheimer and director of the original film Tony Scott.
The catalyst in getting this sequel off the ground is David Ellison: a 27 year old USC Film School grad, fan of the original film, and trust fund kid. David's father is Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle Company and the sixth richest man in the world. A few years ago the younger Ellison opened a production company called Skydance and has done pretty well for himself. Their upcoming slate includes the new Coen Brothers' film True Grit and next year's Mission: Impossible IV.
Speaking of M:I IV, how does the Maverick himself, Tom Cruise, play into the planned sequel? According to a source close to McQuarrie, the writer has found a way to incorporate Maverick into a smaller role alongside a new batch of hot shot pilots. And Cruise has agreed to take the job as long as it's not too "obvious" a part.
All kidding aside, I am excited for what this film will inevitably be, a super-slick summer tentpole with a hot cast and killer action sequences. And as long as the original crew sidesteps the temptation to add convenient political undertones, count me (and anyone else who is awesome) in to enjoy some popcorn on an upcoming 4th of July weekend.
Reader Comments (5)
I consider myself pretty awesome and I don't really want to see this movie.
As a fan of the original, I'm very excited too. This seems like something they should've done years ago.
No No Bad Idea, like "Stealth" bad idea
they will frak it up. If you had a good original idea you make that movie, when you need to raid the coffers your dont have a good idea to sell.
If it's NOT a direct sequel to the '86 original, but rather simply a currrent era "fighter ace" movie - which there's a good movie tradition of - I think it's a great and timely idea. I would think McQuarrie has a good sense of this and I don't think this would be a complete rip-off with he, and Tony Scott again on deck.
Yeah they should cast Shia LaBeouf in the lead as a young aspiring jetfighterpilot and Tom Cruise as his elderly mentor. They should add a scene of Shia toying around with Tom's daughter. And they should invade Iran and take it out. Val Kilmer should play the nemesis, who sold himself to Iran government and flys a secret Russian jetfighter unlike anything ever. That'd be a cool modern fashionable movie.