I'm as tired as everyone else is of all these years-and-years-later sequels and old TV show revitalizations, but this one, in particular - I'll give it a pass. In fact, against all rationality, I kind of can't wait for Top Gun 2.
I despise Scientology with a passion, and think Everyday Tom Cruise can be a nut at times, but Movie Star Tom Cruise? He's one of my favorite things in all of cinema. No one wears their hard work and passion for entertaining on their sleeve like he does, let alone makes such consistently solid/fun movies. That, and as cheesy/cliched as it may sound, Top Gun might just be my favorite movie of all time. It's the first movie I ever remember seeing in theaters - at six years old - and it basically defined the '80s for me. I love everything about it - the look, the vibe, the soundtrack, the vintage Tony Scott-ness of it all - and I absolutely welcome revisiting that world one more time, even without Scott at the helm.
The project itself has been in development for years, and came extremely close to production just before director Tony Scott committed suicide in 2012. It then obviously fell apart and has seen various drafts since, but no real movement... until now...
Weird thing is, I was hanging with my buddy from Bruckheimer this past weekend (which I talked about here a couple days back, re: Pirates 5), and he was telling me that major progress had been made on this one over the past few weeks. He told me some stuff I can't repeat, and that overall it was super hush-hush for now. Variety apparently had even gotten wind that it was close to moving forward, but the powers-that-be told them to hold the story because they weren't ready to announce yet. So it actually came as a fairly big surprise when Cruise decided to randomly announce it in this way today.
As for the plot itself, it will "address modern warfare" and Maverick will take on drones/unmanned aircrafts in some capacity. There's a plausible reason for bringing him back into the fold, but I can't get into much detail beyond what has been released publicly. One morsel I can confirm is that Kilmer will, indeed, be back. When his health issues started to get serious over the past couple of years (and he basically lost his voice), there were drafts without him in it, but now that he's on the mend, expect Ice Man to be back.
Still no word on a director yet - they're currently narrowing down the candidates - but whoever it is, sign me up. And with filming aiming to get underway in the next year, I'd say a summer 2019 release is probably a safe bet...
I despise Scientology with a passion, and think Everyday Tom Cruise can be a nut at times, but Movie Star Tom Cruise? He's one of my favorite things in all of cinema. No one wears their hard work and passion for entertaining on their sleeve like he does, let alone makes such consistently solid/fun movies. That, and as cheesy/cliched as it may sound, Top Gun might just be my favorite movie of all time. It's the first movie I ever remember seeing in theaters - at six years old - and it basically defined the '80s for me. I love everything about it - the look, the vibe, the soundtrack, the vintage Tony Scott-ness of it all - and I absolutely welcome revisiting that world one more time, even without Scott at the helm.
The project itself has been in development for years, and came extremely close to production just before director Tony Scott committed suicide in 2012. It then obviously fell apart and has seen various drafts since, but no real movement... until now...
Weird thing is, I was hanging with my buddy from Bruckheimer this past weekend (which I talked about here a couple days back, re: Pirates 5), and he was telling me that major progress had been made on this one over the past few weeks. He told me some stuff I can't repeat, and that overall it was super hush-hush for now. Variety apparently had even gotten wind that it was close to moving forward, but the powers-that-be told them to hold the story because they weren't ready to announce yet. So it actually came as a fairly big surprise when Cruise decided to randomly announce it in this way today.
As for the plot itself, it will "address modern warfare" and Maverick will take on drones/unmanned aircrafts in some capacity. There's a plausible reason for bringing him back into the fold, but I can't get into much detail beyond what has been released publicly. One morsel I can confirm is that Kilmer will, indeed, be back. When his health issues started to get serious over the past couple of years (and he basically lost his voice), there were drafts without him in it, but now that he's on the mend, expect Ice Man to be back.
Still no word on a director yet - they're currently narrowing down the candidates - but whoever it is, sign me up. And with filming aiming to get underway in the next year, I'd say a summer 2019 release is probably a safe bet...
