Every so often, particularly every time Tom Cruise makes a film that disappoints at the box office, the rumors of a potential sequel to “Top Gun,” the film that transformed Cruise from cocky teen star to a true icon, start up. 22 years on from the original, with “Knight & Day” tanking at the domestic box office over the summer, rumors began to surface over the summer and, as usual with reports on this one, we rolled our eyes a little.
Except, as it turns out, this time around the rumors were true. Reports from a few weeks back were that Paramount had made offers to Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott, who produced and directed the original, to return for an as-yet untitled sequel. Word on Tom Cruise‘s involvement was a little vague, but reports that Christopher McQuarrie, who’s become Cruise’s go-to writer of late after “Valkyrie,” had been approached to write the script, suggested that he might be involved to some degree — Vulture, who originally broke the story, suggested that Cruise was interested in reprising the role of Lt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell.
Over the weekend, Australian site What’s Playing caught up with Scott at the junket for his new film “Unstoppable,” and the director confirmed that he’s signed on to “Top Gun 2.” There was no other comment, or word on Cruise’s involvement, but it looks like the project’s a fairly serious prospect now. It should be noted that Scott has a pretty busy dance card at the moment, with the likes of Mark Millar‘s “Nemesis,” the Shia LaBoeuf legal thriller “The Associate” and the gangster thrillers “Potsdamer Platz” and “Hell’s Angels” all in the mix, but none of those have shown serious forward momentum in recent months, so if McQuarrie’s script delivers, and Cruise signs on, this could leap to the front of the queue fairly quickly. Which can only be good news for the manufacturers of orange filters and volleyballs.
