Update on TOP GUN 2 from Producer David Ellison
One sequel that I've actually been excited about seeing happen is Paramount Pictures' Top Gun 2. I think it will be awesome to see Tom Cruise's Maverick back in action. The production seemed to be moving forward on a steady pace, but it all stalled after director Tony Scott passed away in 2012. The film is still in the development stages, and Cruise is expected to return.
We have an update on the film from Skydance Productions CEO David Ellison, who is a producer/financier on the film. This is what he had to say in an interview with /Film.
"I love aviation, and Top Gun definitely fits into the seminal movie [experience] of my childhood. As a pilot, that is really the movie. Justin Marks is writing the screenplay right now. He has a phenomenal take to really update that world for what fighter pilots in the navy have turned into today. There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no Top Gun without Maverick. It is going to be Maverick playing Maverick. I don’t think it is what people are going to expect, and we are very, very hopeful that we get to make the movie very soon. But like all things, it all comes down to the script, and Justin is writing as we speak."
We've heard in the past the the story for the sequel will involve drones and remote pilots and a modern version of aerial warfare. It was also revealed the the film would be set 30 years after the events of what we saw in Top Gun.
When asked if the film would would new technology to show the dogfights in a new way, Ellison explains that he is looking to shoot the film practically and release it in 3D and IMAX:
"I think this is a movie that should be in 3-D and in IMAX, and again something that you can shoot practically. As everyone knows with Tom, he is 100% going to want to be in those airplanes shooting it practically. When you look at the world of dogfighting, what’s interesting about it is that it’s not a world that exists to the same degree it did when the original movie came out. This [new] world has not been explored.
"It is very much a world we live in today where it’s drone technology, and fifth-generation fighters are really what the United States Navy is calling the last man-made fighter that we’re actually going to produce. So it’s really exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots and what that culture is today. [Those] are all fun things that we’re gonna get to dive into in this movie."
There's no word on when this film will actually move into the production, but I'm happy that it's at least still alive and moving forward.