Director Has Round About Way Of Saying New Film Will Focus On New Generation Of Fighter Pilots
You’ve obviously heard the news by now. There’s a “Top Gun” sequel on the way, Tony Scott, while apparently not officially signed on yet (according to a recent Deadline aside), is still very interested in reprising his role as the director — obviously he’s a big part of what made the original so iconic, so you can understand why he’d want to see that through — and despite original reports, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie — who’s sort of become Tom Cruise‘s go-to script doctor these days — says that Maverick (Cruise’s role in the original), will indeed be the lead character (evidently the thought is how can you possibly make a sequel without Mav as the lead).
Anywhoo, MTV spoke to Tony Scott about the potential sequel recently — he of the salmon baseball cap that if photographic evidence is accurate, never ever takes off — and he noted, well, it’s not a sequel.
“It’s not even a reinvention, it’s not even a sequel. It’s a re-thinking,” Scott said kinda cryptically, kinda nonsensically. “What inspired me is that the world today is great, it’s so different from the world we touched originally. It’s really run by guys sitting in Nevada on computers playing war games.”
So what does that mean exactly? Apparently a focus on a new generation of fighter pilots (which sort of runs contrary to what McQuarrie said with Maverick as the lead). “It’s a mixture of that, and it’s the end of the generation of fighter pilots. Not in a complete end to the generation, because these guys they go up in F-35s and they carry 10 drones with them. [But] it’s a very different movie,” he said.
So Tom Cruise becomes James Tolkan, the sweaty Commander Hondo (he also plays the brilliant principal Mr. Strickland in the “Back To The Future” series) then? What about the return of Val Kilmer to reprise his role as Iceman? And is Tom Cruise officially on board?
“I’m gonna withhold that information,” Scott said. “I can’t say anything. I’m talking with [producer] Jerry [Bruckheimer], and I’m going to withhold [those other details].” Whatever, dude. As long as Kenny Loggins is back on the soundtrack, you can ride my tail any time.
