REPORT
‘Top Gun 2’ to Feature
Maverick, Drone Warfare
A
ction-adventure franchises from the last century
have seen a sudden resurgence this year. First,
Mad Max: Fury Road debuted to universal acclaim
and solid box office (especially for an R-rated movie).
Then Jurassic World broke domestic and international
records when it hit theaters, ultimately becoming the fastest film to reach $1 billion. Later this year, we’ll see two
more sequels of this sort, including Terminator: Genisys
and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.Given the amount
of money that’s at stake, we can probably expect more
franchises to get resurgences in the coming years. And
indeed, Jerry Bruckheimer is apparently hard at work
developing the
sequel to Top
Gun,
tentatively titled Top
Gun 2. Producing alongside
Bruckheimer
and Paramount
will be Skydance Productions, who also
worked on the
recent Terminator:
Genisys.Collider
recently
had
the chance to
speak to Skydance CEO David Ellison, who
gave an update
on Top Gun 2.
First, on the script currently being written by The Jungle
Book scribe Justin Marks, Ellison indicated that they’re
approaching the sequel with a new and more modern
take on the franchise: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 has
turned into today. There is an amazing role for Maverick
in the movie and there is no ‘Top Gun’ without Maverick,
and it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick. It is I
don’t think 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.In addition to confirm-
ing Tom Cruise will be back in the lead role of Maverick,
Ellison also said that Top Gun 2 is going to be the kind
of movie that needs to be experienced in the biggest
format possible:Absolutely, 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 when the original movie came
out. This 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
are all fun things
that we’re gonna
get to dive into
in this movie.The
use of drones,
especially as a
military weapon,
is one of the most
controversial issues this day in age, yet they have rarely
been covered by a blockbuster action film (though the
drama Good Kill, starring Ethan Hawke, released last
year to mixed reviews). Would a fun blockbuster film –
the type of movie Top Gun 2 would likely end up being – be suited for such heavy material? We’ll have to
wait and see.As Jurassic World recently proved with its
monstrous start at the box office, audiences are not only
willing to revisit their favorite franchises, they’re enthusiastic to do so as well. Whether Top Gun has the same
sort of nostalgia built up around it remains to be seen,
but its sequel undoubtedly has the potential to do big
business at the box office, if it’s done right.
23 | BOOM