Producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed a general outline for the sequel to Top Gun and how far off the movie might be in a recent interview with Huffington Post. According to the producer, Top Gun 2 is still moving forward following the death of director Tony Scott, and the story will focus on the rise of drone warfare.
“The concept is, basically, are the pilots obsolete because of drones? Cruise is going to show them that they’re not obsolete,” Bruckheimer told HuffPost. “They’re here to stay.”
The film has yet to be officially confirmed, but it appears to be inching closer to reality. In 2010, Paramount approached Bruckheimer and Scott about returning to the franchise, and both were interested. In December 2011, Cruise confirmed that he was in talks to reprise the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and by August 2012, Cruise and Scott were scouting locations. Later that same month though, Scott committed suicide.
Following the director’s death, all work on the film stopped. Both Cruise and his Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer have confirmed they are both still interested, and Bruckheimer is confident production will go ahead soon.
“It’s just getting to the starting place,” Bruckheimer said. “Fortunately for Tom, he’s very busy, so you have to find a slot he can fit into and get a budget that Paramount feels they can make the picture.”
The next step is to find a new director. No names have been attached, but with both Bruckheimer and Cruise backing the project, the film could move ahead quickly.
