Caffeinated Clint
God, I’m ashamed to say…I’m excited! Those fuckin’ marketing execs have got me this time, me! Whoddathoughtthatdhappen!?
… and at all times, when I’m drinkin’!
But you know how much I love “Top Gun” right!? You’ve all heard the story about how I missed the first 20 minutes of the film at the cinema and have never forgiven my mother’s ex for being so tardy!? (Well, beating my bro and I up for a good ten years comes a close second) You’ve all likely read those incessant tweets of mine ‘Watching Top Gun again…”? Shit, and remember how excited I was when these “Top Gun 2” rumours first surfaced!?
Fair to say, I’m a fan.
“Top Gun rules of engagement are written for your safety and for that of your team. They are not flexible, nor am I. Is that clear?”
Never thought it’d happen though. Shit, didn’t Tom Cruise actually come out and say, at one stage shortly after those rumours, that he’s not reprising Maverick!? Sure he did.
Surprise! Surprise! A lying actor! Cruise will indeed be reprising his role as Maverick in a sequel to Paramount’s 1986 blockbuster, says Vulture.
The studio wants Tony Scott back at the helm, Jerry Bruckheimer back at the, er, cash register, and Cruise back as Maverick – albeit in a small role. Cruise has already agreed to do it so long as it’s “not too obvious a part” (i.e he doesn’t want to play an instructor).
So how did this go from ‘laughable suggestion’ to ‘bonafide project’ so quickly? Two words : David. Ellison. The filthy-rich actor cum producer, who in addition to producing Tom Cruise’s upcoming “Mission : Impossible 4” worked with my business partner Christopher Showerman on the new Universal comedy “Hole in One”, has a thing for aerobatics; you’ll recall Ellison starred in and produced the “Flyboys” movie a couple of years ago. Guess he wants another shot at making a movie about ‘birds’ and believes “Top Gun 2” has a much better chance of making a dollar than a dull old WWII pilot movie starring Martin Henderson ever did. Probably right, too!
Christopher McQuarrie (“The Usual Suspects”) is writing the script.
This has gotta be great, right!? Like ‘sweaty, stunned mullet John Stockwell’ great!?
Previously…
There’s so many things I remember about my first viewing of “Top Gun” but mostly, I remember being late to the theatre.
For some reason, we were dreadfully late to the session. The film had to have been about 20 minutes in by the time we rocked up. We shuffled into the dark theatre – which, mind you, was packed – searched for seats, before trying to catch up on what the heck was happening.
I know I should remember my first viewing of Tony Scott’s mega-hit more fondly – but sadly, the ‘death of Goose’ or the ‘Serenading McGillis at the bar’ scene just pales in comparison to my memory of missing the first act of the film.
Yeah, I ended up seeing the film again – probably less than two-weeks later – but it’s just a pity that my first viewing of “Top Gun” was by way of a truncated version. I’ve fonder memories of watching “Gremlins”, “Ghostbusters”, “The Last Starfighter”, “The Goonies”, “Back to the Future” and “Terminator 2” at the cinema – wasn’t late for those; in fact, was probably half-an-hour early – it’s just a pity I didn’t have a more cherished memory of my first time with Pete Maverick.
But I digress. After “Top Gun” hit big – and it was huge! It had kids lining up to be Flyboys, for Christ’s sake! – and Tom Cruise suddenly became more than “the kid from Risky Business” (which is actually funny, because I remember they were originally courting Matthew Modine to play Maverick. Cruise’s name was likely way down on the list!), Paramount were dead keen to re-enter the Danger Zone. But a sequel would never eventuate – largely because of Cruise’s escalating fee and understandable determination to play other roles.
But with Hollywood all about franchises at the moment, and Tom Cruise ostensibly realizing that his biggest hits of late have been the “Mission : Impossible” sequels, “Top Gun 2” might still a possibility.
“Top Gun” producer Jerry Bruckheimer (I think he’s done other things since… name doesn’t ring a bell though) tells MTV that we may see Maverick on the big screen again.
“We were recently approached again to start talking about it but, you know, nothing yet,” he continued. “We kicked around some ideas because the aviation community has completely changed since we made the movie a long time ago. So we have to find a way in and how to incorporate the Maverick character into it.”
For a “Top Gun 2” to work, I think they’ll have to firstly, center it around a real War – as opposed to a fictional one (that’s the jokiest part of the original, well, besides the dialogue); they might also be wise to recast the female lead – nothing against Kelly McGillis, she’s a beautiful woman, but I think people will have a hard time, what with her recently coming out and declaring she’s a “women only” kinda girl, swallowing her and Cruise as lovers (hey, what about Meg Ryan? Maverick could hook up with Goose’s widow!?); and they’d definitely need to bring back some of the supporting cats, like Rick Rossovich, Michael Ironside, Tom Skerrit, Adrian Pasdar and of course, Val Kilmer as Ice Man. Kenny Loggins could probably do with the work, too. And finally, if I might suggest Mr Bruckheimer, lose the Volleyball sequence from the sequel.
And please, hurry up and do it before Paramount decides to scrap the sequel in favour or a straight-up remake.
