Jerry Bruckheimer has re-ignited talk of a possible sequel to the 1986 Top Gun , after posting a photo of himself and original star Tom Cruise on Twitter, the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting .
On Tuesday afternoon, Bruckheimer posted a photo of himself and the 53-year-old Cruise, and captioned it with an explanation that will get fans of a possible Top Gun 2 excited.
Just got back from a weekend in New Orleans to see my old friend @TomCruise and discuss a little Top Gun 2. pic.twitter.com/vA2xK7S7JS
— JERRY BRUCKHEIMER (@BRUCKHEIMERJB) January 26, 2016
Back in 1986, Top Gun dominated the box office, spurned two hit songs (Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” and Berlin’s “You Take My Breath Away”), solidified the emerging careers of Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards, and made Tom Cruise a superstar. The action-filled film about U.S. Navy pilots fighting off the Russians also got a generation of young men interested in careers as naval aviators: producer John Davis claimed in 2004 that the number of applicants to U.S. Navy flight school jumped 500 percent after Top Gun .
For years, rumors have been flying back and forth that a sequel was in the works. And according to a 2014 Sydney Morning Heraldreport, the sequel has been “ in development” since 2010. It should be noted that the words “in development” can mean any number of things in the film industry, from simply talking about a movie to actually signing contracts, and just about anything in between.
Nevertheless, by 2010 Bruckheimer and the film’s original director Tony Scott had been working on a sequel. Unfortunately, development on Top Gun 2 screeched to a halt after Scott’s tragic death in 2012.
By 2014, talk of a sequel was back on, with reports that Tom Cruise was the driving force behind the effort. At the time, Bruckheimer himself gave fans a glimpse at a possible plot and setting.
“The concept is, basically, are the pilots obsolete because of drones. Cruise is going to show them that they’re not obsolete. They’re here to stay.”
Then in July 2015, amid reports that a Top Gun 2 screenplay was being hammered out, Cruse showed up at the premiere of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , and talked about getting into the pilots’ seat once again for a Top Gun sequel.
“It would be fun. I would like to get back into those jets. It would have to be practical. I don’t want any CGI jets. I want to shoot it like how we shot the first one.”
In November, Cruise’s original co-star Val Kilmer got in on the Top Gun 2 rumors, posting on his official Facebook page that he had accepted a role in the sequel.
“Let’s fire up some fighter jets again!!! [It’s] not often you get to say ‘yes’ without reading the script.”
But just a few hours later, Kilmer posted a retraction, saying he had “jumped the gun” (hardy har har).
“I jumped the gun with my post. I jumped the topgun… An innocent mistake. It was just such a wonderful phone call with my agent…”
It also bears noting that Val Kilmer’s health has been fodder for the Hollywood rumor mill for some time. Clearly he’d have to get in shape if he wants to get into a naval aircraft again.
Val Kilmer’s Health Battle Continues Actor A Shell Of … : https://t.co/Cv97gef2FY ,, pic.twitter.com/VukfyBw9qb
— Henry Clark (@henryclark624) January 28, 2016
Still, with Jerry Bruckherimer’s latest tweet about the project, it looks like Top Gun 2 may finally soon be moving out of the “development” stage and into the “production” stage.
[Photo by Harry How/Getty Images]