Top Gun - FeaturedYou’d have been forgiven for thinking the decades-later sequel to the mega-hit Top Gun was buried along with director Tony Scott after his unfortunate, self-inflicted passing, but Jerry Bruckheimer is here to tell you that’s not the case.

Speaking at the “Produced By” Conference, Bruckheimer spoke about his current slate, with a heavy emphasis on The Lone Ranger, and all things you’d expect him to say: there will be a sequel if it’s successful, nothing planned yet, Depp is great, etc. He also dropped word about Top Gun 2 though, saying Tom Cruise’s enthusiasm has not waned.

“For 30 years we’ve been trying to make a sequel and we’re not going to stop. We still want to do it with Tom and Paramount are still interested in making it… What Tom tells me is that no matter where he goes in the world, people refer to him as Maverick, It’s something he is excited about so as long as he keeps his enthusiasm hopefully we’ll get it made…”

That sounds to me like they are waiting for Cruise to find a hole in his schedule and pull the trigger, because it’s surely the kind of film that will move the moment the talent says “go.” It’s not like you’re going to have to wrestle a greenlight from Paramount for a film like that.

Still no word on how the story will play out, but the idea was always for Cruise to return in a more meaninful role than just a flight instructor, and to dig into modern aviation training.

If you’re curious who might take over the project, recall that it was Christopher McQuarrie who was writing a script for a new film back when this was first announced. The writer has since become a director in his own right, and Tom Cruise’s boy at that. The Jack Reacher and likely M:I;5 director would be the logical choice. Of course, they hired a screenwriter to do a ground-up re-write since then, so maybe not. But probably.

Maybe.

 source | Deadline