"Top Gun 2" started production this week with star Tom Cruise tweeting a photo of himself in a flight uniform holding a helmet with his character Maverick’s name on it.
The photo shows Cruise’s character looking at a fighter jet with the words “feel the need” superimposed across the image. Cruise captioned the image “#Day 1.”
“Top Gun: Maverick” will be set in the current time and deals with the ways in which drone technology is making flying with pilots increasingly obsolete, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The sequel comes more than three decades after the 1986 original. Not much more is known about the plot, but Variety said Cruise will be a flight instructor in the new film.
“Oblivion” director Joseph Kosinski will direct the sequel; he also directed 2010’s “Tron: Legacy” sequel decades after that original. Kosinski promised the new film would be “appropriate for the times we live in,” Variety reported.
“It’s just a different world now, so you can’t remake the first movie. It has to adapt, [but] I certainly want to re-create the experience of that movie, which gives you a front seat into the world of naval aviation and what it’s like to be in a fighter jet,” he said, Variety reported.
Composer Harold Faltermeyer will return to provide the score as he did in the 1986 film. Jerry Bruckheimer also will return to produce the sequel along with David Ellison and Cruise, THR reported.
No other casting for the film has been announced. The original film co-starred Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Tom Skerritt, Anthony Edwards, and Meg Ryan.
“Top Gun: Maverick” is expected to release on July 12, 2019.
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