Director Tony Scott Confirms Top Gun 2 Will Take Flight
Top Gun
Feel the need for speed — again?
Top Gun director Tony Scott says he's on board to direct a sequel to the 1986 blockbuster film. The new movie will look at the rise of drone-operated aircraft as well as the end of fighter pilots' reign within the industry.
"It's a whole different world now," Scott told HitFix.com. "These computer geeks — these kids play war games in a trailer in Fallon, Nev., and if we ever went to war or were in the Middle East or the Far East or wherever it is, these guys can actually fly drones. They are unmanned aircraft. They operate them and then they party all night."
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According to Scott, the story would move locales from the Marine Corps' Miramar air station in San Diego to Fallon — just as the real-life Top Gun school did in 1996.
"This world fascinated me, because it's so different from what it was originally," Scott said. "But, I don't want to do a remake. I don't want to do a reinvention. I want to do a new movie."
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Scott warns that it will still be a few more years before Top Gun 2 hits the big screen, as he is about to start work on another film.
Although an earlier report said that original star Tom Cruise would play more of a supporting role, the sequel's screenwriter says Maverick will still be the lead character.
"There is no Top Gun 2 in which Maverick is not the starring role," Oscar-winning scribe Christopher McQuarrie told New York Magazine's Vulture blog, which first reported the project earlier this month.
Scott's next film, Unstoppable, will hit theaters on Nov. 12.