Paramount greenlit Top Gun: Maverick after single phone call from Tom Cruise, says producer

The producer of the 1986 smash hit Top Gun had been trying to get a sequel off the ground for decades with little progress, but that all changed in 2017 with one phone call from its leading man: Tom Cruise.

Jerry Bruckheimer recounted how he and Tony Scott, director of the original film, had been developing the idea on-and-off following its release and worldwide success.

After Scott’s tragic death in 2012, Bruckheimer continued to push forward with Joseph Kosinski, who worked with Cruise in his 2013 film Oblivion. And in 2017, the pair present their work to the star.

“Joe [Kosinski] had a look book, a poster and the title, Top Gun: Maverick, and then he told Tom the journey of the character and the story he wanted to tell,” Bruckheimer told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Tom then looked at him, pulled out his phone and called the head of Paramount at that time and said, ‘I want to make another Top Gun.’ And that was it.”

However, Cruise stipulated that Val Kilmer, who played his rival turned wingman “Iceman” in the original Top Gun film, must be involved with the project.

“[Tom] said, ‘I’m not making this movie without Val.’ When we filmed it, it was a very emotional day, having Val there and seeing him work with Tom after 35 years,” Bruckheimer said.

The Hollywood Reporter described the reunion between Kilmer and Cruise in the film as “magical” and “one of those scenes that’s talked about for generations to come.”

Top Gun: Maverick’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival received a 5-minute standing ovation. Cruise said in an interview with Deadline that he never considered releasing it on streaming services while theaters were closed during the pandemic because of his “devotion to making movies for the big screen.”

The veteran producer also spoke about the brutal training required to fly aboard the military aircraft used in the film. Cruise designed a required three-month aerial training course with G-Force tolerance – a demand that lose Bruckheimer some actors who did not want to commit to such a regimen.

Cruise also required anyone flying to go through a water survival course where they had to escape a sinking plane – blindfolded.

“They were put in a fuselage [the long body of a plane], they were blindfolded, they were dumped in the water, they were rolled over and they had to figure out how to get out of that cockpit, blindfolded,” Bruckheimer told the Reporter.

Even though he completed the same training 35 years ago, Cruise jumped in with the new actors to do it again, saying: “If they’re going to do it, I’m going to do it.”

Top Gun: Maverick opens in theaters May 27 and has received universal praise from reviewers.