Top Gun 3 is officially getting ready for takeoff.
“Top Gun 3 officially in development with a script underway, reuniting Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer,” Paramount film co-head Josh Greenstein said Thursday at CinemaCon. There was no mention of a director.
The follow-up to 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick has been in the works for several years now, with Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger hired to write a script two years ago.
Maverick was directed by Joe Kosinski and also starred Teller and Glen Powell.
Maverick — which came decades after Tony Scott’s 1986 original — was a massive hit at the box office in 2022, earning $1.5 billion globally and sparking Steven Spielberg to credit Cruise with saving the theatrical business after the pandemic.
David Ellison, now the owner of Paramount, produced Maverick via his company Skydance; when meeting with press last summer as he discussed his plans for the studio, Ellison specifically cited Top Gun 3 as a top priority for Paramount and said he would be in the Cruise business as long as the A-list star — with whom he has made ten films — wanted to tell stories with him.
And while Cruise was not on stage during the Top Gun announcement, he did take part in the Paramount presentation in a significant way, kicking off the event with a video filmed on the Melrose Avenue lot’s iconic water tower. THR reported the shooting of the secret video last month and it came to life at CinemaCon, with Cruise touting the history and legacy of Paramount, will also celebrating its future under the new leadership.
In the video, directed by Jon M. Chu, Cruise provided voiceover as dozens of major stars helped highlight some of the studio’s biggest hits over the years
