The long awaited sequel to the 1980s Navy fighter pilot hit Top Gun is coming, but rather than featuring the retired but venerable F-14 Tomcat, the latest version, Top Gun 2, will have a more modern twist.
Instead, the F-35 will be taking center stage, according to Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] vice president and general manager for the Joint Strike Fighter. Burbage said the screenplay also calls for reviving the hotshot pilot “Maverick,” who will be played by Tom Cruise, but this time as a test pilot for the aircraft still in development.
Burbage said the company has been contacted by Hollywood to arrange for possible shootings and that filming of the advanced fighter may begin sometime in the near future.
There has been talk of making Top Gun 2 for years but the project now appears to be gaining momentum. Paramount Pictures, which produced the first film, did not respond to inquiries from Defense Daily about the F-35s role. Burbage said he learned that Tom Cruise had been originally offered a cameo to appear as a janitor, but was granted the leading role at his insistence. There was no word on whether Cruise wanted “Iceman” to play the janitor.
Burbage was speaking at a luncheon yesterday hosted by the National Aeronautic Association, an unusual venue for breaking Hollywood news.
The Navy acknowledged it has assisted an unspecified production company with “research visits” to two naval air stations in Patuxent, Md., and Fallon, Nev., for the film, but has not given final approval to support the production of Top Gun 2.
“We will follow established Department of Defense procedures and regulations before any approval is granted,” Navy spokesman Lt. Paul Macapagal said. He added the procedures included a review of the screenplay.
Top Gun, which also starred Kelly McGillis and Val Kilmer, was released in 1986 and went on to gross more than $344 million worldwide, according to the website IMDb, and was thought to be a huge recruiting tool for the Navy.