Tony Scott will direct a
sequel to his 1986 Top Gun, HitFix recently sat down and discussed the projects early planning stages. Scott explained that his plan for the follow-up is to
chart the development of the Air Force fighter pilot into the present day,
inspired partially by a young Air Force pilot he met on a flight who runs drone
simulations.
“I’m not waiting for a script. I’m going to do my
homework. I’m going down to I think it’s Fallon, Nevada, down near New Mexico
and it’s a whole different world now,” Scott says. “These computer geeks—these
kids play war games in a trailer in Fallon, Nevada 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.”
In contrast to Tom Cruise’s character in the first film, the
sequel will explore the evolution of the remote-control pilot. Still unconfirmed is whether or not Cruise will return to
his star-making role of Maverick as well as when, exactly, the sequel will move
forward. As it stands, the script for the film appears to still be in the
research phase [with Christopher McQuarrie approached to write the first draft] and Scott made clear that it would not be his very next production.
