The release of Top Gun: Maverick has been delayed to the coronavirus but producer Jerry Bruckheimer dished on some details about the action packed sequel.
Bruckheimer revealed that star Tom Cruise put his young co-stars through ‘grueling’ training to deal with the G-force in the aircraft as well as ‘water survival’ where they were blindfolded and dropped in a water tank, in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment.
He also confirmed that actor Val Kilmer would be reprising his role as Iceman in the sequel, despite him not appearing in two trailers for the flick.
Need for speed: Producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that star Tom Cruise put his young co-stars through ‘grueling’ training to prepare for Top Gun: Maverick and confirmed that Val Kilmer will be in the sequel
‘No spoilers, but he’s in the movie,’ Bruckheimer said, refusing to elaborate further.
Fans have been curious if Kilmer, 60, would be able appear in the sequel and in what capacity as he has been battling throat cancer.
The actor had surgery and chemotherapy in 2014, leaving him with a tracheostomy tube and feeding tube, but initially denied that he was ill.
He went public with his cancer diagnosis in 2017 and, just recently, opened up about his sickness in The New York Times Magazine.
‘No spoilers, but he’s in the movie,’ Bruckheimer said of Kilmer’s reprisal but refused to elaborate further
Making it work: Fans have been curious if Kilmer, 60, would be able appear in the sequel and in what capacity as he has been battling throat cancer
Kilmer played LT Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky in 1986 action drama Top Gun – the on screen rival of Tom Cruise’s LT Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell.
The sequel, some 30 plus years in the making, has unfortunately been put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was set to be released in theaters on June 24 but was pushed to Christmas.
‘It’s not up to me, but I want it on the big screen, and I’m sure Tom does, too,’ Bruckheimer told Yahoo Entertainment. ‘We’ll hopefully get there. Apparently, theaters are open in Texas and people are going, so that’s a good sign.’
The sequel to Top Gun has been in the works for a decade and will continue the story of where Maverick’s character left off at the end of the original film and what he is up to now as an instructor of a new group of young trainees.
Top Gun: Kilmer played LT Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky in 1986 action drama Top Gun – the on screen rival of Tom Cruise’s LT Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell
‘It’s not up to me, but I want it on the big screen, and I’m sure Tom does, too,’ Bruckheimer told Yahoo Entertainment. ‘We’ll hopefully get there. Apparently, theaters are open in Texas and people are going, so that’s a good sign.’ (Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick)
Bruckheimer said that the decades between the first and second films featured a lot of advances in technology and aviation that were integrated into the film
‘Technology has advanced, so a lot of things we couldn’t do before that we can do now, especially with the aerial footage. And Tom is an aviator, so he can fly anything we have in the movie, from helicopters to jets to prop planes,’ he said.
The cast includes actors Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro and Lewis Pullman who were all put through hell in order to keep up with 57-year-old Cruise.
‘He put the actors through this grueling process over three months so they could take the G-forces when we put them in the F/A-18s,’ Bruckheimer said.
‘Technology has advanced, so a lot of things we couldn’t do before that we can do now, especially with the aerial footage. And Tom is an aviator, so he can fly anything we have in the movie, from helicopters to jets to prop planes,’ he said.
‘He put the actors through this grueling process over three months so they could take the G-forces when we put them in the F/A-18s,’ Bruckheimer said. ‘It was really a tough slog for these young actors, because they also had to go through water survival training, where they are blindfolded and put in a water tank that’s turned upside down and they have to figure out how to get out.’ (Glen Powell in Top Gun: Maverick)
And Tom went through all the same stuff! They told me he went through that training just like a 22-year-old would — that’s how good he is.’
‘It was really a tough slog for these young actors, because they also had to go through water survival training, where they are blindfolded and put in a water tank that’s turned upside down and they have to figure out how to get out.
‘And Tom went through all the same stuff! They told me he went through that training just like a 22-year-old would — that’s how good he is.’
Cruise has made a reputation for himself in Hollywood for going above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to his roles – from doing his own stunts to undergoing real-life training in order to prepare.
‘In the first movie, we put the actors in the F-14s, and the only footage we could use was of Tom, because everybody else was throwing up,’ Bruckheimer revealed.
‘In the first movie, we put the actors in the F-14s, and the only footage we could use was of Tom, because everybody else was throwing up,’ Bruckheimer revealed (Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in Top Gun)
‘For Maverick, we put five cameras in the cockpit, so the actors not only had to act, they had to know when to turn the camera on and where the sun was to match the previous scene.’
‘For Maverick, we put five cameras in the cockpit, so the actors not only had to act, they had to know when to turn the camera on and where the sun was to match the previous scene.’
‘They had a lot to do in that cockpit when they were flying these planes on sorties, which were designed by Tom and Joe. Tom gave all the briefings and all the debriefings after the shoot along with the great Top Gun pilots that we work with from the Navy.’
Tom’s training should put him in a good position to begin preparing for his latest project with Elon Musk.
The actor and the billionaire are working with NASA experts to get the ball rolling for a first-of-its kind film shot in outer space.
Out of this world: Tom’s training should put him in a good position to begin preparing for his latest project with Elon Musk as they are working with NASA experts to get the ball rolling for a first-of-its kind film shot in outer space