Virtually everyone associated with the project refuses to go on record, but the Top Gun sequel appears to have fallen apart in the wake of Tony Scott’s suicide earlier this year, and Paramount’s now trying to figure out how to handle the delicate matter of a 3D Top Gun it wanted to release in theaters.
Converting older films to 3D isn’t exactly the rage (yet), but Paramount saw the success first-hand with the Titanic 3D re-release earlier this year, and Disney has had strong successes with Pixar re-releases as well, including the upcoming Monsters Inc. 3D. According to the NY Times, Legend3D (Hugo) completed the conversion on Top Gun with contributions from Scott before he died. Now that Scott is gone, the studio is figuring out what to do with the film (and all declined to comment officially on the Top Gun re-release plans).
But what of the sequel? Tom Cruise had said publicly that he’s willing to play hot-shot ace Maverick on screen again. The Times adds that Cruise and Scott were scouting Top Gun locations for the possible sequel, which Scott was going to direct. Now those sequel plans appear to be on the backburner … where, if I’m being honest, they should stay.
If Paramount thinks that they have a sensitive issue on their hands with a possible 3D release of Top Gun, I can’t imagine how the public would respond to a Top Gun sequel that Scott didn’t have the chance to direct. I wasn’t wild about revisiting Top Gun so many years after the initial open anyway. Doing it without Scott is a bad idea, and hopefully the Times is right by saying it now has fallen apart. We shall see.
