This morning Variety posted a brief story saying X-Men: First Class and Thor writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz had been hired to write Top Gun 2, a film Tony Scott, director of the 1986 original, seems interested in even though his involvement along with Tom Cruise, has not yet been confirmed.
Back in October 2010, Scott told HitFix.com, “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… 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.”
There’s now word in the Variety piece as to whether the film will follow this departure from the Navy-centric original and move more toward exploring the modern day Air Force as Scott has suggested, but I don’t see how they can call it a Top Gun sequel if it doesn’t take place at TOPGUN and especially if it’s turned into an Air Force movie. Just call it Iron Eagle 5 if that’s what you want to do.
As far as the news X-Men: First Class and Thor scripters Miller and Stentz are getting involved, okay, whatever. I enjoyed Thor and First Class was pretty good too, but neither gave me any indication they’ve got the touch, especially considering they weren’t the lone screenwriters on either of those films.
Yet, the biggest thing for me is I don’t care too much about a Top Gun sequel if it doesn’t revolve around Maverick. I can, however, see them scripting a story similar to the first, casting someone like Shia LaBeouf as the cocky hot shot, Josh Duhammel as his “Goose” and Tom Hardy as the modern era “Ice Man”. Now we just need to figure out where to put Anthony Mackie, Chris Pine and Justin Timberlake. Oh, and give Michael Ironside some work, I’m sure Jester’s still got a little gas in the old thrusters.
