Or said with first and last name: the return of Tom Cruise sporting those classic Ray Ban Clipper, which is how the world knows Capt. Peter maverick Mitchell, that indomitable tamer of the skies.
Top Gun: nonconformist comes into Sunday with six nominations (Best Film, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Special Effects, Sound and Original Song, Hold My Hand with music and lyrics by Lady Gaga and Bloodpop).
Before seeing -Sunday- whether Tom smiles for real or shoots the fake smile of the good loserHere are some intimacies from the film. What you don’t see on the screen, as they say…
“It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot”
When Miles Teller’s rooster spits that gem of a line near the end of Top Gun: nonconformist, the second-in-charge action star is certainly not talking about Hollywood awards season. Yet it’s an apt metaphor for the Best Picture-nominated blockbuster and its spectacular rise to the Oscars on Sunday.
A sequel to one of cinema’s most iconic fighter pilot films you could always fly as a business idea: the metaphorical airplane, if you will.
But after the death of the director of the top gun original, Tony Scott -died 2012- with his unrealized vision of a sequel in the works, Recruiting the right people to run the Paramount Pictures shop has gotten tricky.
Eventual director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer not only faced the uphill battle of developing a beloved property, but they also had to get Cruise back as Maverick.
“We wanted to make a film conceived exclusively as entertainment,” Bruckheimer told him in an interview with the specialized site indiewire. “It’s what I’ve done my entire career. Tom Cruise felt the same way: When you’re entertaining audiences, you hope to get the best story and characters and scenes and the best people behind and in front of the camera.”
As a top producer, Cruise was an essential hub from start to finish: he even vehemently advocated for a theatrical release when Top Gun: nonconformist was almost relegated to Paramount+.
He’s not nominated for Best Actor this year, but Cruise could help pick up the Best Picture statuette if the fan favorite wins avatars 2.
The acclaimed sequel also received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song (Hold my hand by Lady Gaga and BloodPop), Best Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects.
It did big at the box office too, with the director of The FabelmansSteven Spielberg, even joking “He saved Hollywood’s ass” at an Academy Awards luncheon in February.
The truth will be known this Sunday, when we know how many are needed (if any) of the six nominations. And we’ll see if Tom Cruise’s smile is real or fake.
Source: Clarin
