To say everyoneโs feeling a little weary from hearing about delayed movie releases would be an understatement. No Time To Die is on its fifth revised date, The Kingโs Man has been pushed back more times than anyone can remember at this point, and we donโt even want to think about how all this impacts Dune. Paramount, on the other hand, not only believe Top Gun: Maverick is a homerun โ but are completely confident its conventional release will go ahead with reports the studio have turned away both Netflix and Apple.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the streaming platforms โinquired if Paramount Pictures would be willing to sellโ the long-awaited sequel starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, and Val Kilmer. While the exact details surrounding the offer(s) have not been publicly disclosed โ although weโd imagine itโd be somewhere in the airspace of US$600 million a la MGMโs asking price for No Time To Die โ Paramount chose to decline without a second thought, citing โthe strength of the filmโs perceived box office prospectsโ as the main reason. Which is certainly a good indication of the filmโs overall quality as a cinematic spectacle.
What makes this entire decision even more interesting is when you consider how freely Paramount has been selling some of its other films recently. The Cloverfield Paradox and Annihilation were offloaded to Netflix a few years prior, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Beverly Hills Cop 4 have also found its way to the crimson โNโ, and just a few months ago, yet another iconic Eddie Murphy franchise follow-up, Coming 2 America, was successfully acquired by Amazon Prime Video.
RELATED: โTop Gun โ Maverickโ Is (Probably) The Most Fun Youโll Have In Cinemas This Year
Top Gun: Maverick will, of course, mark the return of Tom Cruise as Pete โMaverickโ Mitchell. After over thirty years of service as the US Navyโs top aviator, Maverick is where he belongs, continuing to โpush the envelopeโ as a daring test pilot and dodging any advancements in rank that would keep him grounded.
When Maverick finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission โthe likes of which no living pilot has ever seenโ, Maverick encounters Miles Teller as Lt. Bradley Bradshaw, call sign: โRoosterโ. Bradshaw is the son of Maverickโs deceased friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, AKA โGoose.โ Facing an uncertain future and forced to confront the ghosts of his past, Maverick must face his deepest fears, culminating in a mission that โdemands the ultimate sacrificeโ from those chosen to fly it.
Joining Cruise, Teller, Connelly, and Kilmer will be Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Glen Powell, Manny Jacinto, and Lewis Pullman. In the directorโs chair, youโll find Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion), who has brought quite the screenplay to life โ penned by Justin Marks (The Jungle Book), Peter Craig (The Hunger Games), Eric Warren Singer (American Hustle), as well as longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie (the two most recent Mission Impossible films, Edge of Tomorrow).
At the time of this writing, Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled to hit theatres on November 18th of 2021 โ and wonโt be available on either Netflix or Apple TV+ for some time.
