'Top Gun 2' confirmed by director Tony Scott, set to be about drones, report says

10/27/2010 by Corinne Heller

A Top Gun sequel has reportedly been confirmed by director Tony Scott, who says he wants to make a film about unmanned aircraft rather than about fighter pilots, while it is unclear if original star Tom Cruise will appear in the movie.

The 1986 movie helped turn Cruise into an international sex symbol and depicted male students of an elite flying school for fighter pilots. In the film, his character engages in a romance with a civilian instructor, played by Kelly McGillis.

"I don't want to do a remake," Scott told Hitflix.com. I don't want to do a reinvention. I want to do a new movie."

"I'm not waiting for a script," he said. "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 operate them and then they party all night," he said, adding that Top Gun 2 will examine the "end of the era of fighter pilots."

It was reported in mid-October that a Top Gun sequel was in the works and that Cruise was said to have agreed to reprise his role as fighter pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, although his part in the new film would be smaller. Top Gun 2 screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie told Vulture earlier this week: "There is no Top Gun 2 in which Maverick is not the starring role."

Top Gun, which also starred Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards, has been parodied in modern pop culture and helped inspire a "bro" culture among groups of male friends, with the use of the word "wingman". The film has grossed more than $353 million worldwide.