Top Gun: Maverick flies to the Cannes Film Festival.
The acclaimed sequel to Paramount and Skydance, starring Tom Cruise, one of the world’s biggest stars, will be screened at Cannes ahead of its Memorial Day premiere in theaters, according to sources close to the festival.
Top Gun 2 will open in North America on May 27 after starting its international rollout earlier this week. Paramount declined to comment, but rumors are mounting that the film will appear on the Croisette.
This year the cult festival takes place from 17 to 28 May.
Cannes has long been the site for launching a large Memorial Day tent (most of which are out of competition). The festival gives Hollywood studios access to press from around the world, not to mention famous stars walking the famous red carpet for photography.
This will be the first time in 30 years that a film about Cruise will be screened at Cannes, and Ron Howard’s Far Away will be presented at the festival in 1992. Cruise is regarded as one of Hollywood’s most relentless promoters and never shy away from publicity. Cannes would be an obvious place for the actor to show his new film. And Cruise’s appearance will benefit the two-week festival that is emerging from the pandemic.
However, Cannes did not host the world premiere of Top Gun: Maverick. This event has long been planned to be held in San Diego, where the first movie was filmed.
Oblivion Cruise director Joseph Kosinski is directing Maverick, which also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Monica Barbaro, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer, returning as Iceman. The original Top Gun movie, directed by the late Tony Scott and released in 1986, helped Cruz become world famous.
The Top Gun sequel has come a long way to the screen and has been delayed several times due to pressure on the theatrical business. Maverick unveiled its first trailer at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, and Cruz surprised the crowd in person. Most recently, the first 13 minutes of Maverick were shown at CinemaCon in August 2021.