Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” was cleared for filming through a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
As Variety predicted earlier this month, the Top Gun sequel will be shown during the French festival, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.
Described by Variety’s Elsa Keslasi as “the planetary blockbuster that Thierry Frémaux has dreamed of since 2020,” the Cannes director initially sought to secure the film an out-of-competition slot before delays due to COVID-19 turned the film’s release calendar upside down.
Cruise’s long-awaited return to the cockpit as badass pilot Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell has also been delayed by the pandemic, which has pushed back the film’s scheduled release date several times. The film will now hit theaters on May 27, while the Cannes Film Festival will run from May 17 to 28. The full list of films will be presented in the third week of April.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the film also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Monica Barbaro, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer, who reprises his role as Iceman. The official world premiere of Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled to take place in San Diego and will reportedly take place ahead of the Cannes screening.
Other notable films predicted to claim the top spot in the lineup include Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, and Disney-Pixar’s Lightyear.
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to confirm Croisette’s connection to Top Gun: Maverick. Paramount and Skydance did not comment on the reports.
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