‘Top Gun’ sequel to screen at Cannes Film Festival

CANNES

The Cannes Film Festival on April 1 confirmed that “Top Gun: Maverick,” the long-delayed sequel to the 1986 Tom Cruise actioner, will screen as part of Cannes’ 75th-anniversary edition, the Hollywood Reporter has reported.

“Tom Cruise will be in attendance in Cannes on May 18, 2022, for the screening of ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ scheduled for release on May 25 in France and May 27 in the U.S.,” organizers said. “The festival will also pay a special tribute to Tom Cruise for his career.”

The star will have an onstage conversation with journalist Didier Allouch in the afternoon of May 18 and will later that day “walk up the steps of the Palais des Festivals for the evening screening,” the festival said.

It noted that the star “has made only one Cannes festival appearance before, in 1992, for Ron Howard’s “Far and Away,” the closing film of the 45th festival. That evening, he had awarded the Palme d'Or to director Bille August for his film “The Best Intentions.” As such, the film screening and Cruise’s appearance will come 30 years to the day after he last attended the fest.

Top Gun 2 has become something of a symbol of the disruption wrought on the film industry by the COVID pandemic. The release of the hotly anticipated sequel, from Paramount and Skydance, was pushed back multiple times due to the pandemic.

Initially slated for a July 12, 2019 bow, the movie was first moved to June 26, 2020, then to December 23, 2022, to July 2, 2021, November 19, 2021, and finally to its current North American release on May 27 this year after rolling out internationally earlier that week.

The film is a major get for Cannes, which is framing this year’s festival as a celebratory return to cinema after two years of COVID restrictions and theater lockdowns.

The festival, which will run from May 17 to 28, is also keen to re-establish its position as the go-to platform for tentpole and award-season releases after losing ground in the past two years to Venice.