“I think it’s the film that we needed,” declares editor Eddie Hamilton A.C.E. about the cultural impact that “Top Gun: Maverick” appears to have made worldwide. For our recent webchat he adds, “I’m thrilled for people who get to go back to the cinema and have a night out at the movies again after two years of craziness, you know, and remind people of the joy of that, and going on an adventure with characters that you love, and just getting lost in the world of a film. There’s nothing better than that when you sit down in the theater and the lights dim, and you just you just get lost in a world of adventure and excitement. It’s just so cool. I love it. It’s the best. There’s nothing quite like it.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
SEE Exclusive Video Interview: Joseph Kosinski (‘Top Gun: Maverick’ director)
“Top Gun: Maverick” is the sequel to the 1986 Tony Scott-directed and Jerry Bruckheimer-produced classic “Top Gun,” with Tom Cruise reprising his starring role as naval aviator Maverick. The action drama, which sees director Joseph Kosinski reunite with Cruise following his 2013 sci-fi drama “Oblivion,” was written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, based on the characters in the original film created by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. The blockbuster also stars Val Kilmer (reprising his role as Iceman from the original), Miles Teller, Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly, Emmy winner Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman and Oscar and Emmy nominee Ed Harris.
The film follows Maverick, who after more than 30 years as a top aviator is confronted with his past and deepest fears while training a team of younger Top Gun graduates that includes Rooster (Teller), the son of his deceased best friend Goose (played by Anthony Edwards in the original film). The team is on a perilous special assignment that will see them advance into enemy territory where only the very best will survive. Following its premiere last spring, “Top Gun: Maverick” has gone on to gross $1.5 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2022 and the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career to date.
“It was the hardest film I’ve ever done by many orders of magnitude,” the editor admits. “It’s so much footage and so much expectation, and we wanted it to be awesome. We never dreamed that anyone would ever say it was better than the first one. I will say that that was such an incredible surprise when people were saying that because it’s such a cultural landmark of 1980s cinema for generations of people who love it,” he says. “I have to be honest, I actually got very emotional because I’m a huge fan of cinema and movies, I have been since I was a young child. I’ve had spiritual experiences in cinemas watching great films that I’ve loved and as a filmmaker or a storyteller, you dream of working on a film that entertains and reaches a wide audience and has the potential to be a classic film. I am so grateful, and I’m so excited.”
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