Thirty three years after he first appeared in the classic action film Top Gun, Tom Cruise’s ace American Naval pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell will be back on the big screen with Top Gun: Maverick.

Cruise tweeted a poster of the sequel with the tag line “Feel the need”, a nod to Maverick’s popular dialogue in the original, “I feel the need, the need for speed.” His tweet also indicated that production on the film had begun on Wednesday. Variety reported that the film is being shot in the United States. Top Gun: Maverick will be directed by Joseph Kosinski, who has previously made Cruise-starrer Oblivion (2013) and Tron: Legacy (2010).

The 1986 film, directed by Tony Scott, told the story of the dynamic and risk-taking naval aviator Maverick, who struggles with his job after the death of his friend and flying partner. Also starring Anthony Edwards, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Tom Skerritt and Meg Ryan, the film was a big hit at the box office and also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Take My Breath Away.

Scott was initially slated to direct the sequel and reportedly started work on it with Cruise. But the film was passed on to Kosinski after Scott committed suicide in 2012.

The supporting cast of the sequel is yet to be announced. “It’s just a different world now, so you can’t remake the first movie,” filmmaker Kosinski told ComingSoon.net in an interview in October last year. “It has to adapt, [but] I certainly want to re-create the experience of that movie, which gives you a front seat into the world of naval aviation and what it’s like to be in a fighter jet.”

Top Gun: Maverick will be released on July 12, 2019.

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