Tom Cruisecommitted to full-on training for the upcomingTop Gunsequel.
The long-delayedTop Gun: Maverickwill fly into theaters May 27. In a behind-the-scenes featurette, returning star Cruise, 59, explains how he and his costars gained experience for their gravity-defying roles.
“We worked with the Navy and the Top Gun school to formulate how to shoot it practically. Because if we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna fly in the F-18’s,” said Cruise. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer added, “The aviation sequences had to be real, so our actors went through three months of grueling training.”
Footage shows Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jay Ellis and more stars doing training exercises and flying in the high-speed planes. Cruise said they did a “challenging” underwater program that simulates how to get out of an aircraft if they landed in water.
“Tom designed this all-encompassing aviation training for all the actors,” said Barbaro.
Tom Cruise inTop Gun: Maverick(2022).Scott Garfield/Paramount
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The actors also had to learn how to operate the cameras while in the jets since they had to often act as their own directors during flights: “I had to really teach them cinematography and the lighting so they understood what’s gonna look good on camera,” said Cruise.
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Said Cruise, “I’m very proud of what we all accomplished. Each one of them are extraordinary.”
Top Gun: Maverickdirector Joseph Kosinski recentlytoldEmpirethey filmed about 800 hours of footage for the sequel: “Out of a 12- or 14-hour day, you might get 30 seconds of good footage. But it was so hard-earned. It just took a very long time to get it all. Months and months of aerial shooting. We shot as much footage as the threeLord of the Ringsmovies combined. I think it was 800 hours of footage.”
source: people.com
