After 34 years, Chris Lebenzon will bring some of the same editing magic he used in helping make the first movie an instant classic.
Chris Lebenzon, original Top Gun editor, is returning to work on Top Gun: Maverick. After 34 years, Lebenzon will bring some of the same editing magic he used in helping make the first movie an instant classic. In July Tom Cruise surprised fans at San Diego Comic-Con by revealing the first trailer for “Top Gun: Maverick,” which will catch up with his character several years after the events of the first film.
Long-time fans were pleasantly surprised with what they saw in the early footage, which leaned heavily on the past.
According to Movie Web, Chris Lebenzon, who earned his first Academy Award nomination for his work on 1986’s Top Gun, took on the editing of the first installment along with Billy Weber. Lebenzon and Weber have been credited with introducing the “MTV-style editing” to movies. Tom Cruise and crew are trying to recapture as much of the original style from the first movie for Top Gun: Maverick. The sequel also features the return of Harold Faltermeyer, who is back to compose the score for the sequel with Hans Zimmer. Noteworthy Faltermeyer’s return was first announced by Cruise two years ago. His iconic original score in fact can be heard in the sequel’s trailer.
While Top Gun: Maverick will see the return of Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, along with some familiar faces behind-the-scenes, it won’t have a cameo by original star Kelly McGillis.
Kelly McGillis, who played Charlie, Maverick’s love interest in the 1986 movie, recently revealed that she was never approached to reprise her role. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Kelly said: ‘I’m old and I’m fat and I look age appropriate for what my age is and that is not what that whole scene is about.
‘To me, I’d much rather feel absolutely secure in my skin and who and what I am at my age as opposed to placing a value on all that other stuff.’
Kelly McGillis has been replaced by Jennifer Connelly who will play Maverick’s love interest in Top Gun Sequel.
Val Kilmer, who played the role of Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky in the original 1986 movie, had been campaigning for a part in Top Gun: Maverick ever since Tom Cruise first started teasing the idea. The actor is just now starting to take on acting roles again after a lengthy battle with throat cancer that left his voice in an unrecognizable rasp. Kilmer has been working on his voice a lot over the past few years and is now comfortable speaking in public again after shying away from appearances and fans cannot wait to see the return of Iceman on the big screen with his old rival Maverick.
Top Gun: Maverick looks like it will be everything Tom Cruise was originally promising and more. Cruise seems very confident that he and director Joseph Kosinski have made something that fans of all ages will be into when the sequel hits theaters next summer.
