Tom Cruise eyes ‘Days of Thunder’ sequel for Paramount

Tom Cross wants to make a sequel to another of his action classics, and it’s not something you’d expect.

The actor talks to Decisive about a sequel to his 1990 NASCAR racing film Days of thunder.

At first glance, the idea seems quite daring. Thunder was not considered a box office success upon release (earning $157 million worldwide on a $60 million production budget), and the film received mixed to negative reviews from critics. But after we revived and modernized the 1984s Top pistol with the blockbuster of 2022 Top Gun: Maverickthe actor believes he can pull off similar magic with his racing drama (which, like the original Top pistolwas a Paramount film produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott). A Thunder A revival has been announced before – Paramount once pitched a reboot of the title as a TV show to Paramount+, a idea that Cruise ignored.

Major factors include the project’s script (the studio is now looking for potential writers) and the 62-year-old actor-producer’s busy schedule. Cruise is about to start shooting The Revenant filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s mysterious next movie for Warner Bros./Legendary, developing a Doug Liman film for Universal that takes place in real spaceand he is developing a sequel to Outsider (which Cruise and Paramount both consider a top priority).

“He’s talking about it (with Paramount). Top pistol And Days of thunder,” says a studio insider familiar with the discussions. “It will be what comes together first in terms of a script. It depends on the idea and ultimately the script.” (Cruise, sources say, has script approval for all of its projects).

Racing films have become fashionable recently, with the success of James Mangold’s 2019 film Ford vs FerrariMichael Mann’s less successful 2023 racing drama Ferrariand next year’s F1 – starring Brad Pitt and directed by Outsider helmsman Joseph Kosinski (who would apparently be the ideal choice to helm Thunder(but you can imagine he wouldn’t be too keen on making back-to-back racing films). The plethora of recent fast car projects on the track offers the prospect of a resurrection Thunder even more intimidating (imagine that Outsider was released after three other films about fighter pilots), but at least none of the other titles specifically explore the world of NASCAR racing, which has a distinctly different Americana vibe compared to the more European world of Le Mans and Formula 1.

“I don’t think a (Days of thunder sequel) is a terrible idea,” the Paramount source added (the studio declined to comment for this story). ‘You might have said that when you came back to visit Top pistol was a terrible idea. I wouldn’t turn it down.”

Days of thunder certainly has its devotees, including Tony Scott fan and collaborator Quentin Tarantino. “Without a doubt my favorite (racing film). Days of thunder”, the director was quoted as said in 2013. “Yeah, yeah, you’re laughing, but seriously, I’m a big fan. Sure, it had a big budget, big stars and a big director in Tony Scott, but it had the fun of those early (American International Picture Racing) films. I just don’t think (the genre) works if you take the whole thing too seriously. Thunder is also remembered as the film in which Cruise met his former wife of 11 years, Nicole Kidman, who co-starred in the project as a neurosurgeon and love interest for Cruise’s USAC racer Cole Trickle.

Then there’s the film that writer-director Christopher McQuarrie is eagerly awaiting Mission: Impossible 8which has finally wrapped and is in post-production. The project has had a long and difficult journey, with a budget reportedly approaching $400 million amid production delays – partly due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

While the franchise remains very popular and the seventh entry of 2022 Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One drawing largely critical acclaim (scoring over 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes among both critics and audiences), the final film’s pre-marketing budget was nearly $300 million, and its box office return was considered disappointing ($566 million worldwide). Making things more challenging for the upcoming film, Dead reckoning ended on a cliffhanger – breaking the tradition of each MI Adventure is a standalone entry with each film fully accessible to new audiences. Paramount has since dropped “Part One” from the title of 7. The title of the new film will be revealed in the coming weeks when Paramount drops the first one M: me 8 trailer.

One intriguing wrinkle: Paramount was interested in promotion M: me 8 as the “final” entry in the action franchise as a way to increase audience interest. Still, Cruise is against a public farewell to Ethan Hunt – not surprising, given the preternaturally youthful actor was quoted last year as he says he hopes to continue making MI films into the eighties. (“Harrison Ford is a legend, I have 20 years to catch up with him,” said Cruise. “I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible movies until I’m his age.”)

Still, Paramount is optimistic M: me 8 and is bullishly looking to take the film to Cannes – a move that has lately gained a reputation as risky for big-budget mainstream projects, given the way the festival’s critical reception torpedoed the film. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate And Horizon: an American saga months before each title opened. At least in the case of M: me 8the festival is scheduled just before that M: me 8 opens wide in theaters (Cannes runs from May 13 to 24; the M: me 8 the release date is May 23), so any critical comments from France will be out around the same time, or just after the film has already had its world premiere and domestic critics’ screenings.

“I think Tom is in a good place,” the studio insider noted. “And I think Mission It’s going to be very good.”

— Pamela McClintock and Mia Galuppo contributed to this report