Exclusive: Tom Cruise Developing Days Of Thunder 2 With Top Gun 2 Director
This Tom Cruise movie was slept on when it first released in theaters but now he's developing a sequel.
They built on the success of Top Gun, and now they may redeem the failure of Days of Thunder. According to our trusted and proven sources, Tom Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski are collaborating once more on Days of Thunder 2. They first worked together on the 2013 post-apocalyptic adventure film Oblivion.
With Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinski continued the story of a decades-old iconic hit, but the pair face something much different with Days of Thunder 2. The first film from 1990 was Cruise’s second time working with the late director Tony Scott, who also helmed the first Top Gun.
Days of Thunder made some money, but with Tom Cruise and Tony Scott back together, it was expected to make Top Gun money and it didn’t come close. It did, however, lead to one of Cruise’s longest and most well-known collaborations: he met his future wife (and future ex-wife) Nicole Kidman on the set of Days of Thunder.
They married the same year Days of Thunder hit theaters and would star in two more features together — 1992’s Far and Away and 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut — before their divorce in 2001.
We’ve exclusively learned Tom Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski are developing Days of Thunder 2.
That Tom Cruise wants to make Days of Thunder 2 could in part explain something from a story The Hollywood Reporter published last March. The outlet reported that Cruise was locked in a legal battle with Paramount over the release of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One.
Among the issues Cruise and Paramount had allegedly locked horns over, THR said Cruise had given a thumbs down to the studio’s pitches for two streaming series: one based on Days of Thunder, and the other spinning out of the Mission: Impossible films.
Considering what we’ve learned, it’s tempting to speculate that — assuming THR’s report was accurate — Tom Cruise may have said no to the Days of Thunder series because of the possibility of a Days of Thunder 2.
In the 1990 film, Tom Cruise plays the talented, but green, racer Cole Trickle who finds himself intimidated by everything about NASCAR when he’s first recruited by wealthy race team owner Tim Daland (Randy Quaid). Cole’s crew chief Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) mentors him, and the seasoned champion Rowdy (Michael Rooker) becomes Trickle’s first rival.
After both Rowdy and Cole wind up in the hospital after a race, the latter falls head over heels for his neurosurgeon Dr. Claire Lewicki (Nicole Kidman).
Along with the talent already mentioned, Days of Thunder starred Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) as antagonist Russ Wheeler, John C. Reilly (Boogie Nights) as Cole’s car chief Buck, and the late Fred Thompson (The Hunt for Red October) as NASCAR president Big John.
With Days of Thunder 2 still in development, there’s no word on which, if any, of Tom Cruise’s surviving Days of Thunder co-stars might join him for the sequel. When we know, we’ll make sure you know.
