Day: October 14, 2010

Top Gun Sequel on the Way?

By Jason Apuzzo. New York Magazine’s Vulture blog is becoming the place for scoops these days, and today they’ve got a whopper. Apparently Larry Ellison’s son David wants to finance a reteaming of Tom Cruise (in a limited, cameo-esque role), Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer on a Top Gun sequel. The screenwriter on this would apparently be Oscar-winner Christopher McQuarrie, who just wrote The Tourist and also wrote Valkyrie for Cruise. As a side note, David Ellison is currently helping to finance Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 4.

Cruise on The Bike.

I think this is a great idea, if executed properly. For those of you who weren’t around back then, Top Gun was the the movie from the 80s that romanticized American military life (without having to demonize any particular enemy nation). I personally know a guy who, I strongly suspect, was pulled into life in Naval aviation – and beach volleyball – at least in part due to this film. And who could blame him? Between the girls, the Kawasakis and the volleyball, it painted a pretty appealing picture of serving your country while flying jets in San Diego. [Whatever happened to Berlin, by the way?]

If it isn’t already obvious, folks, the 80s are mounting a major comeback these days – with Obama’s indirect help, I strongly suspect. A Wall Street sequel just came out; even Back to the Future is getting re-released this month, for goodness sake.

As a side note here: this is the Tom Cruise I miss, the guy in the shades on the motorcycle flying jets for his country – not the couch-jumping oddity we’ve come to know.

Obviously we’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Fun footnote here: years ago when I was in high school I was hanging out on the Paramount lot one day while Tony Scott was in post-production on one of his films. His Kawasaki – the one Cruise rides in the film – was parked in the lot. When nobody was looking, I hopped on. 🙂 Awesome.

I’ve just got to know just one thing about this sequel: will they be bringing back Iceman?

Posted on October 14, 2010 at 10:57am.

Anti-Islamic Terror Documentary Killing in the Name Up for Oscar Consideration

By Jason Apuzzo. The Wrap is reporting today that the anti-Islamic terror documentary Killing in the Name has been shortlisted for Academy Awards consideration. I’ve embedded the trailer for the film above – take a look.

Here below is how the film is described on its Facebook page:

“Four years ago, Ashraf Al-Khaled and his bride were celebrating what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives, when an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber walked into their wedding and blew himself up, killing both of their fathers in front of their eyes. The couple lost 27 members of their family that day.

“It’s a sad fact that stories like Ashraf’s pepper the news almost daily. In the last 5 years, over 88,000 people have been killed or injured in terrorist attacks worldwide. The majority, like Ashraf, were Muslims.

“How can someone be so robbed of their humanity that they happily commit mass murder and suicide? It’s one of the fundamental human questions of our era, one that has haunted Ashraf since his wedding day, and what is now driving him to rise from horrific tragedy to take an unprecedented step – breaking the silence in the Muslim community on this taboo subject by speaking out against terrorism.

“KILLING IN THE NAME follows Ashraf in his quest to speak with victims and perpetrators, and expose the true costs of terrorism. From a jihadi recruiter for Al-Qaeda, the group responsible for bombing his wedding, to an Islamic militant behind one of the world’s worst terrorist attacks, to a madrassa filled with young boys ready to fulfill the duty of jihad, Ashraf takes us on a harrowing journey around the world to see if one man can speak truth to terror, and begin to turn the global tide.

“At times chilling and moving, terrifying and hopeful, KILLING IN THE NAME is a far- reaching and necessary first step in tackling what is arguably the most pressing issue of our age. As Ashraf puts it, ‘If we can’t even talk about it, this terror will never end.'”

We’ll keep an eye on this story, and we wish the filmmakers the very best with this project.

Posted on October 14th, 2010 at 9:34am.