Top Gun 3 is officially in the works, Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer on board

Do you feel the need, the need for speed? Again, again?

Top Gun 3 is very much in the works, and Maverick will be back, aboard that motorcycle, shades in place and with that seductive air of easy confidence.

Tom Cruise is confirmed to return to the role, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer will also be involved. Paramount’s co-head of film Josh Greenstein said a script was well underway.

The announcement came during CinemaCon in Las Vegas, an annual convention for exhibitors and cinema owners where Hollywood always rolls out their big guns. Or should that be top guns?

The news was not a huge surprise given that that a Top Gun: Maverick follow-up had been a priority for Paramount, especially after Skydance completed its acquisition of the studio in August.

The David Ellison-controlled Skydance had been one of the production companies on the second Top Gun movie, which was an enormous success, grossing $US1.49 billion worldwide (and only months after the world was re-opening post-pandemic) and earnt six Oscar nominations.

No other cast members have been confirmed yet for the third instalment. Among those who supported Cruise in the second film included Miles Teller, who played Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Anthony Edward’s character, Goose, who was killed in the original 1986 film.

Maverick’s cast also included Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell and Monica Barbaro.

Val Kilmer had a small role in Maverick, the only other actor to reprise his role from Top Gun, but has since died.

Tony Scott, who died in 2012, directed the original film, and Joseph Kosinski took over on the second. There’s no director attached yet to the third instalment.

Top Gun: Maverick was famed for using practical effects during the aerial sequences, sending the film’s actors up in F-18s fighter jets and capturing their performances using Go-Pro cameras while the thespians were battling G-forces of 600 miles per hour.

It was a months-long process as the actors, including Powell, Barbaro, Teller, Jay Ellis and Danny Ramirez, had to acclimate to the pressure of a jet by starting with prop planes and going step-by-step up to an F-18.

Cruise, of course, as a noted adrenaline junkie who has been doing his own high-wire stunts on the Mission: Impossible franchise, had tested everything out first, and was the one who helped the production develop the camera technology and the method of capture.

Cruise was initially reluctant to return to the role of Maverick but Kosinski and Bruckheimer flew to Paris, where Cruise was shooting Mission: Impossible Fallout, and between scenes, pitched him the idea for the film.

The filmmakers had only 30 minutes to sell Cruise and at the end of the conversation, Cruise picked up the phone and called the head of the studio and said, “We’re making this film”.

Ellison has previously said that he wants to be in the Cruise business as long as the star wants to be in it with him. Paramount is also reportedly pursuing a Days of Thunder sequel.

Cruise wasn’t at the Paramount presentation at CinemaCon but he had earlier appeared at the convention for Warner Bros to spruik his upcoming film, Digger, with director Alejandro G. Innaritu.

Digger, which is due for release in October, will be a departure for Cruise who has spent the past decade solely as an action star in the Mission: Impossible movies, the action-comedy American Made and Universal’s ill-fated attempt to reboot its monsters-driven Dark Universe with The Mummy.

Digger is being billed as a dark comedy, and Cruise plays an older oil executive. Footage shown at CinemaCon, which was not released online, reportedly showed Cruise in character with grey hair, a rotund stomach and brandishing a southern American accent.

Innaritu said on stage, “We know (Cruise) is fearless. The stunts, the plane, the jumps. But I have to say, embodying this character is another kind of fearless. I think this role may be his most challenging.”