Tom Cruise inTop Gun: Maverick(2022).Photo: Scott Garfield/Paramount
Shosh and Yuval Yonay, self-declared “heirs” of aforementioned author Ehu Yonay, accused the studio — in a document filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court — of a “conscious failure to re-acquire the requisite film and ancillary rights to the Yonays' copyrighted Story prior to the completion and release of their derivative 2022 Sequel.”
In a statement, Paramount said: “These claims are without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
Tom Cruise inTop Gun: Maverick(2022).Paramount Pictures
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Maverickpicks up 30 years after Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s (Tom Cruise) graduation from TOPGUN Naval aviation program, when he is called back as an instructor for the elite fliers.
In the 10 days the film has been in theaters,Maverickhas grossed over $291 million at the domestic box office and $257 million internationally, for aglobal total of $548.6 million.
The action flick earned an estimated $124 million at the domestic box office in its first three days alone, becomingCruise’s biggest opening weekendyet, according toVariety. It was also the movie star’s first film to debut to more than $100 million.
For Cruise, who also headlines theMission: Impossiblefranchise, his highest opening weekend prior toMaverickwasWar of the Worlds, which took in $64 million upon its debut back in 2005.
RELATED VIDEO:Top Gun: MaverickStarsTom Cruise, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller and More on Filming the “Love Letter to Aviation”
MaverickdirectorJoe Kosinskirecently toldPolygonthat giving Cruise “an emotional reason to return to” his iconic character more than three decades later “was honestly the element that really grabbed Tom,” after an initialhesitance to make anotherTop Gunfilm.
“The second thing was, what’s Maverick been doing?” added Kosinski, 48. “And this is kind of my own passion, you know, coming through and pitching the Darkstar sequence [in the beginning], just being someone who has always loved airplanes and aerospace and studied aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering and lovedThe Right Stuff.”
“So the idea of finding him as a test pilot on the bleeding edge of what’s possible seemed to me like the perfect way to find him, and Tom loved that,” the director said.
Top Gun: Maverickis now playing in theaters.
source: people.com
