'Top Gun 2' Lands 'Jungle Book' Writer (Exclusive)
Skydance is producing the sequel to 1980s classic with Jerry Bruckheimer
Justin Marks, the writer behind Disney’s upcoming live-action version of
The Jungle Book, in negotiations to work on
Top Gun 2, the
sequel to the 1980s Tom Cruise classic that is being made by Paramount and Skydance.
The move will goose up the long-in-the-works sequel and comes after the recent Paramount arrival of producer
Jerry Bruckheimer. After years with a studio deal at Disney, Bruckheimer moved to the Melrose Avenue-based studio lot in April.
David Ellison of Skydance is also producing. Skydance's
Dana Goldberg is exec producing alongside
Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
Cruise is slated to return as ace pilot Maverick in a
story that aims to show the relevance of good old fashioned pilots in today’s high-tech, drone-centric war environment.
Peter Craig, the scribe who wrote
Ben Affleck’s
The Town,
wrote the previous draft a couple of years ago. The project lost some jet fuel when
Tony Scott, the director of the 1986 original and who was to direct the sequel,
committed suicide in 2012.
Marks’s script for
Jungle Book attracted
Jon Favreau and the movie is now in production with
Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and
Idris Elba among the actors doing the voicework.
Marks previously worked with Bruckheimer when he was hired to write
War Dogs, a project centered around military canines that the producer was developing for Disney.
The writer, who is also adapting the Vertigo comic
Federal Bureau of Physics for Warner Bros., is repped by CAA, Madhouse Entertainment and Lichter Grossman.
-- hollywoodreporter.com