Top Gun: Maverick director shares biggest Tom Cruise obstacle he faced before making film

Joseph Kosinski was met with an unexpected challenge when coming face-to-face with Cruise

The director of Top Gun: Maverick has shared the main obstacle he faced while trying to convince Tom Cruise to make the film.

Joseph Kosinski, who worked with Cruise on 2013 science fiction film Oblivion, saw promise in the sequel after reading the script by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie.

Kosinski had to fly to Paris to pitch the film to Cruise, who was filming Mission: Impossible – Fallout at the time.

Speaking about the encounter, Kosinski told Polygon: “So I read the script, I had some ideas, and Jerry [Bruckheimer, producer] liked those ideas. He said, ‘You know what, you gotta go pitch this to Tom directly.’”

Instead of having plenty of time to convince the Hollywood star, Kosinski was given a mere 30 minutes to win him over.

“So we flew to Paris, where Tom was shooting Mission: Impossible, we got about a half hour of his time between setups,” Kosinski added, stating: “And I basically had 30 minutes to pitch this film, which I didn’t realise when we were flying over.”

Making matters more difficult was the fact that, when Koskinski arrived, he “found that Tom really didn’t want to make another Top Gun”.

Joseph Kosinski had a short amount of time to convince Tom Cruise to make ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (Getty Images for Paramount Pictu)

Kosinski said: “It’s one of those moments as a director – you have one on every film – where you’re on the spot to make a case for why this movie should be made. I had 30 minutes to do it.”

Fortunately, he was successful, and the meeting ended with Cruise calling the head of Paramount Pictures to say: “We’re making another Top Gun.”

“It’s pretty impressive to see the power of a real movie star in that moment,” Kosinski said.

The sequel, a follow-up to the 1986 film, has become Cruise’s first film to make $100m (£79m) in its opening weekend.

Top Gun: Maverick is in cinemas now.