THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – The world’s most high-profile fest comes amid the film’s planned release around the globe at the end of May.
Top Gun: Maverick is taking a flight to the Cannes Film Festival.

Paramount and Skydance high-profile sequel — starring Tom Cruise, one of the world’s biggest stars — will screen at the festival in advance of its Memorial Day premiere in theaters, according to sources close to the festival.

Top Gun 2 will open in North America on May 27, after beginning its international rollout earlier that week. Paramount declined to comment on any plans to show up on the Croisette, but buzz has been growing about the movie playing at Cannes.

This year, the iconic festival on the French Riviera runs May 17-28.

Cannes has long been a platform to launch a big Memorial Day tentoples (most play out of competition.) The fest gets Hollywood studios access to press from around the world, not to mention the benefit of high-profile stars walking the famous red carpet for photos.

This would mark the first time in 30 years a Cruise film has screened at Cannes, with the Ron Howard-directed Far and Away bowing at the fest in 1992. Cruise is considered one of Hollywood’s most relentless promoters, and never shies away from publicity. Cannes would be an obvious place for the actor to show off his new film. And Cruise’s appearance would be of benefit to the festival as it emerges from the pandemic.

Cannes, however, would not likely mark Top Gun: Maverick‘s world premiere. That event has long been planned to be held in San Diego, where the first film was set.

Cruise’s Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski directs Maverick, which also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Monica Barbaro, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer, returning as Iceman. The original Top Gun, directed by the late Tony Scott and released in 1986, helped turn Cruise into a household name around the world.

The Top Gun sequel has faced a long road to the screen and was delayed multiple times due to covid pressures on theatrical business. Maverick launched its first trailer at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, with Cruise surprising the crowd in person. More recently, the first 13 minutes of Maverick screened at CinemaCon in August 2021.