Tom Cruise confirms beginning of Top Gun: Maverick shoot on Twitter

Star posts nostalgic photograph of Maverick and his trusty F-14

The Top Gun sequel is happening. Courtesy Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise appears to have confirmed on Twitter that shooting has begun on Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited follow up to 1986's smash hit Top Gun, but the shoot doesn't look like it'll be taking place in Abu Dhabi.

When Cruise showed up on Twitter in Abu Dhabi in March, and sources told us he'd been shooting and rehearsing scenes involving military planes, we'd originally wondered if the movie could be heading for these shores.

That film, as we now know, turned out to be Mission Impossible: Fallout,which wrapped on March 28 after shooting a reportedly spectacular aerial stunt sequence high above the desert.

Cruise's latest post on social media features him in character as top fighter pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, starring wistfully at an F-14 Tomcat fighter plane in the distance, along with the caption "I feel the need," and the hashtag #Day1. The caption is taken from an oft-quoted line in the original movie: "I feel the need – the need for speed."

Cruise doesn’t say where the new shoot is taking place – details of the film have been shrouded in secrecy, with Cruise currently the only member of the cast to be confirmed – although Variety magazine claims the shoot is taking place somewhere in the USA.

Top Gun: Maverick is directed by Joseph Kosinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison. It is scheduled for release on July 12, 2019.

______________________________

Abu Dhabi Film Commission breaks silence over Mission Impossible shoot

Confirmed: Tom Cruise is shooting a film in Abu Dhabi, most likely Mission Impossible

Mission Impossible director shares snaps of Abu Dhabi stunt