Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun’ sequel to screen at Cannes Film Festival

LONDON: Tom Cruise will screen his hotly anticipated “Top Gun” sequel at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where an event will also look back on his Hollywood career, organisers said on Friday.

Thirty-six years since Cruise’s cocky pilot Maverick soared into the sky, “Top Gun: Maverick”, which sees the actor reprise the role that launched his career as a global action star, will begin its global cinema roll-out from May 25 after several pandemic-related delays.

Cruise, 59, was last at the Cannes festival, an annual glitzy industry event on the French Riviera, for his 1992 movie “Far and Away”.

“Exactly thirty years later, on May 18, 2022, the Festival de Cannes will pay him an exceptional tribute for his lifetime achievements,” organisers said in a statement.

“On that special day, Tom Cruise will have an on-stage conversation with journalist Didier Allouch in the afternoon and will walk up the steps of the Palais des Festivals for the evening screening of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’.”

This year’s Cannes Film Festival, its 75th edition, will run from May 17-28.