KILMER’S COMEBACK

Val Kilmer is excited for his film career to be taking off again with the hotly anticipated Top Gun sequel, Maverick. He returns as hotshot pilot Iceman and is the only member of the original cast other than star Tom Cruise to be back in the high-flying follow up.

It’s a comeback in more ways than one for the 60-yearold actor who paused his screen career during a long battle against throat cancer but is now happily recovered and returning to work.

He also has a new book out, titled I’m Your Huckelberry after a line he said in the movie Tombstone, and in that memoir reflects on the highlights of his film career.

Playing bad boy Iceman in 1986 mega-hit Top Gun was a breakout role for Kilmer that put him on the path to a string of other major roles including Batman, Doc Holliday and Jim Morrison.

Tom Cruise called their reunion in the Top Gun sequel “special” and Val says the pair of them “took up where we left off.”

The film, which had its release pushed back from the summer of 2020 to Christmas due to the coronavirus crisis, sees Cruise’s character working as an instructor to a new class of pilots when Iceman comes back into his life.

Moviemakers are not giving many details about that part of the story but Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, said, “The rivalry and relationship between Maverick and Iceman is important to the Top Gun franchise and as a fan I would want to see how it’s evolved.”

Top Gun: Maverick is now due to be released on December 23 2020.

Classic movie Jaws has been made into a stage musical.

Bruce – about the troubled making of the 1975 shark film – will debut in 2021.

The show takes its title from the nickname given to the constantly malfunctioning mechanical shark used in the movie, which director Steven Spielberg named after his lawyer. Spielberg’s triumph over the troubles to create a smash hit movie forms the basis of the musical’s story.

Bruce launches in New Jersey next year and producers hope to eventually bring the show to Broadway.

—Sandro Monetti

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