Tom Cruise is looking to make a sequel to another of his action classics, and it’s not one you’d expect.

The actor talks to Paramount about a sequel to his 1990 NASCAR racing film Days of Thunder.

On the surface, the idea seems pretty bold. Thunder was not considered a box office hit upon release (it earned $157 million globally on a $60 million production budget), and the film received mixed to negative reviews from critics. But after he revived and modernized the 1986s Top Gun with the 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverickthe actor believes he can work similar magic with his racing drama (which, like the original Top Gunwas a Paramount film produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott). A Thunder revival has been released before — Paramount once released a reboot of the title as a TV show for Paramount+, a an idea that Cruise rejected.

Key factors include the project’s script (the studio is now open to potential writers) and the 62-year-old actor-producer’s busy schedule. Cruise is about to start filming The Revenant by director Alejandro G. Iñárritu the next mystery movie for Warner Bros./Legendary, developing a film with Doug Liman for Universal which is placed in real spaceand he develops a sequel of his own Maverick (which Cruise and Paramount both consider a priority).

“He’s talking (with Paramount) about Top Gun and Days of Thunder,” says a studio familiar familiar with the discussions. “It will be what comes together first in terms of a script. It depends on the idea and ultimately the script.” (Cruise, sources say, has script approval for all his projects.)

Racing movies have become all the rage lately with the success of James Mangold’s 2019 film Ford v FerrariMichael Mann’s less successful 2023 racing drama Ferrariand from next year F1 — which stars Brad Pitt and is directed by Maverick director Joseph Kosinski (who would apparently be the ideal choice to direct Thunderbut one imagines he wouldn’t be too keen on making back-to-back racing films). The glut of recent fast track car projects makes the prospect of revival Thunder even more daunting (imagine if Maverick had been released after three other fighter pilot movies), but at least none of the other titles specifically explore the world of NASCAR racing, which has a very different American feel to the more European world of Le Mans and Formula 1.

“I don’t think a (Days of Thunder sequel) is a terrible idea,” added the Paramount source (the studio declined to comment for this story). “I might have said that the review Top Gun it was a terrible idea. I wouldn’t discount it.”

Days of Thunder it certainly has its devotees, among them Tony Scott fan and collaborator Quentin Tarantino. “My favorite movie (racing movie) is Days of Thunder“, the director was cited as he said in 2013. “Yeah, yeah, you’re laughing, but seriously, I’m a big fan. Sure, it had a big budget, big stars and a big director in Tony Scott, but it had the fun of those early films (American international film races). I just don’t think it (genre) works if you take it too seriously.” Thunder it is also remembered as the film where Cruise met his ex-wife of 11 years, Nicole Kidman, who co-starred on the project as a neurosurgeon and love interest for Cruise’s USAC racer Cole Trickle.

Then there’s the highly anticipated writer-director Christopher McQuarrie Mission: Impossible 8which is finally packaged and in post-production. The project has had a long and difficult journey, with a budget approaching $400 million amid production delays — partly due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

While the franchise remains very popular and the seventh entry in 2022 Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One has drawn widespread praise (with more than 94% on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and audiences), the last film’s budget before commercialization was nearly $300 million, and its box office return office was considered a disappointment ($566 million globally). To make things more challenging for the upcoming film, count ended on a cliffhanger—breaking everyone’s tradition M:I the adventure being a standalone entry where each film is completely accessible to a fresh audience. Paramount has since dropped “Part I” from the title of 7. The title of the new film will be revealed in the next two weeks when Paramount drops the first M: I 8 tow.

An interesting wrinkle: Paramount was interested in promoting M: I 8 as the “final” entry in the action franchise as a way to stimulate audience interest. However, Cruise was reluctant to say goodbye to Ethan Hunt publicly – not surprising given the supernaturally young actor. was cited last year saying he hopes to continue to do so M:I movies in the ’80s. (“Harrison Ford is a legend, I’ve got 20 years to catch up to him,” Cruise said. “I hope to continue to Mission: Impossible films to his age.”

Still, Paramount is optimistic M: I 8 and wants to bring the film to Cannes — a move that has lately developed a high-risk reputation for big-budget mainstream projects, given how the festival’s critical reception has torpedoed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Horizon: An American Saga months before the opening of each title. At least in case M: I 8the festival is scheduled right before M: I 8 opens wide in theaters (Cannes runs May 13-24; the M: I 8 release date is May 23), so any critical reviews in France will come around the same time, or soon after, the film has already had its world premiere and domestic critical screenings.

“I think Tom is in a good place,” the studio insider noted. “And I believe Mission it will be very good.”

— Pamela McClintock and Mia Galuppo contributed to this report