Will there be a “Top Gun Maverick” sequel? On Friday night, I got the answer.

Director Joseph Kosinski is ready. So is producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Star Miles Teller told me: “If you’d asked me when we finished this movie, I’d have said I needed a break. The whole cast did. But now it’s just about Tom.”

He added, it’s also about the cast. After all, he’s the only who didn’t — to use his word
“puke” — when they got back from flying the planes. The actors, as we’ve been told before, were up in those planes flying at speeds that were treacherous. Luckily, someone from the Air Force was up there with them, too. But no green screens. It was all terrifyingly real.

And Tom Cruise, the lightning rod for “Maverick”? Everyone was talking about him at Friday night’s screening and Q&A for the film, which had made $1.4 billion around the world, is beloved, and guess what? In a second viewing, it holds up to the hype. “Maverick” is an old fashioned Hollywood hit in the best way. Teller, Kosinski, and Bruckheimer were joined by Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly, who gives “Maverick” an unexpected gravitas. She is also — not PC to say anymore– gorgeous.

“It’s the wig,” she told me. “Everyone loves the wig.” No, it’s Connelly. (See below.)

Now the trick is, can it get Oscar nominations? My feeling: it must, or no one is going to watch the Oscars. The rest of the 2023 Oscar slate is high quality but has no blockbuster. Having “Top Gun Maverick” in the mix would give the Academy a needed jolt.

And then there’s Bruckheimer, who’s never won an award even after making five decades worth of blockbusters including the original “Top Gun.” He doesn’t even have a Producers Guild Award, which is kind of ridiculous. Famous with his late partner, Don Simpson, from their skyrocketing success early on. Bruckheimer has gone on to triumph after triumph.

In the Q&A with Fandango’s Erik Davis, Bruckheimer was low key and eloquent when asked about that this movie means to him:

“Well, first of all what is meant to the industry. A large part of our audience that came out to see Tom had not been out to see a movie in at least two years. So we brought a large audience from age 8 to 80 back to cinema and theaters. Around the world! It’s not just a movie for this country. Our grosses foreign were larger than our grosses in this country. This is a movie that brought people together. It’s not a red state or a blue state…it’s a movie for everybody…It’s because of the expertise of Tom Cruise and these amazing people on the stage with me and all the wonderful technicians who work so hard and smoothly to make it as good as it is… So it shows when you make a movie right it shows the brilliance of the people who make it.”

Well put.

When could we see a sequel? Cruise has to finish “Mission Impossible 8,” the second of two “MI” movies coming in 2023 and 2024. But I think “Top Gun M 2” will start up sooner than later, before everyone who made the first one loses their nerve!

By the way, I asked Connelly, how does it work when you’re in a film that starts breaking weekly records? If you’re the actors do you just read the Sunday headlines? Or does someone call and say “you’re making history”? Jennifer said, in this case, “Chris McQuarrie, our director, has us all on group chat. So he’d say, Look at this!” She shook her head. “And you can’t believe it!”

Congrats to Universal Pictures. They knew how to play this one like a Stradivarius.

George Clooney and Julia Roberts’ “Ticket to Paradise” made another $6 million this weekend. The movie had very low fall off from last weekend — just 29%. Wow. The grand total in the US is now $56 million.

What makes this so interesting is that “Ticket to Paradise” was also released to streaming this past week. And it’s number 1 on the Home Viewing chart. This means that equal numbers of people are seeing it in theaters and in their living rooms. That’s pretty impressive!

Will we see a “Ticket” sequel? Seems certain, no? The squabbling couple will no doubt turn up at another lavish locale to bust up a potential wedding — and cause trouble for their newly married daughter. The thing writes itself into a trilogy — see “Meet the Parents,” etc.

“BARDO, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths,” had its LA premiere recently at AFI.  Five time academy award winner auteur Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who directed and co-wrote the film, explained the origins of his ambitious artful, semi-autobiographical labor of love. 

“This film comes from a very deep introspection that speaks about my personal and intimate memories but at the same time collective memory from the country that I belong.  Millions of immigrants dream to be in this country and to share in the opportunities here. At the same time there is no way to get out of the things that you’ve lost when you leave; your affection for the country you left, your friends and family, your roots.”

Alejandro continued his unique articulation the next day at a press conference for the Critics Choice Association. He talked about his feelings about being a ‘citizen’ of both countries. “I have surrendered and allow myself to live in this space of becoming.  I’m not attached to anything.  I’m from nowhere in a good way and that allows me to be in permanent transformation to become a better human being.  My nation is my family.  I think that’s the most beautiful thing.”

“BARDO” is a beautifully  affecting film which looks through a cinematic kaleidoscope of surreal and grounded storylines of the life of Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker Silverio Gama, played wonderfully by Daniel Gimenez Cacho.  Gama is about to be honored with a prestigious award which brings up complex feelings and regret as he made the decision earlier to move his family from Mexico to live in Santa Monica.   Inatrritu’s musings on his own guilt, the complicated country that is Mexico, what he left behind and his own work and family guilt is truly affecting.  Visually stunning, along with literal dreamlike, production, and a terrific cast, “BARDO” is at two hours and thirty nine minutes, entrancing and self-indulgent in the most charming and expansive way.