Val Kilmer's EMBARRASSING retraction: 'Top Gun 2 ISN'T definitely on with Tom Cruise'

Val Kilmer in Top Gun and now

VAL KILMER announced on Facebook that he had signed up for Top Gun 2 with Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman and was then forced into an embarrassing retraction, saved by a bad pun.

Val Kilmer clearly feels the need – and what does he feel the need for, we wonder?

Oh yes, the need for speed.

Except the motor mouth spoke a little too soon about his exciting news.

"I just got offered ?#‎topgun2? - not often you get to say "yes" without reading the script..." Kilmer posted on Facebook on Tuesday in a flurry of apostrophes and dots.

"It's starring Gene Hackman... "Yes"

""The director is Francis Coppola..." "Yes!"

"Jerry Bruckheimer and Tom Cruise!!! "Yes." We will all miss Tony Scott one of the kindest gentlemen I've ever met in the film biz, but let's fire up some fighter jets again!!!"

Unfortunately, he soon had to admit it wasn't entirely true.

 

Kilmer says Top Gu 2 is ready for take off

Naturally fans went wild at the news.

Until a shame-faced Kilmer returned to Facebook to admit that his return as Iceman was not yet confirmed.

"I jumped the top gun," he wrote. "Being offered a role is very different from doing a role."

"(It's) an innocent mistake. It was just such a wonderful phone call with my agent."

Casting may not have been confirmed but the script is definitely in production.

I just got offered #topgun2 - not often you get to say "yes" without reading the script..."It's starring Gene...
Posted by Val Kilmer on Monday, 16 November 2015

Earlier this year, David Ellison, chief executive officer of film company Skydance Productions, confirmed that Top Gun 2 was in development.

“Justin Marks is writing the screenplay now,” David said.

He also assured fans that the film could not be happening unless Tom Cruise was on board as Maverick.

Our fingers are firmly crossed that the greatest double act in homoerotic film history is heading back to the big screen as Maverick and Ice Man duke it out to be top dog again.

Watch TomCruise and Kelly McGillis getting it on together to THAT song next:

 

“There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no Top Gun without Maverick," Ellison said, with an abundance of references to the, ahem, maverick character.

"And it is going to be Maverick playing Maverick," he added, in case you didn't get the point.

Ellison also confirmed that the action would take place in the modern day.

“It is very much set in today where we have drone technology and fifth-generation fighters. It’s exploring the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots,” he said.

  

Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in Top Gun

 

Tom Cruise as Maverick

Top Gun was the highest grossing film of 1986 earning £222million worldwide.

The film’s iconic soundtrack was also hugely successful, most notably for its power ballad Take My Breath Away by Berlin, which scooped the best original song Oscar.

The film also popularised Ray Bans and Cruise's updating of the classic look of a leather jacket and white T-shirt.

Although the film also starred Kelly McGillis as Maverick's cougar love interest, it has long been regarded humourously as a the first big screen bromance, between Maverick and Goose.

 

It is also widely regarded as one of the most quoted films.

"I feel the need. The need for speed," is one of the most iconic lines in modern cinema.

Cruise and Kilmer were both huge stars in the late 1980s. Kilmer went on to star as Batman in 1995's Batman Forever, but sadly his A-list career wasn't to last forever.

Top Gun 2 could mark his first major blockbuster release since 2004's ill-fated Alexander.

Sadly, as Kilmer acknowledged in his Facebook post, the original director, Tony Scott, won't be part of the grand reunion. The brother of fellow director Ridley Scott committed suicide by jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California.