It’s no secret that Joseph Kosinski, the architect behind “Top Gun: Maverick”’s billion-dollar redemption arc, has become Hollywood’s go-to revivalist—capable of dusting off legacy IPs and injecting them with sleek, testosterone-fueled gravitas studios salivate over.
Now, it seems, Kosinski has his eye on another Tom Cruise vehicle in dire need of a turbocharged second life: “Days of Thunder.” But that’s not the entire story.
In a recent GQ interview, Kosinski casually dropped a nugget. When asked about pairing Cruise and Pitt together on screen again, Kosinski revealed his dream pitch: a crossover between “Days of Thunder” and the upcoming “F1” film starring Brad Pitt.
“Right now, it’d be Cole Trickle [Cruise’s Days of Thunder character],” Kosinski said. “We find out that he and Sonny Hayes [Pitt’s character in the F1 movie] have a past. They were rivals at some point, maybe crossed paths… I heard about this epic go-kart battle on Interview with the Vampire that Brad and Tom had, and who wouldn’t pay to see those two go head-to-head on the track?”
It’s not just blue-sky fantasizing. A “Days of Thunder” sequel is currently in development, with Cruise reportedly reprising Cole Trickle. Paramount, emboldened by the commercial and critical success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” sees “Days of Thunder”—often referred to as “Top Gun on wheels”—as ripe for the same nostalgic resurrection. Kosinski is said to be circling, or at the very least creatively engaged.
The idea of fusing this with Pitt’s “F1” project feels like both a savvy branding move and an actual cinematic event. It’s a “Legacy Sequel Extended Universe” play, but one grounded in real character lore—Trickle vs. Hayes, NASCAR vs. Formula 1, American grit vs. European finesse.
It helps that “F1” is currently tracking for a bug opening this weekend — anywhere between $40-$50M. If it’s a hit, then merging Pitt and Cruise together would make even more sense.
Brad Pitt, for his part, has said he’d work with Cruise again “as long as he doesn’t have to hang off an airplane.” With Kosinski at the helm, odds are Tom will be doing exactly that—except this time in a car going 230 mph.