Peter Bart: It’s Back To The Future For The Box Office If ‘Top Gun’ Sequel Hits Stratosphere

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“Funny Pages,” a scruffy, grungy, likably tossed-together sketchbook of a low-budget indie comedy, typifies a paradox that now runs through a great deal of independent cinema. The movie, set in a humdrum New Jersey suburbia, unfolds on the moldy bottom rung of the comic-book ladder. It centers on two friends who are obsessed with drawing their own comics, and it’s about the insular world of geeks and creeps and pervs and weirdos that this brings them into contact with.Robert (Daniel Zolghadri), at 17, has left the posh home of his parents in Princeton and set up residence in downscale Trenton, where he hangs out at the local comic-book store along with his friend, the sweetly passive, long-haired, acne-ridden Miles (Miles Emanuel), who has a secret crush on him.

The family of the author whose article inspired the 1986 Tom Cruise movie “Top Gun” on Monday sued Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement over this year’s blockbuster sequel “Top Gun: Maverick”.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe comedy pilot “Belated” from creator Peter Tolan and starring Kal Penn is not moving forward at FX, Variety has learned exclusively from sources.The half-hour series was meant to follow an unexpected intergenerational friendship between Sachin (Penn), a recently out man in his 40s, and Clay (Kaden Kearney), a 17-year-old trans teen, as Sachin and his ex-wife and children attempt to find their new normal. Along with Penn and Kearney, the pilot starred Ellie Taylor, Amir Bageria, and EaeMya ThynGi.FX did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.Tolan wrote, directed, and executive produced the “Belated” pilot. Nick Alford of Cloudland also executive produced.

Val Kilmer reprises his role as Iceman in the new movie Top Gun: Maverick and his voice in the film was created using A.I. technology.

It was an intimate cocktail party. Tom Cruise wore a cheerful smile so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to test it. “For someone who’s just been fired, you look very happy,” I said. “Sumner Redstone figured you would be angry by the press release.”

Top Gun who was a rival to Tom Cruise’s “Maverick. " While its sequel Top Gun: Maverick has the return of Tom Cruise, a Top Gun movie would be nothing without “Iceman. ” After begging for a role in Top Gun: Maverick, Val Kilmer's wish came true.

Glen Powell and Greg Tarzan Davis are hard at work on their Top Gun: Maverick press tour!

The stars of Top Gun: Maverick stepped out in N.Y. and L.A. to support the film at influencer screenings on both coasts!

Val Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, is reflecting on her experience witnessing her father lay down scenes on the set of "Top Gun: Maverick." The 30-year-old actress recalled being present when Kilmer, 62, made his anticipated cameo in the upcoming Tom Cruise flick as Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, the arch-nemesis of Cruise’s Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. According to the New York Post, both stars appear together in a scene, reuniting the pair in which Iceman and Maverick Mitchell come face-to-face and each deliver heartwarming performances that marked a culmination for the film franchise.

EXCLUSIVE: Marking her first feature since she won a Best Actress Oscar for The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, Jessica Chastain and Dopesick and The Batman star Peter Sarsgaard have just wrapped on Michel Franco’s (New Order) new film, which we can reveal is called Memory.

NEW YORK -- In 1983, producer Jerry Bruckheimer was flipping through the May issue of California magazine when he was struck by a story. “Top Guns” read the headline, with a large photograph from inside the cockpit of an F-14 fighter jet. The story opened: “At Mach 2 and 40,000 feet over California, it’s always high noon.”“I saw that cover and I said, ‘We gotta do this.

LOS ANGELES -- Doctor Strange and his multiverse got to linger a little longer atop the weekend box office as Tom Cruise and “Top Gun” wait in the wings.Marvel's “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was the top-earning film of the weekend for the third straight week, bringing in $31.6 million in 4,534 North American theaters, according to studio estimates released Sunday.“Downtown Abbey: A New Era” made a strong opening showing for Focus Features with $16 million from 3,820 theaters, but there was no real blockbuster competition for “Doctor Strange."That will change with the long awaited, and long delayed, release of “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel that arrives next week on Memorial Day weekend, 36 years after the original smash hit and cultural landmark.It flies in amid sky-high hype.Cruise had the film festival in Cannes, France, abuzz on Wednesday with a whirlwind appearance for the film's European premiere that included a fly over of French fighter jets and an honorary Palme d’Or award.But while the world waits, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” crossed the $800 million mark in global grosses, surpassing “The Batman” to become the top-grossing film of the year.Released by the Walt Disney Co. and directed by Sam Raimi, “ Doctor Strange 2 ” benefitted from being the first Marvel movie to follow “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” in which Benedict Cumberbatch’s sorcerer played a pivotal role.It also builds upon the popular Disney+ series “Wandavision” and contains a number of cameos that fans didn’t want to be spoiled.Holdover family films “The Bad Guys” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” took the third and fourth spots.

Channing Tatum will produce and star in a film adaptation of his children’s book The One and Only Sparkella, Deadline can confirm.

Channing Tatum is turning his children’s book “The One and Only Sparkella” into a feature film.Tatum will star in the live-action movie, which is set at MGM and does not have a title yet. Per the official logline, the story will “take on the magic of Sparkella that sees a father and his daughter fall headlong into the infinitely surprising world of her imagination.” There’s no word on who will play Tatum’s character’s daughter, a little girl who loves all things glitter.Tatum’s book “The One and Only Sparkella,” a charming ode to self-esteem and father-daughter love, was released in May 2021 and debuted at No.