Director Joseph Kosinski has revealed Tom Cruise "really didn't want to make another 'Top Gun'" and he had just 30 minutes to change his mind.
The star reprised his role as pilot Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in Joseph's new action blockbuster 'Top Gun: Maverick' - but the moviemaker says the star wasn't keen on the idea at first and he had just half an hour to pitch it to him.
In a new interview with Polygon, Joseph said: "So I read the script, I had some ideas, and Jerry (Bruckheimer) liked those ideas. He said, 'You know what, you gotta go pitch this to Tom directly'."
The director flew to Paris, France to meet Tom on a movie set where he was shooting one of his 'Mission: Impossible' films and was given a 30-minute window to convince the actor to return to 'Top Gun'.
He had a challenge on his hands because he found Tom wasn't impressed at first.
Joseph added: "We flew to Paris, where Tom was shooting 'Mission: Impossible', we got about a half hour of his time between setups.
"And I basically had 30 minutes to pitch this film, which I didn't realise when we were flying over. But when I got there, I found that Tom really didn't want to make another 'Top Gun.'
"It's one of those moments as a director, you have one on every film, where you're on the spot to make a case for why this movie should be made. I had 30 minutes to do it."
The pitch was successful and by the end of the meeting, Tom had told movie bosses he was happy to return to 'Top Gun'.
Joseph went on: "And at the end of the pitch, he picked up the phone, he called the head of Paramount Pictures and said, 'We're making another Top Gun.' It's pretty impressive to see the power of a real movie star in that moment."
The director added that he convinced Tom by explaining his idea for a "character-driven" film and insisting it wouldn't be called "Top Gun 2".
'Top Gun: Maverick' was released in May - 36 years after the 1986 original and it proved a huge hit with cinema-goer by giving Tom his first ever $100 million opening weekend at the US box office.
