Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick release date postponed

The Fast and Furious actor Tom Cruise on Friday announced that the release of his much-awaited flick Top Gun Maverick has been pushed from June to December 2020.

Los Angeles: Hollywood star Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick, the much-anticipated sequel of the 1986 hit Top Gun, will now release on December 23 instead of the original release date June 24.

According to news reports, Top Gun: Maverick is the latest movie to be pushed amid the spread of the coronavirus.

Announcing the news on Twitter on Friday, Cruise wrote: "I know many of you have waited 34 years. Unfortunately, it will be a little longer. Top Gun: Maverick will fly this December. Stay safe, everyone."

Released in 1986, Top Gun was apparently inspired by a magazine article on Navy pilots. The film followed the life of a fighter pilot and launched Cruise's career as a global action star. The sequel picks up decades after the 1986 box-office hit. It also features Miles Teller as the son of Goose, Maverick's partner who died in the original film. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the movie will be exclusively distributed in India by Viacom18 Studios.

As part of the release shake-up, Paramount has also moved A Quiet Place Part II to September 4, 2020. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, an animated adventure based on the absorbent underwater fry cook, was originally slated to hit theaters on May 22 and will now bow July 31, 2020. Meanwhile, sci-fi fantasy film The Tomorrow War, previously scheduled for December 25, 2020, is now undated.

The films join a growing list of tentpoles that were pulled from release because of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent closure of multiplexes. Sony also delayed most of its summer slate, including Morbius and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Disney postponed Black Widow and Mulan while Warner Bros. reshuffled Wonder Woman 1984 and In the Heights and Universal halted Minions: The Rise of Gru and Fast & Furious entry F9.

With inputs from IANS.