Brian Robbins, the new President and CEO of Paramount Pictures, insists that Paramount is the studio to beat when it comes to upcoming film releases.
"By far, we have one of the strongest slates of anyone rolling out in the next 12 to 24 months," Robbins wrote in an email obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. "And I'm looking forward to discussing how we're going to maximize its impact and keep building for the future." An insider added that all of the movies on the Paramount slate "are meant to be seen on the big screen" and noted that Robbins is "determined to make sure people experience them that way."
Among the movies currently planned to be released under the Paramount banner are the next installments in the Mission: Impossible, Jackass, Transformers, A Quiet Place and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchises, as well as the long-delayed Top Gun: Maverick, which is currently scheduled to bow in May of next year.
Other films currently in development at Paramount include The Lost City of D, starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Brad Pitt; Damien Chazelle's Pitt and Margot Robbie-starring drama Babylon; and an untitled movie for late 2023 starring Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski. Additionally, the studio is on track to make J.J. Abrams' latest installment in the rebooted Star Trek film franchise for 2023, as well as the Dungeons and Dragons and Secret Headquarters films.
In related news, Paramount recently found itself in the middle of a lawsuit over an insurance dispute connected to production on M:I 7 being delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Specifically, Paramount filed a lawsuit in federal court in California in later August, in which it claimed that Federal Insurance Company was responsible to cover the studio for any losses that the studio suffered from the unavailability of any "covered person." Paramount further alleged that Federal only paid $5 million of the $100 million insurance policy the studio took out for that shutdown.
On a more positive note, things look to be moving forward in regard to the long-awaited release of the Top Gun sequel. In fact, it was confirmed in August that Top Gun: Maverick cast real-life pilots who were inspired to start flying because of the first film as extras in the upcoming sequel. "They were coming up to us and telling us that the first Top Gun film inspired them to join the Navy and the Air Force," Jack Kilmer, son of "Iceman" actor Val Kilmer, said at the time. "Then we had these big F-bomb planes flying overhead. It was like one of the proudest moments of being American that you could think of really."
Top Gun: Maverick is set for release on May 27, 2022.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter