A few days before the Oscars ceremony, where “Top Gun: Maverick” is nominated six times, its director Joseph Kosinski insists: it is not an action film!
Top Gun: Maverick will be celebrating at the 95th Academy Awards with six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Visual Effects.
As the Hollywood high mass is fast approaching (it will be on the night of Sunday to Monday), director Joseph Kosinski took the floor to say what, in his opinion, the film carried by Tom Cruise really was.
Questioned by the Vulture siteJoseph Kosinski proclaims it loud and clear: even if Top Gun: Maverick was sold as an action film and that he obtained awards congratulating him in this sense, this is not the case in his eyes!
“I maintain that the film is still for me what was the original intention, which is a moving, relatable story about one man’s rite of passage in later life”says the filmmaker.
“I always said that the first Top Gun was a drama wrapped in an action movie”continues Kosinski. “That’s why when I heard we won awards like Best Action Movie and Best Stunt (respectively at the Saturn Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, editor’s note), I asked myself: “Would I describe Maverick like that?” Did I think I was making an action movie while shooting it?
No. The drama was always front and center. The execution of the aerial sequences was in support of the drama.”
For Joseph Kosinski, the dramatic aspect and the grand spectacle aspect are intimately linked. “For each action scene, we tell a story, we move the narrative forward, we learn something about the state of mind of the character”he analyzes. “We tried to do that, not just for all the scenes, but for every filmed moment of all the scenes.”
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“So, of course, it’s for the action that people first come to see the film, but it’s the emotion that made them see it again two, three or four times. (…) C “It’s the emotion that brings people back to see the film in theaters. It’s, I think, the key to the greatest hits,” continues the 48-year-old American.
And Kosinski concludes by drawing a parallel with another huge recent success at the global box office: “I don’t know if you’ve seen Avatar 2but for me, with this film, there is a part of the spectacle but also a real emotion behind that won me over.
So emotion is key, but you also have to do something that audiences expect on the big screen to fully experience it.”
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