Chapter 295: Superstar, Scientologist, or Adrenalinist?

Setting aside their stares, how sharp were the ears of these people?

Alexander could attest that he was just speaking in normal volumes, why did it feel like everyone in this high-ceiling-ed hangar could hear it all?

Fortunately, the cameras were truly going to record the next minute and these people would have something that they would be preoccupied with.

Of course, as his production visitation time passed, their curiosity did wear off. In a way, everyone eventually got used to who the visiting grandchild truly is and what his achievements truly are.

It only took a day or two but Alexander had to do a Q&A of sorts with all the curious people.

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Of course, as he mingled and talked around, he himself did get the general idea of this new timeline's Top Gun production.

The most obvious change is that Old Sullivan is the sole producer with no producer accompaniment like how Curious Bob had been.

This was an important distinction because Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson seem to have no part in all of this.

Convincing these two should have been harder to circumvent compared to Innovative Rob and Curious Bob.

Alexander left that kind of thing for his grandfather to settle.

Since the old man settled the BttF duo, the old man should be able to do it again with the Top Gun duo.

With the way things are now, clearly, they weren't needed or they were dismissed entirely.

These two were a production house and being able to kick them out was quite good in Alexander's opinion.

From how Alexander saw it, Bruckheimer and Simpson seem like the kind of people that would just clash against his grandfather. A strong personality and strong Hollywood pull is the practically the reason why Spielberg wasn't able to be a part of Creed Pictures' BttF.

Anyways, a power struggle would be counterproductive for filmmaking, especially with Don Simpson that is rumored to be brash with a heavy drug problem.

This also meant that his picture book really did win out against that TOPGUN California Magazine idea that this producer duo had been parading around Hollywood ever since 1983.

Of course, this also presents some complications but it seems to have been solved.

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Another noteworthy thing to point out in this new Top Gun is the fact that Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is still good ol' Tom Cruise.

Bruckheimer and Simpson had to fly this man on the jet to convince him... but it seems that old Sullivan didn't need to do that.

Alexander even thought that there would be a new actor that would fill Tom's slot. This was why he made his picture book drawing a bit vague on who 'Maverick' would look like.

Any other actor with the reckless Maverick disposition could work. It is not necessarily just confined to Tom Cruise.

If that happened, it was quite curious how Tom will rise to the elite superstar status that he had. After all, there's no denying that Top Gun made Tom into who he would be.

Maybe Rain Man was his next chance but that Oscar movie wouldn't have been so popular if he wasn't that Tom from Top Gun.

Well, as if drawn by fate, not-yet-a-superstar Tom Cruise actually auditioned for the part and beat everyone else during casting.

That was good. Instead of the groveling that Bruckheimer and Simpson did, Creed just did things normally.

Professional partnership seems better than letting another person know that he's being put on a pedestal.

Egos wouldn't be inflated and further cooperation would have less hassle when re-established.

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In fact, Tom Cruise seems to be the one who wanted to initiate the partnership himself. "If you don't mind me asking... what exactly is your next movie plan, Alexander?"

"We still have a stockpile of Back to the Future sequels so any new production after this would take a while." Alexander answered. This was the truth since the post-production-ed BttF II and III had given them a chance to be laid back.

"If you are really producing a new one, is it going to be about science fiction or as adrenaline-filled as this 'Top Gun' one?" Tom asked. He did more research on this talented boy before him and his story-making abilities were a lot. How could he miss out on this chance to get acquainted with such a talent?

"Well, when we consider making something like RoboCop into a film, I'll be sure to have my grandpa call you." Alexander gave a tentative but the science fiction and adrenaline-filled request did make him think. Yeah... it kind of made sense for THAT Tom Cruise to ask about these specific ones. Not that scientology is really about sci-fi... but the founder has its roots with it.

"Nice!" Tom even had a fiver ready and Alexander just matched it.

This was unexpected, he actually didn't expect that he'd be in friendly interactions with Tom. Then again, this re-life made him a lot of unexpected acquaintances, mostly stars and Hollywood personalities.

"By the way, why did your grandfather ask me to show you around?" Tom was curious. They were in a filming break but why is he singled out?

"You're a cautionary tale that would teach me a lesson." Alexander surmised. Scientology and an adrenaline-filled movie with a lot of stunt action was Tom's thing and that was a cautionary tale indeed.

"Erm... cautionary tale?" Tom didn't know he was setting a bad example.

"Well, it is most obvious that you're the one that likes riding the multi-G jet planes a lot." Alexander stated the thing that was obvious to everybody. After all, Tom Cruise fell in love with F-14s as soon as he took over this role.

"Well, if I wasn't some actor, my career would most probably be about this." Tom answered. "How is that a cautionary tale though?"

"Don't take it to heart. I made the Top Gun story because I admitted to the old man about wanting this kind of jet-piloting career." Alexander's true reason was just simple plundering but this was his "admitted reason" so he had to go with this story. "My grandpa didn't like that and he may have figured that someone like you could help persuade me even further away from it."

"So that's why he asked me to retrace and tell you all about the intense training we had to go through." Tom got it now. "Well, I really like flying jets too but the training sessions are something else."

"We had to wake up very early to learn a lot of flying maneuvers and tactics. We had to go to pressurize room to simulate what it's like up there. We had to sit down on chairs and pull levers to abort. We even had to "crash" into pools to train us how to react in the event that we do crash." Tom recounted it as such. "We even had to ride jets in person but I have to admit that a lot of us had to throw up a lot. You can include me in that."

Clearly, being an actor wasn't so easy. Still, they had high salaries that made it hard to pity them.

Of course, Alexander had seen Top Gun documentaries that re-told about all this training that the actors had to go through.

It was just more interesting to see all of it in person. Base Miramar was a real-deal TOPGUN area and their facilities here really opened his eyes up to what the military truly is.

In any case, Tom Cruise seems to be in his element here. He was even re-counting their training quite fondly so his enthusiasm was perfect for showing Alexander around.

He was so in-element that he wasn't really fitting to convince a kid to not be a naval aviator. The man was so enthusiastic that he could probably convince people to go for it instead.

While they were doing this unsuccessful 'convincing", Alexander was kind of juggling around what to call him.

Aside from Superstar Tom which is yet to happen, Scientologist Tom and Adrenalinist Tom were the top contenders.

Well, Tom wasn't a Scientologist as of yet, so maybe budding Adrenalinist would be fitting.

Or maybe Alexander will just interchange them from time to time.