'Top Gun 3’ script nearly ready: 'There's one last ride,' Jerry Bruckheimer shares a promising update

'Top Gun 3' continues to move forward, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer says the screenplay is close. After years of speculation about when the sequel would truly gain momentum, the latest comments suggest progress is steady. The creative team is now waiting for pages, with the project inching ahead as one of the studio’s top priorities following the record-breaking response to the last film.Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Bruckheimer was asked whether 'Top Gun 3' or 'Pirates of the Caribbean' 6 would reach the screen first. He gave a cautious but upbeat answer. “I think it's a horse race between the two of them, so we'll see. Right now, Top Gun is a hair ahead, but that's it. We're expecting a script shortly.” He also addressed chatter about the pirate franchise, adding, “They're close on part of it. That’s all I'll tell ya.”Tom Cruise is expected to return as Maverick, with Miles Teller back as Rooster and Glen Powell reprising Hangman. Other casting decisions remain unclear. Joseph Kosinski is attached to direct, though the deal is not final.Kosinski has offered hints about where the story goes. He said Maverick faces an existential crisis, one that pushes the character into new territory and raises the scale of the narrative. “I think we've found a way to do it, not only in the scale of what we're proposing, but the idea itself of the story we're telling,” he explained. “It's a really existential crisis that Maverick has in this, and it's much bigger than himself.”He continued, “Yeah, there's still more story to tell for him. There's one last ride. So we're working on it now. Ehren Kruger, who wrote 'F1: The Movie,' is writing the script. Like all things, it takes a while to work things out, and we'll only do it if we feel like we've got a strong enough story.” For now, the runway is clear. The film just needs its script to land.