‘Top Gun 2’ Lands ‘Jungle Book’ Writer (Exclusive)

Justin Marks, the writer behind Disney’s upcoming live-action version of The Jungle Book, in negotiations to work on Top Gun 2, the sequel to the 1980s Tom Cruise classic that is being made by Paramount and Skydance.

The move will goose up the long-in-the-works sequel and comes after the recent Paramount arrival of producer Jerry Bruckheimer. After years with a studio deal at Disney, Bruckheimer moved to the Melrose Avenue-based studio lot in April.

David Ellison of Skydance is also producing. Skydance’s Dana Goldberg is exec producing alongside Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

Cruise is slated to return as ace pilot Maverick in a story that aims to show the relevance of good old fashioned pilots in today’s high-tech, drone-centric war environment.

Peter Craig, the scribe who wrote Ben Affleck’s The Town, wrote the previous draft a couple of years ago. The project lost some jet fuel when Tony Scott, the director of the 1986 original and who was to direct the sequel, committed suicide in 2012.

Marks’s script for Jungle Book attracted Jon Favreau and the movie is now in production with Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and Idris Elba among the actors doing the voicework.

Marks previously worked with Bruckheimer when he was hired to write War Dogs, a project centered around military canines that the producer was developing for Disney.

The writer, who is also adapting the Vertigo comic Federal Bureau of Physics for Warner Bros., is repped by CAA, Madhouse Entertainment and Lichter Grossman.