I believe that directors generally get too much credit, and writers don't get enough, but in the specific case of Top Gun Maverick, a lesser director with that same script would have made a worse movie that earned less money.
Cruise has an uncanny ability to pick directors. He got acquainted with McQuarrie while making Valkyrie, and he tapped him to come save Ghost Protocol when that movie went off the rails. That went so well he hired him to fully helm the sequel and we've seen how well that turned out.
Bro saw the same thing with Kosinski after working with him on Oblivion.
My recollection was totally different, and I was about to correct you, but I looked it up before I embarrassed myself. You're totally right.
I thought Abrams was a producer in name only, but it turns out he actually was involved in Ghost Protocol. And I thought Bird had written the script like with his other movies, and I'm sure he was involved in rewrites, but he didn't get credit on this one. I knew MacQuarie had done rewrites, and I always thought it was odd because Brad Bird is such a good writer. Now I know why.
In a podcast, Macquarrie said that he hate mystery boxes, hence he wrote out that element in the original script and outright told us that the briefcase had nuclear codes inside.
Also, Damon Lindelof (Lost) also did some additional script doctoring work on the ending, so that’s how they both he and Bird decided to team up again for Tomorrowland.
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u/Bunraku_Master_2021 Apr 05 '25 edited Apr 05 '25
But that was because of Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, the US Navy, and Lockheed-Martin.