'Top Gun' being converted to 3-D, possible release date in 2012

By today’s franchise-baiting standards, the plot of Top Gun looks adorably simple in hindsight. Pilots with high self-esteem battle enemy MiGs, but they’re secretly fighting themselves, and also Kelly McGillis: In 1986, that was enough to make Top Gun the highest-grossing movie of the year. But as EW’s Christ Nashawaty pointed out in his recent review of the film’s 25th-anniversary DVD, Top Gun holds a troublesome place in movie history: Its adorably cheeseball squareness wound up setting the stage for the entire era of the modern Hollywood blockbuster, to the point that this summer’s Green Lantern basically felt like Top Gun with more digital effects and worse dialogue. Now, you can ponder the deeper societal implications of Maverick’s internal struggle with an entirely new dimension: According to a report in the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount is converting Top Gun into 3-D for a potential 2012 re-release.

The film is being converted by Legend3D, who screened a 3-D version of the “Danger Zone” sequence in Amsterdam over the weekend. Legend3D’s CEO told the Reporter that Paramount is “planning to release it in 3-D in early 2012.” (EW contacted Paramount’s reps but could not confirm any immediate plans for a 3-D release date. It’s what, if anything, the Top Gun 3D plans mean for the film’s oft-threatened sequel.) I guess if you’re trying to convert an older film into the 3-D format, Top Gun makes more sense than The Maltese Falcon. In light of declining ticket sales for 3-D this summer, it seems like a strange time for studios to be converting their libraries. But hey, it can’t be worse than Green Lantern.

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