Tom Cruise received an honourary Palme d'Or and gushed about his passion for cinema as he made his first visit in 30 years to the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday for the launch of Top Gun: Maverick.
The French Air Force display team streaked across the sky over the red carpet as the stars headed into the screening for the long-awaited sequel to Cruise's superstar-making 1986 blockbuster.
Cruise received his surprise honorary Palme as he entered the theatre for Wednesday's screening.
The movie was supposed to premiere at the French Riviera film fest back in 2020 before it was cancelled by the Covid pandemic and the film's release delayed multiple times.
Cruise was adamant it was worth waiting for cinemas to be back in full swing.
Asked if he had considered debuting Top Gun: Maverick on a streaming platform - as happened with several big productions in 2020 and 2021 - Cruise was emphatic: "That was not going to happen, ever."
"Look at us all together, we're all united, we all speak different languages, different cultures... but we're able to come together around a shared experience," he said of his love for movie theatres.
"Cinema is my love, my passion. I always go to movies when they come out. I'll put my cap on and sit in the audience with everyone. I've spent a lot of time with theatre owners."
Cruise has become an ambassador for cinemas - even sneaking into a screening of Christopher Nolan's Tenet at the height of the pandemic in summer 2020 in a bid to boost sales.
With Top Gun: Maverick out worldwide next week, and two Mission: Impossible sequels due in 2023 and 2024, Cruise hopes to play a key role in helping theatres recover from the ongoing slump triggered by the pandemic.
"I go to cinemas and there's people there who are serving the popcorn and running these theatres. I tell them: 'I know what you're going through, just know we're making Mission: Impossible, Top Gun is coming out..."
Source: AFP
