Daily Archives: December 7, 2011

‘I hope we can figure this out to go do it again,’ Cruise tells MTV News.
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Tom Cruise


Photo: MTV News

“We’re working on it.”

That’s the official word on “Top Gun 2,” straight from the star himself, Tom Cruise, who spoke with MTV News’ Josh Horowitz during an event in Dubai for

In the fourth “M:I” movie, Cruise returns as castoff secret agent Ethan Hunt — the only character he has ever revisited during his decades-long career. The question remains: Will he ever don the Navy jumpsuit again and hop into a cockpit as Maverick?

A little more than a year ago, the Internet went abuzz with rumors about Cruise, director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer reuniting for a potential “Top Gun” sequel. Scott confirmed he would be directing, but Cruise’s involvement remained a mystery.

When Christopher McQuarrie, the writer of “The Usual Suspects” and the man hired to pen the script for “Top Gun 2,” said Maverick would be the lead for the follow-up, all engines seemed go. But then things went quiet. As the major players moved on to other projects — including “One Shot,” directed by McQuarrie and starring Cruise — sequel talk died down.

When Horowitz sat down with Cruise in Dubai, the actor updated the project’s status and shed new light on the script. “I don’t think Chris [McQuarrie] is going to write it,” Cruise said. “Chris is directing ‘One Shot’ right now, which I’m acting. We’ve got to go back in January and finish it.”

With McQuarrie out, that leaves Cruise, Scott and Bruckheimer as the only major players left with the project, but Cruise insists he could still do a sequel.

“I said to Tony I want to make another movie with him. He and I haven’t made a film since ‘Days of Thunder,’ ” Cruise said. “Tony and I and Jerry, we never thought that we would do it again. Then they started to come to us with these ideas of where it is now. I thought, ‘Wow, that would be … what we could do now.’ ”

For Cruise, the two key elements to a sequel would be a worthy script and the freedom to make the movie as they did in 1986. “I hope we can figure this out to go do it again,” he said. “If we can find a story that we all want to do, we all want to make a film that is in the same kind of tone as the other one and shoot it in the same way as we shot ‘Top Gun.’ ”

Check out everything we’ve got on “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.”

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Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga already booked for the show.
By Gil Kaufman

Nicki Minaj


Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Nicki Minaj, Florence + the Machine and LMFAO will be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The acts are the latest additions to the star-studded lineup for the 40th annual “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve”
 extravaganza. They join a lineup that already boasts Justin Bieber and : Lady Gaga.

The show, which will be anchored by “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, with help from Fergie in Los Angeles and Jenny McCarthy in New York and will air live from 8 p.m. until after midnight on December 31. The Los Angeles portion of the show has added Taio Cruz, Minaj, Florence, Gym Class Heroes, Blink-182, OneRepublic, the Band Perry, will.i.am. and Christina Perri. Gaga, Bieber, Pitbull and Hot Chelle Rae will be on hand for the New York portion of the show.

The performance will help cap a busy holiday season for Bieber, whose first-ever holiday album, Under the Mistletoe, crept back into the top three this week on the Billboard 200 album charts as it steams its way toward 700,000 sold.

Gaga will also cap a wild end to a big year, which has recently included her own Thanksgiving TV special, a visit to the White House on Tuesday
 to discuss her anti-bullying campaign and a trio of Grammy nominations“Grammy Nominations Concert Live!!”
 show.

“Well, Album of the Year
 and Pop [Vocal] Album … both mean a lot to me,” she told MTV News after the nominations were announced. “I mean, they all three do. I’m 25! Four years ago, I was dancing on the bar, so [I'm] pretty happy to be here.”

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Justin Bieber, Adele make gains in slow week.
By Gil Kaufman

Michael Bublé’s <i>Christmas</i>


Photo: Reprise

Michael Bublé looks poised to run the board for the next few weeks as his Christmas album will hold on to the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a second week thanks to sales of 293,000. During a cycle when most of the top 20 saw steep double-digit sales dips, smooth crooner Bublé’s ode to the holiday season was up 29 percent as it passed the 1 million mark, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

Meanwhile, Adele‘s Grammy-nominated 21 is up slightly as it climbs five spots to #2 on sales of 144,000, further padding her league-leading totals (4.8 million) to date this year. Justin Bieber‘s Under the Mistletoe is also up, moving three spots to #3, even as sales dipped by 11 percent to 133,000.

The rest of the top 10: Drake, Take Care (#4, 90,000, down 48 percent), Nickelback, Here and Now (#5, 78,000, down 68 percent), Mary J. Blige, My Life II … The Journey Continues (#6, 72,000, down 54 percent), Rihanna, Talk That Talk (#7, down 66 percent), Andrea Bocelli, Concerto: One Night in Central Park (#8, 61,000), NOW 40 (#9) and Lady Antebellum, Own the Night (#10, 48,000).

With some former top 10 dwellers falling out of the upper echelon (Coldplay, Daughtry), a flood of Christmas albums creeps up the ranks, including “America’s Got Talent” winner Jackie Evancho’s Heavenly Christmas (up 17 spots to #15, 37,000), Bocelli’s My Christmas (up 33 to #17, 35,000) and perennial faves Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas Symphony (up 51 to #17, 35,00).

Among the only new faces are Trey Songz, whose Inevitable comes in at #23 (27,000) and pop rockers Hot Chelle Rae, who sneak into the top 50 at #48 with their second album, Whatever (18,000).

Bublé keeps his winning streak going on the iTunes albums chart, holding on to the #1 spot, with Drake, Adele, Rihanna, Coldplay and Bieber right behind. Rounding out the top 10 are Nickelback, the Killers‘ (RED) Christmas charity EP, She & Him‘s A Very She & Him Christmas and the “Glee” cast’s Glee: The Music, the Christmas Album, Vol. 2.

On the iTunes singles chart, Bruno Mars holds it down for the #1 “Twilight” movie franchise with his song from the “Breaking Dawn” soundtrack, “It Will Rain,” which keeps Rihanna’s “We Found Love” out of the top spot. Just behind are LMFAO with “Sexy and I Know It,” Flo Rida‘s “Good Feeling,” Kanye West and Jay-Z‘s “N—as in Paris,” Maroon 5‘s “Moves Like Jagger,” T-Pain‘s “5 O’Clock,” Katy Perry‘s “The One That Got Away,” Adele’s “Someone Like You” and David Guetta‘s “Without You.”

Bublé may lose his spot for a bit next week when he faces competition from the Black Keys’ El Camino, as well as new albums from the Roots, Robin Thicke, T-Pain and a posthumous collection from Amy Winehouse .

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Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga already booked for the show.
By Gil Kaufman

Nicki Minaj


Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Nicki Minaj, Florence + the Machine and LMFAO will be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The acts are the latest additions to the star-studded lineup for the 40th annual “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve”
 extravaganza. They join a lineup that already boasts Justin Bieber and : Lady Gaga.

The show, which will be anchored by “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, with help from Fergie in Los Angeles and Jenny McCarthy in New York and will air live from 8 p.m. until after midnight on December 31. The Los Angeles portion of the show has added Taio Cruz, Minaj, Florence, Gym Class Heroes, Blink-182, OneRepublic, the Band Perry, will.i.am. and Christina Perri. Gaga, Bieber, Pitbull and Hot Chelle Rae will be on hand for the New York portion of the show.

The performance will help cap a busy holiday season for Bieber, whose first-ever holiday album, Under the Mistletoe, crept back into the top three this week on the Billboard 200 album charts as it steams its way toward 700,000 sold.

Gaga will also cap a wild end to a big year, which has recently included her own Thanksgiving TV special, a visit to the White House on Tuesday
 to discuss her anti-bullying campaign and a trio of Grammy nominations“Grammy Nominations Concert Live!!”
 show.

“Well, Album of the Year
 and Pop [Vocal] Album … both mean a lot to me,” she told MTV News after the nominations were announced. “I mean, they all three do. I’m 25! Four years ago, I was dancing on the bar, so [I'm] pretty happy to be here.”

Related Videos

• MTV First: Lady Gaga
• MTV First: Justin Bieber

Related Artists

• Nicki Minaj
• Florence + the Machine
• Lmfao

Continue reading →