He will only spend a few hours at the Cannes Film Festival. American star Tom Cruise will be on the red carpet on Wednesday, May 18 in the early afternoon. Already mobilized for the promotion in the United Kingdom of Top Gun Maverick on May 17, he will arrive in the evening in the south of France. He will not stay in Cannes, nor in a hotel nor in a villa in the surroundings. Does this mean that he will land near the Palais des Festivals in a helicopter that he will pilot himself, as he did on May 5 in San Diego for the preview of the film? Paramount, studio producer and distributor of Top Gun Maverick, maintains the suspense.

Thirty years after his arrival in 1992 to present Distant Horizons, Tom Cruise should participate in a photo session (photocall) before answering questions from journalist Didier Allouch for a master class filmed in the Palais des festivals, with the public. The actor will then walk the red carpet and climb the steps under the eyes of the fans and the flashes of the photographers with the team of the feature film. Top Gun Maverick is presented out of competition. He normally plans to stay during the screening, as he wants to see the reaction of the festival-goers to the emotional sequences and the breathtaking airplane stunts of the film which we have already had the privilege of seeing.

This implies that he will not be able to grant an interview either to France Télévisions, or to Europe 1, the film’s media partner, or to the many media that have made a request. A blow for the public audiovisual group which is the Festival’s media partner for the first time. Anne-Sophie Lapix ideally hoped to record a face-to-face interview in order to broadcast it in the 8 p.m. newspaper of France 2 scheduled for the Croisette. In July 2018, in the 8 p.m. news from France 2, a particularly relaxed Cruise gave an interview to journalist Jean-Baptiste Marteau, on the Eiffel Tower, on the occasion of the release of Mission Impossible 6. On the red carpet , Tom Cruise should on the other hand answer a few questions from the three duly accredited media partners of the event: France Télévisions, Brut and TikTok.

To date, M6 is the only French media to enjoy an exclusive interview with the Hollywood heavyweight, conducted in Los Angeles at the beginning of May, as part of a documentary broadcast on the channel on May 19. Top Gun Maverick will be released in French theaters on May 25.

Read this week on the Point website, our special series Top Gun Maverick.