In 2013 Warner Bros. announced the live-action adaptation of Yukikaze with Tom Cruise as the lead character but the movie never came out.
In the early and mid-2000s, Mission Impossible actor Tom Cruise got hitched to the sci-fi genre, and he decided to work on multiple sci-fi projects that went on to become some of his greatest movies. Be it Oblivion, War of the Worlds, or Edge of Tomorrow, Cruise was making his way to become one of the greatest sci-fi of all time.
Among these projects, there was one other movie lined up for him that never saw the light of day. This movie was a modified live-action adaptation of Yukikaze by Chohei Kambayashi, which many believed could have been the futuristic Top Gun, as it revolved around a similar premise.
It has been more than ten years since the movie was announced, and there have been no reports about what happened with it. While some fans still hope that the busy actor might take some time off his schedule and work on it, others have lost all hope of seeing the Maverick flying a fighter jet once again.
Yukikaze Would Have Been Perfect For Tom Cruise
Yukikaze is one of the most underrated anime and manga series of all time. The series was first released in 1984, but it earned so much recognition that it got multiple sequels, spin-offs, and a five-video original video adaptation. The reason for its success was the sci-fi theme it was based on.
Yukikaze follows the story of Rei Fukai, who is 2nd Lieutenant in the FAF’s Special Air Force and the pilot of the B-503 Yukikaze. He and many other fighters from Earth are fighting a war against an alien colony called JAM. They invaded Earth but somehow were pushed back to their own planet, where the real battle was going on, with Rei being at the center of it.
It was the perfect project for Tom Cruise, considering his love for sci-fi and fighter jets at the time. He already earned a lot of fame through Top Gun, and Yukikaze’s live-action adaptation would have only enhanced it even further. It would have been a mixture of Cruise’s Top Gun charm with the thrill of his widely prominent sci-fi movies.
What Happened To Yukikaze’s Live-Action Adaptation?
In 2013, when Cruise’s Oblivion was about to be released, The Hollywood Reporter brought an exclusive that the Mission Impossible actor had signed yet another sci-fi project that would be the live-action adaptation of Kambayashi’s Yukikaze, and he would most likely play the role of Rei Fukai.
Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Yukikaze, and it was being produced by Erwin Stoff and Tom Lassally. However, as Cruise was busy with Oblivion and his next project, Edge of Tomorrow, no production or release date was confirmed by the studio. Cruise went on to become even more popular among the fans with his other projects, while the story of Yukikaze remained within the realms of the manga and anime community.
And now, it has been ten years since the movie was announced. There has been no update about the live-action adaptation from the studio and actor’s side. Although the hopes of the movie eventually died down, fans would have once again loved to see Cruise in a fighter jet as he battles through aliens on their own planet.