A Hollywood film writer has been meeting with some NASCAR teams and drivers to help develop a plot for a \u201cDays of Thunder\u201d sequel, according to people familiar with the matter, in one of the most tangible signs yet the film is being seriously pursued.<\/p>\n
Released in 1990, the original film was about fictional race car driver Cole Trickle, played by Tom Cruise, and his trials and tribulations when he makes it to NASCAR. The movie was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films and distributed by Paramount Pictures, and it featured real-life NASCAR personalities such as Richard Petty.<\/p>\n
In recent years, reports have emerged and comments have been made by Cruise and Bruckheimer indicating a sequel is in the works. No official announcement has been made, and NASCAR has been reticent to comment other than confirming that it would be delighted to see a sequel happen.<\/p>\n
However, four people familiar with the matter said a Hollywood writer has been at recent races, including the Phoenix championship in November and the Daytona 500 last month. Two people identified the writer as Will Staples, who has contributed to the movie \u201cWithout Remorse,\u201d along with \u201cThe Right Stuff\u201d movie and the \u201cCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3\u201d video game, according to his IMDb listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n An account on the social media site X under Staples\u2019 name that links to his IMDb page follows several accounts related to NASCAR<\/a>, according to a review by SBJ. Staples also visited some team race shops near Charlotte, one of the people said. NASCAR and Paramount declined to comment. Not all teams and drivers have met with Staples, sources said. Staples\u2019 involvement had not been previously reported.<\/p>\n Thunder strikes twice? <\/p>\n The original \u201cDays of Thunder\u201d film grossed $157.9M worldwide on a $60M budget, including $82.7M in the U.S. and Canada, according to IMDb (the figures are not adjusted for inflation). Other leading actors in the film included the late Robert Duvall, who played the role of Trickle\u2019s crew chief in the film; Nicole Kidman; and Randy Quaid. According to the American Film Institute, the end credits of the movie thanked NASCAR, its then-president Bill France Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports for participating, underscoring how the real-life sanctioning body and some of its stakeholders helped make it more realistic. Scenes were shot at Bristol, Rockingham, Darlington and Charlotte, according to AFI records.<\/p>\n In the summer of 2023, entertainment news website Giant Freakin Robot reported a sequel was being pursued<\/a>. The Hollywood Reporter followed up in late 2024, confirming through its sources that Cruise was talking to Paramount about the idea<\/a>. SBJ then asked NASCAR President Steve O\u2019Donnell about the prospect, with O\u2019Donnell (who was COO at the time) saying: \u201cWe\u2019d love to see that.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Both in fiction and non-fiction form, racing films are popular right now. Examples include the \u201cDrive to Survive\u201d docuseries on Netflix and \u201cF1 The Movie,\u201d which Bruckheimer produced, grossed over $630M at the box office last year and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. A sequel to \u201cF1\u2033 is also in the works, Bruckheimer and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton have said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hollywood film writer has been meeting with some NASCAR teams and drivers to help develop a plot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,75,12716,634,98029,82],"class_list":["post-531808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-paramount-network","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}