For the past few years, Paramount Pictures has been selling off projects left and right as the studio struggles to compete with rivals like Disney and Warner Bros. But it’s clear Paramount isn’t willing to roll over and die just yet. Someone there thinks they have a hit on their hands, and like a scene from a movie, they’re hoping an old hero will soon fly in to save the day.

A new report says that streamers like Apple and Netflix recently tried to buy the long-in-the-works Tom Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick from the studio, but Paramount held its ground and refused to sell.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Netflix and Apple both inquired if Paramount Pictures would be willing to sell” Top Gun: Maverick, which is expected to be one of the biggest movies of…well, whatever year it ends up coming out. And considering Paramount’s recent trend of selling off its own assets, it seemed like a reasonable assumption that they’d be willing to unload the film to a streaming service for a huge fee. But the studio was resolute and refused to even consider any offers because of “the strength of the film’s perceived box office prospects,” meaning they’re pretty damn confident that this thing is going to be worth their while when it finally does hit theaters.

In addition to offloading movies like The Cloverfield Paradox to Netflix and selling the international rights for Annihilation, the studio has more recently sold the rights to Beverly Hills Cop 4, Coming 2 America, The United States vs. Billie Holliday, and The Tomorrow War – and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Basically, if the words “Transformers” or “Mission: Impossible” aren’t in your title and you have a movie slated on Paramount’s calendar, there’s a good chance it may not end up with the Paramount logo in front of it by the time it makes its way to audiences. But obviously the studio thinks Top Gun: Maverick – a film that is currently scheduled to arrive 35 years after the original – is worth hanging onto.

Right now, the film is supposed to hit theaters on July 2, 2021. But with tons of movies vacating the winter, spring, and summer months over the past 24 hours and shifting into fall 2021 and beyond, it seems unlikely that Tom Cruise’s Maverick will be taking to the skies at all this summer.

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