Credit…Paramount/Everett Collection
LOS ANGELES — Tony Scott is gone, but his blockbuster film “Top Gun” may yet provide him with one of his bigger movie moments.
Since Mr. Scott committed suicide on Aug. 19, executives at Paramount Pictures have been quietly debating what to do with a 3-D version of “Top Gun,” the 1986 film that was directed by Mr. Scott and featured Tom Cruise as the Navy fighter pilot Maverick, a role that made him an international superstar.
Completed earlier this year by Legend3D, which specializes in converting conventional 2-D film, the three-dimensional “Top Gun” had been seen as a way to whet the world’s appetite for a sequel that was being planned by Mr. Scott, Mr. Cruise and the producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
But now the sequel has fallen apart. And Paramount and its partners are left with a 3-D film that might be perceived by moviegoers as a tribute to a director whose death remains a mystery to many friends and associates. It might also become a final box-office triumph — but only if the studio can reach the audience without seeming insensitive or exploitative.
Paramount spotted the enormous potential in the conversion of older films when it joined in the release this year of a 3-D version of “Titanic,” with help from the film’s director, James Cameron, and the Stereo D company. Though familiar from endless showings in theaters and home-video formats since its debut in 1997, “Titanic” in its 3-D format had about $342 million in ticket sales around the world, with a conversion cost of only about $18 million.
The response was driven partly by a powerful reception in China, where the film opened to $67 million in first-weekend business from a pool of 3-D capable screens that is still growing.
With its dizzying aerial action, motorcycle moments and those deeply rippled abs in the volleyball sequence, “Top Gun” — which had about $354 million in worldwide ticket sales, split evenly between domestic and international — seemed a natural candidate for conversion, especially with the potential for a sequel.
Legend3D, which counts “Hugo” and “Alice in Wonderland” among its projects, undertook the work as part of an expansion aimed at strengthening ties with the major studios and extending the company’s reach in Asia and Europe.
Mr. Scott contributed and responded enthusiastically to the conversion in the weeks before his death, according to people who were briefed on the project but were not authorized to speak publicly because Paramount has not finalized a plan.
Representatives of Paramount, Legend3D and Mr. Bruckheimer declined to discuss “Top Gun 3-D.” But people briefed on the studio’s deliberations said it was considering a release in February, perhaps beginning with a one-week exclusive showing on domestic Imax screens.
That would mimic a strategy used to revive “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which took in about $3 million in ticket sales with a digitally remastered 2-D Imax version in September.
Credit…Everett Collection
An Imax representative declined to discuss “Top Gun 3-D.”
At one point, according to those people, studio executives considered releasing “Top Gun 3-D” as early as this year in China and Russia, given the enormous appetite for 3-D and the continued popularity of Mr. Cruise in those countries. The new version was submitted to film censors in China, those people said, despite its distinctly American patriotic theme, which involves United States fighter pilots who ultimately defeat an unidentified enemy flying Soviet-era MIGs.
But the Chinese have been silent so far; without clearance from the censor, the film could not find a spot on this year’s schedule in China, where the number of foreign releases is tightly restricted.
Whatever timeline the studio adopts, it will have to tread the line between the usual exuberant promotion of a film and sensitivity to the circumstances of its director’s death. For Hollywood, the intersection of movies and real-life tragedies has been a recurring theme this year. In the spring 20th Century Fox changed the name of “Neighborhood Watch” to “The Watch” amid a national debate about vigilantism after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida, and in the summer Warner Brothers adjusted its advertising and publicity plans for “The Dark Knight Rises” after a gunman opened fire and killed 12 and wounded 58 others at an opening-night showing of that film in a Colorado theater.
For now at least a few of the questions surrounding Mr. Scott’s plunge from the Vincent Thomas Bridge here have begun to settle.
In late October the Los Angeles County coroner’s office released a brief statement that officially ruled Mr. Scott’s death a suicide, and noted that toxicology reports from an autopsy revealed a “therapeutic level” of mirtazapine, an antidepressant, and zopiclone, a sleep aid. A more detailed report is expected in the next week, the coroner’s office said.
Only days before jumping, Mr. Scott had been scouting locations with Mr. Cruise for the proposed “Top Gun” sequel, which he would have directed.
At the same time, Mr. Scott was among the producers of “Out of the Furnace,” an action drama being directed by Scott Cooper, the director of “Crazy Heart,” with Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck and others in starring roles.
Like a number of Mr. Scott’s friends and associates, Mr. Cooper declined in recent weeks to discuss Mr. Scott’s death or his work on the film. He said that Ridley Scott, Mr. Scott’s brother who is also a producer of “Out of the Furnace,” had repeatedly asked him and others not to discuss Mr. Scott’s life or demise.
Through their spokesman Simon Halls, both Ridley Scott and Tony Scott’s widow, Donna Scott, declined requests to be interviewed about Mr. Scott’s death or his final work.
Apart from the possible return of “Top Gun” in its 3-D version, Mr. Scott’s last work as a director appears to have been a Diet Mountain Dew commercial. It featured the entrepreneur Mark Cuban in a role that had him offering to trade fame and fortune for a last drink of the soda in a convenience store.
“Tony was amazing,” Mr. Cuban said in a recent e-mail of his experience with Mr. Scott in making the 30-second spot. “He was fun, vibrant and having a great time on the set.”
Mr. Cuban added, “It is still so shocking to me that he is gone.”
