Los Angeles, Oct 18, 2010 (DPA) Tom Cruise is set to return to the role that launched him into the stratosphere in a sequel to the 1986 hit ‘Top Gun’, according to industry reports Friday.

Paramount Pictures has already made offers to Cruise, as well as producer Jerry Bruckheimer (‘Pirates of the Caribbean’) and director Tony Scott (‘The Taking of Pelham 123′), according to vulture.com. Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (‘The Usual Suspects’) is strapped in to write the sequel, the report said.

Cruise, who made his name as the daring Navy fighter pilot Maverick, would have a smaller role than in the original, though no details are available on the exact nature of his new part. The original ‘Top Gun’ was a huge hit worldwide, taking in more than $350 million.

The report said that the film is being pushed by David Ellison, the 27-year-old son of software titan Larry Ellison, the world’s sixth wealthiest man, who had raised $350 million to co-finance Paramount films, starting with ‘Mission: Impossible 4′.

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Devil-may-care navy pilot Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station for advanced training. Here he vies with Tom Kasansky (Val Kilmer) for the coveted “Top Gun” award. When not so occupied, Mitchell carries on a romance with civilian consultant Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). Shaken up by the death of a friend, Mitchell loses the Top Gun honor to Kasansky. Worried that he may have lost his nerve, Mitchell is given a chance to redeem himself during a tense international crisis involving a crippled US vessel and a flock of predatory enemy planes. The story wasn’t new in 1986, but Top Gun scored with audiences on the strength of its visuals, especially the vertigo-inducing aerial sequences. The film made more money than any other film in 1986 and even spawned a 1989 takeoff, Hot Shots. An Academy Award went to the Giogio Moroder-Tom Whitlock song “Take My Breath Away.”