“Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski: Navy deleted my photos

Director Joseph Kosinski has revealed that the US Navy confiscated his camera while he was on a military base and ended up “wiping clean” the photos he took.

“When you direct the film, you become a sort of ‘expert’, which is what the Navy term is – the KMU – on any topic. So I had to live this dream of being in the Navy for a few years,” Kosinski told Deadline. “I have to go places civilians can’t go. I’ve seen things no civilian would ever see.”

But that doesn’t mean anyone different should see it too. Kosinski continued: “My camera was confiscated once. wiped clean. I took a few pictures and maybe caught something I shouldn’t have taken and my camera was quickly returned with no photos.”

He added, “I have to go to China Lake and shoot in a top-secret hangar. And all in this pursuit of authenticity. And I think you feel it when you see it because you don’t feel like you’re in a Hollywood designed setting. There is a reality. We worked with the real engineers who build the real secret planes. It was just a dream come true.”

Top Gun: Maverick cinematographer Claudio Miranda told IndieWire that the Navy also has strict conditions for filming on fighter jets. The Navy would not allow cameras on the aircraft’s wings because it would affect flight performance. “As a consolation prize, I got a back mount and the regular bomb mounts,” Miranda said. “But you could only fly the plane on 3Gs with external mounts.”

The sequel to the hit 1986 film Top Gun ended up with more than 800 hours of footage, slapping as much footage as Peter Jackson’s three Lord of the Rings films combined. Naturally, Kosinski was tasked with narrowing down the film’s scope and cutting out certain scenes and subplots.

“You end up throwing out stuff that you’re absolutely sure will be in the movie when you shoot it,” he told IndieWire. “When you get to the final cut and focus on the story you’re telling, everything has to fall away for the good of the film.”

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