LOS ANGELES – "Top Gun: Maverick" producer and star Tom Cruise was honored Saturday with a career achievement award at the 34th annual Producers Guild of America Awards.
However, the producers awards show bestowed the top prize of the night to "Everything Everywhere All At Once," widening the sci-fi drama's lead as best picture front-runner.
The PGA is often seen as an Oscar bellwether. Eleven of the past 14 PGA winners have gone on to win best picture, meaning losing the award might have crushed best picture hopes for "Top Gun: Maverick" at the Oscars on March 12.
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Former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing presented the David O. Selznick Achievement Award to Cruise, 60. Lansing recalled casting the actor for the 1981 drama "Taps."
"He had that magical undefinable quality called charisma. Equally important, Tom had an incredible work ethic. Even then, he was always the first on the set, always well prepared and respectful to everyone," said Lansing. "Over 42 years later, despite phenomenal success, Tom Cruise is still that very same person."
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Lansing greenlit 1996's "Mission: Impossible," the movie that began Cruise's producing career. As a studio head, Lansing admitted she was initially not pleased that Cruise, already one of the biggest stars in the world, agreed to take on a movie version of the classic TV ensemble drama as his first producing project.
But Lansing's fears of diluting Cruise's star power with an ensemble piece disappeared when she read the first draft script Cruise sent over.
"I have to admit that I was delighted to find that in the very first few pages of the script, the entire 'Mission: Impossible' team is killed, except for Ethan Hunt, which is Tom's character," said Lansing. "And he spends the rest of the movie avenging. their
murders."
Cruise recalled his early days shooting "Taps" with Timothy Hutton and then-newcomer Sean Penn.
"I was certain this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life," he said as he studied the movie-making process. "I was overwhelmed by what I didn’t know."
Tom Cruise thanks movie audience for 'Tom Gun: Maverick'
Cruise thanked Jerry Bruckheimer, his producer of the original 1986 “Top Gun” and his producing partner on the sequel "Maverick."
"You opened the door for me," Cruise told Bruckheimer. "You welcomed me in and I will be grateful forever."
Cruise paid tribute to the producers along with mentors like Steven Spielberg and Lansing,
"You’ve all enabled me the adventurous life that I wanted,” he said.
Cruise was lauded for fighting to keep the theatrical window for "Top Gun: Maverick" despite pandemic theater closures. He gave thanks to movie audiences "for whom I work first and foremost, thank you for letting me entertain you, and I promise I'll always do everything I can to accomplish that goal."
Other movies (and TV) honored by the PGA:
- "Navalny" won for best documentary feature,
- “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” took best animated film.
- "Till" won the Stanley Kramer Award honoring a production or producer that illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues.
- TV's “The Bear” won for best comedy.
- “The White Lotus” won for best drama.
- “Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls” won for best reality or competition series.
- “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” won for non-fiction series, “The Dropout” won best limited series and “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” won best TV movie.
- Mindy Kaling received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television for her work producing shows including “The Mindy Project,” “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” “Never Have I Ever,” “Velma” and “The Office.”
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