What could’ve been…
There have been plenty of rumors lately that a Days of Thunder remake is on the horizon. Tom Cruise shined in the 1990 film that brought more eyes and attention to stock car racing, and it’s one of the first films of his lengthy career where he did some of his own stunts and really dove deep into his role (he actually raced in the months prior to filming).
Cruise himself has said they’re starting the production on another installment of the NASCAR -inspired film, and Jeff Gordon is actually the one who spilled the beans about the sequel in a recent interview with Road & Track. The former driver of the No. 24 car – and the current vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports – revealed that he’s close with Tom Cruise, and that the last time he saw him, the Top Gun star shared that a second Days of Thunder was going to happen:
“I mean, all I can say is… I’ve known Tom for many years and was on set this past year for ‘Mission: Impossible,’ and then I went to the premiere. And the first word out of his mouth is, ‘We’re doing it. We’re doing Days of Thunder 2.’”
Jeff also said he thinks that having NASCAR return to the big screen could allow for the sport of racing to be benefited just as it was when the original film was released in 1990:
“I’m all for it. Rick Hendrick is all for it. Hendrick Motorsports played a big role in the first Days of Thunder, and we’d love to do the same in this one. Again, you look at things that can help grow the sport. Look what ‘Days of Thunder’ did for NASCAR in the ’90s. I think it could very easily do the same if we were able to do this again.”
I actually think this is one movie that would be cool to do a sequel of, and on a recent Ask Jr. segment of his podcast, D said the same thing and recalled all the work Cruise did for the first film that made is so authentic, and in turn, such a huge success. He also remembered Cruise coming by his dad’s shop, which was pretty modest at the time, to do some research on his own.
The character Rowdy Burns was based on Dale Sr. and was the villain of the movie, if you will, and rival to Cruise’s Cole Trickle. Jr. was around 12 when this happened, and he remembered being surprised when Cruise showed up at DEI much shorter than he imagined, and with a face “full of pimples”:
“Tom Cruise came by Dale Earnhardt Incorporated back when it was just the deer head shop. He had the deer head shop and one office and there was nothing else there. This was way before dad built DEI. So it was just a building with the Xfinity team in there. I was really young, and this was before they had ever started shooting ‘Days of Thunder.’
I must’ve been 12 or so, pretty young. Well we’re told… Tom Cruise just finished ‘Risky Business.’ He was still on the backend of the success of that movie, and dad told Kelley and I that this actor Tom Cruise was coming by later in the afternoon to talk to dad. It was dad, maybe Teresa and me and Kelley, and the people that, the four or five employees that worked at the shop, not a crowd.
Well Tom drives up, he was with someone else, they get out of the car, they walk in, Tom Cruise is not as tall as I expected him to be and he’s got a face full of pimples. He’s really young at this point, but he and dad go into dad’s office and they talked for like an hour, hour and a half, long time.”
Not only did Cruise pick Dale Sr.’s brain about racing, but apparently, he also wanted Sr. to possibly play the role of Burns himself… but Sr. wasn’t an actor, and believe it or not, he didn’t want to “play the villain.”
Though he was seen by plenty of race fans for many years as just that, the villain (especially in his younger years), Sr. said it wasn’t his style and he didn’t want to be portrayed that way if he was essentially playing himself.
I don’t know if I totally believe he didn’t like to be the bad guy, the man was nicknamed The Intimidator for a reason, but I get where he’s coming from, and obviously, like Jr. points out, he also wasn’t an actor:
“And then they come out, shook hands, ‘Hey man, great time.’ I got to say hey to Tom Cruise and then he leaves. Tom Cruise basically came by to sit down and talk to Dad, because Dad‘s character, was Rowdy Burns.
And they used a lot of the sort of, you know, the same vibe, I guess, of dad to do the Rowdy Burns character. And Dad even said after that conversation, that in the conversation with Tom Cruise, Tom mentioned that Dad should play the role. And Dad was like, You know, the way this sounds is he’s the bad guy. And I really don’t wanna be the villain, that’s not my style.’ And dad is not an actor.
And that would’ve not been as good as what the end result was, right. So I remember vividly Dad saying that they had a conversation around the possibility of him actually playing the role. But I don’t think that’s absolutely realistic to be honest with you.”
Of course, there’s no telling if it would’ve happened considering plenty of other people would’ve had to sign off on it first, but it’s pretty cool to think that was even something Cruise had thought of.
Jr. agreed that if they do go through with a sequel, it will be a “great representation” of the sport and where it is now, and I have to agree… I hope they actually do it, because not only would it bring a new set of eyes to the sport, it would be fun to get a modern day NASCAR movie because it’s been years since anything like that has been done, especially done as well as Days of Thunder:
“I don’t think even if Tom had offered it to him or mentioned it to him in that conversation that it would actually happened if Dad said yes. Because I think that the people that actually produce and direct and make all those decisions would’ve had problem with that, because dad is not an actor. But anyhow, Tom came there and just picked Dad‘s brain.
Tom drove race cars, went to Daytona and drove a race car in a test with Paul Newman, and so Tom did, as we know now after hearing all the stories about ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Top Gun,’ he does all the stunts. All the hard work, all the homework to truly make the movie great. I’m confident that if they make ‘Days of Thunder’ again, it’ll be a great representation of really where the sport is and how it is.
Because he will do the homework to go, this is authentic. This whole movie is authentic, this set is authentic, the scene is authentic. When Tom Cruise played Cole Trickle, it was believable. He, to me, was any Cup driver in the series in the 90’s. he played that part so well. His style, his look, the way he spoke, his attitude.”
We’ll see what happens, but it definitely sounds like something is in the works, and we have to have a Dale Jr. cameo if this ends up on the big screen.
You can watch him talk about it here:
