Although it is always a popular call for the second part of an amazing movie, it often takes decades before the long-awaited sequel sees the light of day. However, in most cases, the long intervals between installments turn out to be rather disappointing, as it is impossible to recreate what was once unique in the original film. Luckily, when Paul Newman returned to his cinematic roots with Martin Scorsese‘s 1986 drama ‘The Color of Money,’ it was decades after the success of its predecessor. However, it was his performance as a young pool hustler that proved revolutionary.
Handing over the competition to one of the cinematic legends, such as Newman, to a new 90s Hollywood star as fast-rising as Tom Cruise redefines how a classic story unfolds on the screen. Returning to a character that defined one’s career decades later and including a charismatic, young co-star adds a new dimension to the screenplay, making it a thrilling experience for the audience.
Reviving Fast Eddie Felson After Two Decades
In 1961, the movie starring Paul Newman as the small-town pool shark “Fast Eddie” Felson, ‘The Hustler,’ received an Academy Award nomination and firmly established Paul Newman in the ranks of movie stars.
Almost two decades passed before Newman, now nearly 60 years old, contacted the famous director Martin Scorsese in person and asked him to make a movie sequel, in which Eddie had another quarter of a century to hone his hustling skills.
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The actor seemed extremely excited about revisiting a slightly older, more seasoned character and enjoyed Eddie’s polished street smarts tremendously.
”The delight of a character like Eddie is that he’s had an additional 25 years of hustling. He’s so slick. He’s pulling so many things. There are scenes in this movie an actor would kill for,” Newman recalls.
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To find a worthy match for Newman’s mature charisma, the movie’s casting crew chose a 23-year-old Cruise to play Vincent Lauria, the same cocky, arrogant young pool hustler Newman had been in the early 1960s.
Released in 1986, just a few months before Cruise became a global superstar in his own right, in the blockbuster movie Top Gun, The Color of Money turned out to be an excellent learning experience for the young actor.
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The movie was a huge success at the 1987 Academy Awards and finally brought Paul Newman his long-awaited Best Actor Oscar for his outstanding performance in his signature role.
In 2022, Tom Cruise had to wait another 35 years for his own franchise installment, ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ while continuing to experiment with complex narrative timelines in upcoming sequels, such as ‘Live Die Repeat and Repeat,’ directed by Doug Liman.
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