New Moon’s Taylor Lautner will net a $7.5 million paycheck for a new pic titled Northern Lights. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Top Gun, so much so that we might as well refer to the film as Top Gun: First Class, Top Gun: The Next Generation, or even Top Gun: Back In The Habit, Lautner will play a gifted aerobatics pilot who woos a fellow female pilot and contends with his controlling billionaire father, played by Tom Cruise.
Nikki Finke broke the story, notes that Lautner will jump to the front of the pack as the highest-paid teenage actor in Hollywood, commanding more for this film than Zac Efron or Miley Cyrus ever have for a film deal. And he’s due to reap even more with his lead in the upcoming Max Steel. Finke is not entirely correct, however, if we consider Daniel Radcliffe’s $11 million paycheck for Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire when he was 16, or the even more impressive figures he’s earned since then. He's rumored to have earned $50 million for the final two Harry Potter films, and he's only 20. But he’s probably disqualified for being British.
Max Payne helmer John Moore is set to direct with production beginning in April.
It's too bad Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift's relationship ended. She could have covered Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" for the Northern Lights soundtrack.