Twister is returning to the big screen — but the director behind the 1996 epic disaster flick says it will be impossible for the upcoming sequel to capture the same movie magic as the original.
Over the last decade, Hollywood has been heavily focused on reviving and capitalizing on established intellectual properties, leading to a surge in reboots, sequels, and adaptations of '80s and '90s action blockbusters. In this context, it's not surprising that the director of the 1996 disaster film Twister would anticipate a reboot or legacy sequel.
Twister, directed by Jan de Bont, achieved towering commercial success, earning close to $500 million worldwide and ranking as one of the highest-grossing films of its time.
"It made so much money for the studio," de Bont told Inverse. "Sooner or later they would do it."
The film's story revolves around a group of storm chasers pursuing dangerous tornadoes in order to study them and develop a better understanding of their behavior.
A sequel to de Bont's iconic film was announced last winter and is set to hit the big screen next summer through a collaborative effort between Universal and Warner Bros. Under the direction of Lee Isaac Chung, known for Minari, and featuring a screenplay by writer Mark L. Smith, the film stars Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing), and Anthony Ramos (In The Heights). Twisters will take place after the events of the original, which starred the late Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as meteorologists and estranged spouses.
But de Pont cautions the sequel may not have the same oomph as his original. Advancements in CGI, he explains, have replaced the large-scale practical effects he used.
"When things fell from the sky, there were real things falling from a helicopter," he says. "If you film a car escaping a tornado in a hail storm, it was real ice that came at us. It's a movie that cannot be remade... That would never, ever happen again."
He remains optimistic about the future of his beloved property, however. Mainly because of indie filmmaker Chung, who the studio nabbed for director. He likens the move to Greta Gerwig helming the box office smash-hit Barbie.
"It might be a really different approach. That's the same with [Greta Gerwig] of Barbie. Nobody would ever have thought she'd direct that movie and make it so successful."
But he remains cynical toward the trend of studios picking up young and untested directors to helm massive projects.
"Don't forget that the main reason they're finding younger, inexperienced people is they want to be able to fully control them," he says. "They want them to have really good ADs, writers, producers, cinematographers so that they have all the help they can get. But ultimately, the studio is going to tell them what's in the movie. I know that firsthand."
