Original Twister Director Offers His Mixed Thoughts On Upcoming Sequel

Director Jan de Bont offers his thoughts on the upcoming disaster film Twisters, a belated sequel to his own 1996 blockbuster Twister. Announced in October 2022, Twisters will serve as a direct follow-up to de Bont’s film based on a script penned by The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. While it is not clear if Helen Hunt will return to reprise her role as storm chaser Jo Harding, the sequel’s already confirmed cast is set to include the likes of Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick).

Speaking with Inverse about the upcoming Twister sequel, de Bont revealed that he was not consulted about plans for the follow-up and has mixed feelings about Twisters. Suggesting that the practical nature of the visual effects in his 1996 film would never be attempted by modern studios, de Bont declared his film is “a movie that cannot be remade.” Yet while he is unsure if he will go and see Twisters for himself, he remains cautiously optimistic that it may follow Barbie’s own unexpected success. Check out his comments below:

“When things fell from the sky, there were real things falling from a helicopter. 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.

“I want to have somebody else see [Twisters] first. 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.”

Why It’s Taken So Long For A Twister Sequel

Despite grossing nearly $500 million at the worldwide box office and setting the bar for a slew of disaster films to follow, it has taken almost three decades for a sequel to de Bont’s blockbuster to emerge. However, unlike many other planned sequels that have languished in development, it was in 2020 that plans for a new Twister film began forming. Considered a largely standalone film in a genre that had long since waned in popularity, calls for a follow-up were few and far between until Universal Pictures began toying with the idea of a potential reboot.

Initially approaching Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski to helm a remake, Universal was also approached by original star Hunt with a sequel script she had co-written with Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. In addition to reprising her role, Hunt’s pitch would have also seen her assume directorial duties, though the studio would later pass on her vision for the project. Eventually, the studio would settle on Smith’s script, reportedly set to follow the daughter of Hunt and Bill Paxton’s characters from the original Twister.

With a critically acclaimed screenwriter and an award-winning director whose work in foreign language dramas has also been tempered with his more recent experiences on the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and Skeleton Crew, Twisters has the potential to be a memorable continuation of de Bont’s iconic disaster film. However, only time will tell if the 2024 sequel will be able to match the popular box office appeal of the original movie.

Source: Inverse