Jan de Bont isn’t getting bent out of shape over upcoming “Twister” sequel, titled “Twisters” plural.
The director told Inverse that while he was never contacted to consult on the follow-up film, he knows the Lee Isaac Chung-helmed feature will certainly be a “different approach” from the 1996 blockbuster.
“I want to have somebody else see it first,” de Bont said of potentially watching Chung’s “Twisters,” adding, “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.”
De Bont continued of the new studio system, “Don’t forget that the main reason they’re finding younger, inexperienced people is they want to be able to fully control them. 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.”
Oscar-nominated Chung directed “Minari” before being tapped by Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Warner Bros. to helm “Twisters.” The film is using a script by “The Revenant” writer Mark L. Smith from a story from “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski. Steven Spielberg is executive producing.
Chung grew up in Arkansas and per the official directing announcement, has a lot of experience sheltering in place in storm cellars to hide from tornadoes.
The original “Twister” film starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as a storm-chasing couple. Philip Seymour Hoffman and “TÁR” director Todd Field also appeared in the film. De Bont told Inverse that the practical effects from George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic could never be replicated for “Twisters.”
“When things fell from the sky, there were real things falling from a helicopter,” de Bont said. “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 added, “Every shot was a fortune. It would take three days to transfer all that information onto film. Right now it’s fast, but in the beginning, it was super slow. And we had to be so careful to get the shots done before the movie opened.”
Original “Twister” actress Helen Hunt recently revealed that she pitched a sequel based on “all Black and brown storm chasers” with a script she co-wrote with “Blindspotting” writers Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Hunt was slated to direct.
“We could barely get a meeting, and this is in June of 2020 when it was all about diversity,” Hunt said. “It would have been so cool.”
