Nostalgia sometimes takes time to form. The 1996 disaster film “Twister” directed by Jan de Bont, starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, and Cary Elwes, was always a fun lark, but it’s only in recent years it’s been reclaimed as a ’90s classic. And so yeah, enough time passed, and studios suddenly wanted to make a belated sequel. That’s essentially the story of the sequel “Twisters.”
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Kathleen Kennedy of Lucasfilm produced the first one but given she’s a little busy with all things “Star Wars,” her producing partner and husband Frank Marshall has taken over as producer, and he’s got a ton of experience with these kinds of blockbusters. Many directors circled this sequel: Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Dan Trachtenberg, Travis Knight, and Joseph Kosinski.
But it was ultimately made by filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, an American filmmaker from a South Korean family. Chung’s “Minari” broke him out big and was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards. Perhaps signaling that he had ambitions to make movies like “Twisters,” he directed episodes of the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” and he’s also directed episodes of the upcoming series, “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.”
“Twister,” the original film, featured a big cast; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Todd Field, and Jeremy Davies were among the first film’s amateur but spirited storm chasers. And “Twisters” seems to have the same approach. Led by Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos, “Twisters” also features Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Kiernan Shipka, David Corenswet, and Tunde Adebimpe, among others. This version is written by Mark L. Smith, known for penning “The Revenant.”
Plot-wise, all we know so far it that it’s once again centered on a pair of storm chasers who risk their lives in an attempt to test an experimental weather alert system.
“Twisters” is scheduled to be released in the United States by Universal Pictures on July 19, 2024. Watch the new Super Bowl trailer below.
