Editorial Staff
While Universal Pictures did toy with doing a straight-up sequel to Twister (1996), with Helen Hunt reprising her role as, the studio ultimately opted to go the way of a reboot – one without any link to the original, it seems.
“It was something that [original Twisters director] Joe Kosinski and I came up with,” writer Mark L. Smith said of next year’s Twisters in an interview with Collider. “Joe reached out, he had this great idea to get back into the Twister world, and so he sent me the pitch, and it was fun. We kind of beat it out and then went to [original executive producers] Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall, and then they signed off. Universal signed off. So I wrote it, and it was all set and Spielberg was ready to go, and he was excited, and it was gonna be Joe.”
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) ultimately took over the project from Kosinski, but even he seemingly insisted the film be it’s own beast.
“It’s a lot of fun. [Chung] did his own thing to the script a little bit because that’s what they do, so I don’t know about some of the changes exactly,” Smith said. “So, I don’t know the details, but it’s a separate story. It’s not a continuation of the original. But it’s just a real wild ride with some good, fun characters. Hopefully, we can tap into what the original had because that thing is just iconic. But it’s so cool to have a director like Isaac taking on something like this. It’s just so out of his norm, and I think he’s having fun. I was texting with him a couple days ago, and it’s just all craziness of it.”
Twisters, starring Glen Powell, Kiernan Shipka, Maura Tierney, and Daisy Edgar-Jones, opens July 19, 2024.
