Original Director Comments On Upcoming ‘Twister’ Sequel: ‘It’s A Movie That Cannot Be

The director of the original “Twister” said the new sequel won’t be anything like the original.

Director Jan de Bont headed up the 1996 thriller, which was a box office smash. The epic disaster film featured a script by Michael Crichton, who also wrote both the novel and film version of “Jurassic Park.”

“Twister” starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as estranged, storm-chasing spouses who encounter a massive tornado. The movie grossed $495 million when it was released, making it the second-highest-earning film of 1996, and earned two Academy Award nominations.

The film’s sequel, “Twisters,” is slated for a 2024 release.

Now de Bont says he wasn’t consulted on the sequel. The director also said he doesn’t think the newest version will have the same impact because of advances in technology.

“When things fell from the sky, there were real things falling from a helicopter,” de Bont told Inverse during an interview. “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.”

The director admitted that “Twister” helped advance the use of visual effects. He described how difficult it was utilizing computer-generated images to recreate the look of tornados 26 years ago.

“Every shot was a fortune,” de Bont told the outlet. “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.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP

The 79-year-old director said he’s a fan of Lee Isaac Chung, who is heading up the sequel, but will likely have “somebody else see it first” before he decides whether to watch “Twisters.”

“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 said.

He also believes studios hire inexperienced directors for a reason. 

“Don’t forget that the main reason they’re finding younger, inexperienced people is they want to be able to fully control them,” de Bont explained. “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.”