‘Twisters’ Is ‘Definitely Not’ a ‘Twister’ Reboot or a ‘Continuation,’ Says Glen Powell: ‘We’re Not Trying to Recreate the Story From the First One’
Glen Powell is currently showing off his leading man chops opposite Sydney Sweeney in Sony’s romantic-comedy “Anyone But You,” and he’ll keep getting the chance to do so in 2024 with Netflix’s “Hit Man” and Warner Bros.’ “Twisters.” The latter project attempts to turn the 1996 box office hit “Twister” into a new franchise — but don’t call it a reboot, says Powell. There’s a reason Warner Bros. is billing the disaster movie as “a new chapter” of the 1996 original.
“It’s definitely not a reboot,” Powell recently told Vogue about the “Twisters” movie, which has been referred to as a “Twister” sequel, reboot and remake in various press stories since it was first announced in late 2022. “We’re not trying to recreate the story from the first one. It’s a completely original story. There are no characters from the original movie back, so it’s not really a continuation. It’s just its own standalone story in the modern-day.”
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Powell continued, “I don’t think anyone has brought up this movie in forever, but talking to people, they’re like, ‘That was one of my favorite movies growing up. That movie terrified me.’”
“Twisters” is directed by “Minari” helmer and Oscar-nominee Lee Isaac Chung, with stars Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack and Maura Tierney. Production on the disaster movie was paused amid the strikes earlier this year, but it has since resumed and the movie is on track for its 2024 release date. Plot details for the film have not been revealed.
In his Vogue interview, Powell recalled a piece of advice his “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Tom Cruise once gave him: “If you want to make movies of a certain size and scope and scale, you have to figure out what can connect with everyone around the world in every territory.” Powell said “Twisters” checks off this box because “humans versus weather is a very universal idea — how powerless we really are in the face of these cataclysmic forces.”
Starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Carey Elwes and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the 1996 original “Twister” made nearly $500 million at the box office and received Oscar nominations in the visual effects and sound categories. It was directed by Jan De Bont (“Speed”) from a screenplay by Michael Crichton, with Steven Spielberg executive producing. Hunt originally developed an idea for a proper “Twister” sequel, but she said the studio rejected her to the point of not even taking a meeting.
“I tried to get it made,” Hunt said back in 2021. “With Daveed [Diggs] and Rafael [Casal] and me writing it, and all Black and brown storm chasers, and they wouldn’t do it. I was going to direct it… We could barely get a meeting, and this is in June of 2020 when it was all about diversity. It would have been so cool.”
“There was a HBCU [historically Black college and university] where we wanted it to take place, and a rocket science club,” Hunt added. “In this one, they shoot the rockets into the tornado. It was going to be so cool.”
“Twisters” is set to open in theaters July 19, 2024 from Warner Bros.
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