Earlier this year, Universal Pictures announced that they were remaking the iconic Twister (1996), with Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) in talks to direct. In an interview with Collider, the director of the original, Jan de Bont, gave his thoughts on the reboot.
He also reflected on his long career, which also includes directing Speed and The Haunting, and serving as the cinematographer on such classics as The Hunt for Red October (1990), Die Hard (1988), Basic Instinct (1992), and Ruthless People (1986).
He said:
I read that like a month or two ago. I said, “Wow. Are they going to do the F5 now? I bet you that’s what it is.” You cannot do it by making it bigger. That as a movie hardly ever works. You have to come up as a … with people actually involved in it. You cannot just … It’s like I’ll work on the destruction scene. We’re going to get worse and whole cities are going to get destroyed. That’s exactly like falling in the trap of having the special effects completely take over.
No word yet on the plot for the reboot. In the original, the outstanding special effects were balanced with the human drama of two estranged storm chasers (the late, great Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt), who race against another team to deploy an advanced storm-warning system into the path of a massive tornado. de Bont directed from a script by science fiction master Michael Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin.
The movie went on to earn $500 million worldwide to date (on a budget of $90 million). It was nominated for two Oscars (Sound and Visual Effects), and won a BAFTA for its special effects. (It also was nominated for two Razzie awards—Worst-Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million and Worst Supporting Actress for Jami Gertz—winning the latter “award.”
Frank Marshall (The Sixth Sense, Raiders of the Lost Ark) will be producing the new movie for Universal.
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