Tornadoes never go out of style, at least according to Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. The studios are working on a sequel to Twister, the 1996 film starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, and after an extensive search, they believe they’ve found their director.
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Deadline is reporting that Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung is in “early talks” to take on the sequel which is… wait for it… called Twisters. There’s already a script out there written by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), and it will be co-financed by Warner Bros., who put out the first film. Frank Marshall is also producing.
According to an October Deadline article, Steven Speilberg “flipped” when he read the script, which reportedly had Hunt coming back along with a son her character had with the late Bill Paxton’s character. That earlier article also said that Free Solo directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vaserhelyi were in consideration to direct along with Dan Trachtenberg (Prey) and Laika animation head Travis Knight (Missing Link and Kubo and the Two Strings).
It looks like all those directors fell to the wayside, however, and Chung is now the frontrunner. The recent Deadline article also stated that no actors are confirmed to come back for more twistering, and that Chung has become the favorite of the studios in part because he grew up in rural Arkansas where he experienced more than one tornado firsthand.
No news on when the project will go into production, much less blast its way onto a screen near you.