It’s been a fairly dreadful box office year so far, but it’s suddenly been picking up and getting wings. “Inside Out 2” grossed the $1 billion mark in two weeks, “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” did well, and “A Quiet Place: Day One” posted some strong numbers too. With “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Despicable Me 4” about to hit theaters, will summer change for the better? Another move that looks terrific and seems to be getting audiences excited—and apparently is really great from those that have seen it early— is Universal’s “Twisters,” the belated sequel to director Jan de Bont‘s “Twister” from 1996 that has hit a peak age where the nostalgia for the film is super high.
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“Twisters” is directed by Oscar-nominated “Minari” filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung and is already received a $65-95 million+ opening weekend forecast which would put well above a “A Quiet Place” territory. “Minari” is a quiet, thoughtful film, so if Chung feels like an odd choice to direct “Twisters,” you’re not the only one who thought that. According to a recent THR interview, Chung said convincing the studio that he could direct action was one of the first things he had to do.
“The first part was basically convincing the studio that, on a technical level, I know how to make an action movie, because if you watch ‘Minari,’ that aspect is not necessarily proven,” he explained. But as the filmmaker pointed out, he’s done a lot of franchise television work that has proven he not only has the chops but felt like it was perfect for his skill set.
“If people saw the things I was doing on the TV side, maybe it would have been a little clearer,” he said, explaining why he was right for the job and how “Minari” didn’t explain his full range. “I did an episode of ‘The Mandalorian’ and an episode of [upcoming Disney+ ‘Star Wars’ series] ‘Skeleton Crew,’ and Kathleen Kennedy [a producer of the original Twister] was a reference for me to Frank Marshall [her husband, who took over her producing reins on the new film]. One of the Kennedy/Marshall Company producers, Ashley Jay Sandberg, reached out to see if I might be interested in doing this movie. And for me, as I was looking for a project, ‘Twisters’ just seemed like the perfect thing. As soon as that opportunity came up, it was honestly, like, the project I wanted to do.”
An epic studio disaster movie, the sequel is said to be an adrenaline-pumping, big-screen thrill ride that puts you in direct contact with one of nature’s most wondrous—and destructive—forces. “Twisters” stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Where the Crawdads Sing”), Glen Powell (“Top Gun: Maverick”), and Anthony Ramos (“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”) as equal forces, with opposing motivations, who come together to try to predict, and possibly tame, the immense power of tornadoes.
“Twisters” also co-stars Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Harry Hadden-Patton, David Corenswet, Daryl McCormack, Tunde Adebimpe, Katy O’Brian, Nik Dodani, Kiernan Shipka, Paul Scheer.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Carter, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies storm patterns on screens safely in New York City. She is lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi (Ramos) to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. There, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), the charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures with his raucous crew, the more dangerous the better.
As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed, and Kate, Tyler, Javi, and their crews find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.
A new featurette has given us a look behind the scenes and makes “Twisters” look like even more of an entertaining thrill ride. Written by Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”), with a story by director Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun Maverick”), “Twisters” flies into theaters on July 19. Watch the new feature below.