Jan de Bont, the director of the natural disaster filmTwister, has shared his thoughts on the legacy of one of his most important feature films. The 1996 film was a groundbreaking action thriller thatcleverly mixed CGIand practical effects in a film experience that refreshed the natural disaster subgenre.Twistermade almost $500 million at the box office and consolidated de Bont’s position as a noteworthy genre director.
Twistertells the story of storm chasers in Oklahoma trying to implement a technique that’ll allow weather scientists to predict tornado behavior. Jo is in the lead, and when they’re about to go on the road, Bill shows up. He’s her ex-husband and former storm chaser, serving her divorce papers as he brings his new girlfriend along. Bill is forced to rejoin his team in a crusade of high-category tornadoes threatening to wreak havoc on the whole state.
To celebrate the release ofTwisteron 4k Ultra HD on July 9, anotable feat in the world of physical mediaas it was also one of the first films ever to be released on DVD, de Bont went on aninterview with Comic Book, and spoke on the legacy of one of his most notable films. The director comments on the ensemble cast:
“I think what I really was looking for is for actors that look like real people, that behave like real people, and would be able to have a really great connection as a team. It was really important that they really would get along…All the actors were really, really connected. Maybe they got connected because we were in the middle of nowhere, absolutely nowhere. No five-star hotels, no four-star, no restaurant, nothing but muddy fields and small motels spread over a 40-mile area. So many stayed on the set, and that’s why they bonded”
De Bont also comments on the visual style and how it blends well with the use ofwhat were then state-of-the-art CGI images:
“There are scenes that were not quite finished, or were not quite finished in a way that they were what I imagined them to be, and so you do the best you can and make it work. But the total integration of visual [effects] and such, that was key to me. If that didn’t work, then, to me, you didn’t get a really authentic feeling.”
That’s where we spent most of the time, and that’s why,in this new transfer, all the things that didn’t quite work, I was able to correct and fix. Now it’s a lot more seamless, and it really feels like it’s one image and not three different elements in an image.
Does 2024’s Twisters Connect with the Original Twister?
On July 19,audiences will see the returnof what is now an official franchise.Twistersis an upcoming standalone sequel that’ll capitalize on the title and the premise with new characters, new special effects, and a whole new scope. There’s still no confirmation of whether it will connect to de Bont’s 1996 epic. However, it should be looking to bring something new to the party, as the director noted,“I think my movie would be really hard to remake, and why would you want to remake it anyway? What would you improve?”
It was previously reported that deBont’s opinion about the new film. He doesn’t seem to agree with producers taking too long to make it:
“I think it should have been done 15 years ago, because then you might’ve still had a chance to do this combination of visual effects and special effects, and now it’ll be much more visual effects.”
