Universal Pictures’ “Twisters” Gets First Teaser

If there’s one natural disaster adjacent-film from the mid 90s we still quote with our best friends, it’s
Jan de Bont‘s “Twister.” What? It’s super quotable! Also, with a cast like Helen Hunt, Lois Smith, Jamie Gertz, Cary Elwes, as well as the late great Bill Paxton and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, how can you go wrong? Throw in some cows, and you’ve got yourself a classic of summer blockbusters.

Which is maybe why Universal Pictures greenlit, at long last, another tornado-themed film. It’s called “Twisters.”

Oscar nominee Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari“) directs. Glenn Powell (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Lessons in Chemistry“) stars, and confirms this isn’t really a sequel. “We’re not trying to recreate the story from the first one,” Powell told Vogue. “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.”

You know, totally new. But with a poster HIGHLY evocative of the original.

Writer Mark L. Smith echoes this sentiment. “It’s a separate story. It’s not a continuation of the original,” Smith said during a convo with Collider. “But it’s just a real wild ride with some good, fun characters. Hopefully, we can tap into what the original had because that thing is just iconic.” He apparently developed the story while working on “Top Gun: Maverick” with Joseph Kosinski, who was originally tapped to direct “Twisters.”

“It’s so cool to have a director like Isaac taking on something like this,” Smith continued. “It’s just so out of his norm, and I think he’s having fun. I was texting with him a couple days ago, and it’s just all craziness of it.”

The film also stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (“War of the Worlds” 2019), Anthony Ramos (“Hamilton,” “In The Heights“), Kiernan Shipka (“The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina“), and Maura Tierney (“ER“).

Universal Pictures has “Twisters” dated for a July 19th, 2024 release.