Original Twister Director Jan de Bont Thinks New Sequel Is 15 Years Too Late (Exclusive)

As proven with films like Blade Runner 2049 or Top Gun: Maverick, there’s no expiration date on beloved movies getting follow-up films, with this year’s Twisters confirming that concept. Arriving nearly 30 years after the original Twister, the upcoming sequel serves only as a spiritual successor to the 1996 blockbuster, with director of the first film Jan de Bont thinking this new movie should have been developed much closer to the release of the original film. These comments aren’t in regards to interest in the concept, but in regards to the assumption that the filmmaking techniques might be too far removed from what made the original movie so successful. Twister lands on 4K Ultra HD on July 9th.

“I think it is a little bit late. 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, I’m sure,” de Bont revealed to ComicBook. “But that’s being cost-effective. Those things are really … It’s so different by now. I think my movie would be really hard to remake, and why would you want to remake it anyway? What would you improve? Sometimes you have to also let things alone, or you have to really make it a real sequel, like a real continuing story, and not just a completely different story, but I don’t know. I’m curious what he made of it.”

While fans still have a few weeks to go before the new take on the material lands in theaters, the cast and crew have teased their attempts to channel as many real-world effects as possible to make for a compelling experience. Advances in visual effects, however, have made depictions of very intense weather not only more affordable through CGI but also more convincing.

The original Twister is described, “Don’t breathe! Don’t look back! Just run for your life when a destructive force of nature comes howling straight toward you, destroying everything in its path — when you’re running from a Twister. Academy Award winner Helen Hunt stars as Dr. Jo Thornton-Harding, who as a small girl watched her father sucked to his death from her family’s storm cellar by a massive tornado. Now a storm chaser, a scientist who risks her life to study the dark side of nature by taking her data-transmitting instruments directly into the path of a deadly storm, Jo chases the largest tornado ever to strike Oklahoma as her marriage implodes and rival scientists will stop at nothing to steal her breakthrough.”

Twister hits 4K Ultra HD on July 9th. Twisters lands in theaters on July 19th.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s remarks? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!