Twister director Jan de Bont was surprised by reboot announcement

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Jan de Bont helmed the box office hit TWISTER back in 1996 and it became the second-highest-grossing movie of 1996 with a worldwide total of $495 million. You would think that de Bont would've been in on any reboot talk if that was any but when a reboot was officially announced earlier this year, the director was a bit surprised by the announcement and he doesn't seem to think it will work.

De Bont was speaking with Collider when the topic of the TWISTER reboot was brought up and the director doesn't think bigger will be better and that you need to come up with a real story that isn't just ruled by special effects:

"I read that like a month or two ago. I said, 'Wow. Are they going to do the F5 now? I bet you that's what it is.' You cannot do it by making it bigger. That as a movie hardly ever works. You have to come up as a… with people actually involved in it. You cannot just … It's like I'll work on the destruction scene. We're going to get worse and whole cities are going to get destroyed. That's exactly like falling in the trap of having the special effects completely take over."

For you tornado chasers out there or just hardcore fans of the original TWISTER, an F5 tornado is the most intense one you can have on the retired Fujita Scale. An F5 can have wind speeds greater than 261 mph. De Bont's assertion is that the reboot will try to go even bigger than that and it just isn't possible. Even though TWISTER was groundbreaking for its special effects back in 1996, the viewers were also connected to the two main characters played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. It's fun to watch some incredible tornado action but it kind of means nothing if you don't care about the people involved in the chaos. 

Not much is really known about the TWISTER reboot except that it will be directed by TOP GUN: MAVERICK helmer Joseph Kosinski, Frank Marshall is on board to produce and, at the time of the announcement, Universal Pictures was looking for potential writers to take on the project. Maybe all of those involved in the reboot will take de Bont's advice to make the film more than just a special effects extravaganza but we all know studios think bigger is better so a part of me won't count on that. 

Do YOU think a TWISTER reboot is necessary?