Twister Director Didn’t Get the Tornado Warning About Twisters

There’s never been a better time to be a Twister fan. The 1996 disaster classic hits 4K Ultra HD July 9, meaning those growling tornados will look and sound better than ever—and its long-awaited follow-up, Twisters, touches down July 19. Surprisingly, while he knew about his own movie’s sparkling new version, the original Twister director says he didn’t know Twisters even existed until he saw the trailer.

It sounds impossible to be so unaware of a big Hollywood summer blockbuster, much less one that’s tagging onto one’s own Hollywood summer blockbuster (albeit 28 years later), but that’s what Jan de Bont told the Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t know that there was [another] movie until I actually saw the first trailer, which was not that long ago,” de Bont said. (The first trailer dropped in February, tied into the Super Bowl.)

The director, who also directed Speed and Speed 2: Cruise Control, shared some opinions about sequels too. “If you want to make a sequel, it should really be a sequel,” he said. “It should be about the same people. It should be the same continuing story and saga of the same group of people, preferably in different circumstances that are even more interesting and more exciting. But to make a whole different story [like Twisters], then you shouldn’t really call it a sequel in my opinion.”

Head to THR to read the full interview, which also includes some nice remembrances of late Twister stars Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

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