Twisters: Why Did Top Gun Maverick Director Leave The Project?

What is it about? A former tornado chaser, Kate is still traumatized by a tornado encounter when she was a student. Now he prefers to study hurricane behavior from the safety of New York. But when his friend Javi asks him to test out a new tornado detector, he agrees to return to the heart of the action.

Then she meets the charming and reckless Tyler Owens, known for his tornado chasing videos posted on social media. As hurricane season reaches its peak, tornadoes of an unprecedented scale threaten lives.

Prospective directors

Lee Isaac Chung has replaced Joseph Kosinski as director of Twisters. Reason ? The project was shelved, prompting the Top Gun Maverick director to launch F1, made for Apple TV+, starring Brad Pitt. Dan Trachtenberg, Travis Knight, as well as the duo of Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Wasserhell were then considered before Lee Isaac Chung took the job.

The latter made a name for himself with the family drama Minari in 2020, and was nominated for an Oscar several times. However, it was his work on an episode of The Mandalorian that convinced producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall to choose him to lead this blockbuster.

Tornadoes 2.0

Twisters is a remake of Twister, directed by Jan de Bont, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. Already at that time, the film was produced by Steven Spielberg, based on the best-selling author Michael Crichton. It’s also the first version since 1996 to lend its credibility to disaster movies, as Lee Isaac Chung states:

“Suddenly, tornadoes were terrifying cinematic spectacles thanks to innovative digital effects, and genius meteorologists became reckless action heroes.”. Released in 1996, Twister was a huge success at the international box office with $495 million.

Prestigious inspirations

While preparing Twisters, the director was inspired by the chase scenes in The French Connection (1971) and 60 Seconds Chrono (2000). He also wanted to show the same America as in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Session. A fan of Steven Spielberg—the film’s executive producer, moreover—Lee Isaac Chung also drew elements from Jaws and War of the Worlds to represent the monstrous phenomena that threaten humanity.

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Maximum security

Twisters began filming in the spring of 2023, during the thunderstorm and tornado season, and the production hired former military meteorologist, Joel Martin, to oversee the team responsible for constantly monitoring the evolution of the weather. In addition, security experts have created protocols aimed at ending filming and sheltering the approximately 400 people on set if necessary.

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Respect for origin

Twisters has references to the first version, including a prologue that reveals “Dorothy” 2.0, a flying sensor system that Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton’s characters use to study tornadoes.

Additionally, the sunflower field scene near Kate’s house also refers to a shot from the climactic sequence of the first film. A symbolic move for production designer Patrick Sullivan, as he helped plant the actual field of sunflowers seen in the first opus. However, for this new adaptation, the team preferred to create a field of artificial flowers out of PVC pipes and painted leaves, as it would take too long to grow the sunflowers.