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'Top Gun: Maverick' star Glen Powell joins Daisy Edgar-Jones in 'Twister' sequel at Universal
The long-awaited follow-up will start ripping up houses on July 19, 2024.
It seems Glen Powell is building a fruitful Hollywood career by starring in long-awaited sequels to old classics.
Deadline reports that the Top Gun: Maverick star has been tapped to star alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing) in Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment's follow-up to Twister. Aptly-titled Twisters, the blockbuster is scheduled to hit the big screen next summer. Academy Award nominee Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) will direct from a screenplay written by Mark L. Smith (The Midnight Sky). Frank Marshall, longtime producing partner of Amblin founder Steven Spielberg is on board as a producer.
RELATED: Predicting tornadoes and flying cows: The science behind 'Twister'
Famed sci-fi author Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park) wrote the 1996 original with his then-wife Anne-Marie Martin (Halloween II). Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Alan Ruck, Todd Field, and Jeremy Davies co-starred. Directed by de Bont (Speed), the film racked up close to half a billion dollars at the worldwide box office against a production budget of $92 million. It was also nominated for for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound at the 69th Academy Awards.
"We weren’t sure at the time if we could even make the movie, because of the difficulty of the effects. And it took a long time — the hardware and the software had to be designed for the movie. It was like two steps forward and one step backward, but it was exciting," de Bont said during an interview with Vulture in 2020.
He continued: "One of the scenes we did as a test, to see if we could make it believable, was the opening with the farm and the family going into the shelter. Another test we did was a shot from the inside of a car, because there would be so many images [like that] — seeing something come at you from the storm and hit the windshield, all while you’re moving forward in a real car. It looked so real. It was such a great effect — something coming right toward the camera, and it really hits the windshield. The studio people were totally stunned at how effective it was. That ultimately decided whether the movie was made. Nothing else. Not the script."
Twisters will start ripping up trees and houses on July 19, 2024 — nearly three decades after the original.
In the mood for more movies where nature fights back against vainglorious humans? Piranha, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III, and Jurassic World, are all streaming on Peacock!
