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Warning! Tornado-chasing ’Twister’ sequel strikes a 2024 release date
A severe weather outbreak of the VFX kind is storming to theaters just in time for the 2024 summer box office.
Tornado outbreaks of truly historic proportions aren’t exactly everyday affairs: Nope, they tend to come around only once in a generation. So it probably makes sense that Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s wind-whipping followup to the 1996 disaster smash Twister has been forecast to strike approximately 28 years after its box office-shattering predecessor.
Via The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming sequel to the VFX spectacle that first sent stars Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton scrambling for shelter is spinning toward theaters for a July 19, 2024 premiere. Titled Twisters (and that extra ’S’ somehow makes it all seem extra-ominous), the sequel’s release date isn’t the only bit of new information in the film’s still-developing storm track.
RELATED: Amblin and Universal spooling up 'Twister' sequel some 25 years in the making
After dabbling in a director search that initially touched down on Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski, the movie has at last landed on Lee Isaac Chung, according to THR’s report. Chung’s semi-autobiographical feature Minari took both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance 2020, in addition to racking up nominations at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.
Penning the script for Twisters is The Revenant writer Mark L. Smith, whose early draft reportedly wowed even Steven Spielberg and originally helped get the sequel pinging on Amblin Entertainment’s radar. Alongside Universal, Warner Bros. (which distributed the first Twister) will reportedly help finance the film, which is being produced by Amblin co-founder Frank Marshall.
The original Twister starred Hunt and Paxton as storm chasers whose unresolved romantic issues came to a dramatic head as the storm of a lifetime swept them up in its devastating path through the Oklahoma plains. Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin scripted the 1996 movie, which spun its way to an approximate $500 million global box office — still an impressive haul when figuring in the 28-year inflation gap.
Though Hunt has been mentioned in previous reports as a possible legacy casting score for the new movie, there’s so far no definite word on who’ll be chasing the new outbreak when Twisters rolls around. Keep watching the skies as the clouds part on additional news ahead of the movie’s July 19, 2024 release date.
Suddenly in the mood for some inclement weather and high-stakes seasonal action? Christmas Twister is now streaming on Peacock!
