There are plenty of ways to describe what happened at Caesars Palace on Wednesday when Universal Pictures delivered Lee Isaac Chung‘s Twisters to the Colosseum stage. Some examples: The film whipped up a frenzy; exclusive footage spun through Sin City; action scenes blew away theater owners, etc. etc.
All of the above work as Universal debuted never-before-seen scenes of the summer release courtesy of Chung and his cast members Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos who turned up for an extended introduction.
Chung was first to walk out — an appearance that marked his first time at CinemaCon — and the director said that many in the audience might be wondering why he decided to jump into summer blockbuster tentpole territory after carving out a career in independent film. “I’ve been fascinated by tornadoes all my life,” he said, adding that he grew up in Arkansas where tornadoes were just a way of life. “When Twister came out in 1996, I was in high school, and was absolutely mesmerized.”
He said in creating the world, “We really want to bring audiences up close to things that are bigger than us and also create an experience with things that bring us fear, awe and reverence.” He continued by saying that he did the same for himself by running directly into his fear and not away from it.
To create an authentic experience, Chung said his team worked with actual weather scientists and employed real-life storm chasers to record real-life footage. “This is meant to be a joyful, fun ride,” Chung continued. He then said he’s aware that there’s a lot of pessimism out there about the natural world but he hopes his film counters that by delivering “joy and awe and wonder” about the environment.
Chung then cleared the stage and welcomed his three actors who spent the majority of their time on stage explaining the rigors of filming a disaster epic. “WE all signed on for this movie thinking we would be on a soundstage covered in dots, maybe a delicate spritz on our faces,” Powell said. But that was not the case. “We were on location in 120-degree heat racing through the plains of the Midwest,” Ramos added.
Powell and Ramos traded anecdotes about the intensity of the production until Edgar-Jones cut them off and said, “Why are we telling when we could be showing them?” Some props people then brought out fans to blow in the actor’s faces with some debris (confetti) and even an oversized stuffed cow. “OK, well, anyway, tha’ts a little of what it was like to make Twisters,” Powell said.
With the experiment over, they then introduced the high-octane footage. “We wanted to deliver something different for your summer audiences,” Edgar-Jones said. “We are so proud of it and excited for what’s in store.” Powell: “Get ready to be blown away.”
The film stars Powell, Ramos, Edgar-Jones, Kiernan Shipka, David Corenswet, Sasha Lane, Maura Tierney, Katy O’Brian, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Harry Hadden-Paton, Nik Dodani and Tunde Adebimpe. Chung, who broke out with the Steven Yeun-starrer Minari, directs from Mark L. Smith’s script. Patrick Crowley, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg serve as producers on Twisters.
Though it has been described as a sequel or follow-up to Jan de Bont’s well-known action pic from 1996 starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, members of Chung’s team have said otherwise. “We’re not trying to recreate the story from the first one,” Powell previously told Vogue. “It’s a completely original story. There are no characters from the original movie back, so it’s not really a continuation. It’s just its own standalone story in the modern day.”
Universal has described it as “a current-day chapter of the 1996 blockbuster.” Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Cooper, a former storm chaser haunted by an encounter with a tornado during college. After studying storm patterns on screens safely in New York City, she’s lured back to the open plains by a friend, Javi (Ramos), to test a new tracking system. Once she arrives, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), a charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures. As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena are unleashed, and the competing teams find themselves in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over Oklahoma.
Twisters hits theaters July 19. Warner Bros. Pictures retains international rights.
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