A thrilling new course for the 'Twisters' franchise

MANILA, Philippines — This July, the epic studio disaster genre returns with an adrenaline-pumping, seat-gripping, big-screen thrill ride that puts you in direct contact with one of nature’s most wondrous — and destructive — forces.

“Twisters,” a current-day chapter of the 1996 blockbuster, “Twister” storms into Philippine cinemas starting July 17.  Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of “Minari,” “Twisters” stars Golden Globe nominee Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Where the Crawdads Sing,” “Normal People”) and Glen Powell (“Anyone But You,” “Top Gun: Maverick”) as opposing forces who come together to try to predict, and possibly tame, the immense power of tornadoes.

For Chung, tornadoes were just a part of growing up in Arkansas, but he was enthralled with the original "Twister" movie when it came out in 1996. Fast forward to the present, Chung is thrilled to be part of this year's "Twisters."

"When the producers came to me to direct this new chapter, I was truly honored and terrified to make the transition into tentpole, summer blockbuster territory. But the film embodies what inspired me to take on the challenge; I wanted to run toward my fears and not away from them.”

Directing "Twisters" would help him branch into a genre he’d been chasing his whole career.

“I thought of 'Minari' as my last-ditch effort to make it work. If this was the end of the road for me as a filmmaker, I wanted to go out telling the one story that meant the most to me. Fortunately, it turned out so well that I didn’t have to quit, and better, it opened new doors for me,” he says.

“Twisters was the type of film I dreamed I could someday do as a filmmaker. I always wanted to do an action movie. I always wanted to work on a big scale. And I love telling stories about multiple characters in which their relationships and fates are all intertwined. The ironic thing is that in many ways, 'Minari', while being small and personal, was a great precursor for 'Twisters', as it shares some similar elements, from an ending that’s something of a disaster movie on an intimate scale, to being a story set in a part of America that I happen to know really, well.”

It was also an opportunity for Chung to honor a film that influenced him, along with directors that influenced him throughout his life, beginning with Jan de Bont, director of the 1996 "Twister" film.

"From beginning to end, I returned to Twister, and I would ask myself: ‘How would Jan do this?’ Because he did it so well, and I wanted to honor the fandom around the first film,” Chung explains.

“But I’ve always loved Steven Spielberg, as well, and the process of working with him has been so great. I went back and watched Jaws a few times, as well as War of the Worlds— movies about powerful forces of nature or monstrous things coming at you or looming above you. They captured some of the tone we wanted for our tornadoes.”