Helen Hunt Twister 2 Shut Down By The Studio For Shady Reasons?
Helen Hunt had an idea for Twister 2 based on diversity, but the studio wanted nothing to do with her or her plans.
There’s a new Twister 2 movie coming soon, but it’s not the film that the original star Helen Hunt had in mind. Variety recently shared that the star pitched a sequel for the classic film, but it was rejected by Universal Pictures in a way that seemed shady — Hunt ideas were never even considered. The studio is now moving forward with its own cast and plot, which is set to hit theaters on July 19, 2024.
Part of the reason why the rejection was so shady was that Helen Hunt didn’t even get a meeting with the studio. That’s surprising, seeing as the Academy Award-winning actress was in the original film, and had a really great idea for a new, modern Twister 2. Further, Helen Hunt has been completely snubbed by the studio and is not involved in the new sequel at all.
In June 2020, Helen Hunt came up with an interesting plot and a diverse cast for a Twister 2 film. The story would focus on a group of racially diverse storm chasers at a historically Black college and university trying to develop rockets that could shoot into tornadoes, like a new Dorothy on steroids. This further confirms the shadiness of the rejection because any Hollywood studio should be jumping at the opportunity for a film with a diverse cast and a modern, interesting plot.
Helen Hunt planned to write the script alongside Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal and then direct the film herself. Currently, the As Good As It Gets actress has mostly only directed episodes of tv shows like This Is Us, Mad About You, and American Housewife, but Twister 2 could have been her directing breakthrough, like Elizabeth Banks with Movie 43. It looks like we’ll just have to wait and see if Helen Hunt will get the opportunity that she deserves to direct a movie.
Though we don’t know much about the plot of Twister 2 (which will be called Twisters), we do know that it will be directed by Oscar nominee Lee Isaac Chung and that the screenplay will be written by Mark L. Smith. We also know that the studio has found a replacement for Helen Hunt: the young actress Daisy Edgar-Jones who starred in Normal People and Where the Crawdads Sing. While Daisy is the only cast member yet to be revealed, it doesn’t bode well for the diverse cast that Helen Hunt wanted.
The original film Twister was released in 1996 and grossed almost $500 million, making it the second highest-grossing film of the year. The film was directed by Jan de Bont and starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as passionate storm chasers who followed tornadoes around the South while also navigating their complicated relationship. The film closes with the two of them surviving an F-5 tornado after releasing Dorothy II into the storm to capture critical data.
Along with Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman will also not be reprising their roles in the Twister 2 sequel since they both unfortunately passed away.
