Prey Director To Lead Twister Sequel?
Dan Trachtenberg has revealed on Twitter that is not directing the Twister sequel.
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Director Dan Trachtenberg has been rumored to take on a remake of Twister, the 1996 disaster movie executive produced by Steven Spielberg that helped solidify the film career of actor Helen Hunt. Trachtenberg put those rumors to rest for the time being with a very blunt and direct quote via Twitter this week, echoing what many feared would be the case that he in fact was not involved in making a sequel to Twister a possibility close to 30 years since the original was released. The 41-year-old director is best known for his work on the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys, as well as the 2022 hit film Prey, which he co-wrote with Patrick Aison and directed for Hulu as part of the highly-successful Predator franchise.
According to a report by MovieWeb, while Dan Trachtenberg denies that he will be directing anything to do with Twister, a possible sequel called Twisters may be in the works at Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. Rumors of who could be tapped to helm the new projects have circulated for months, with Trachtenberg offered as a possibility alongside other sought-after directors like Travis Knight, known for the 2016 stop-motion animated film Kubo and the Two Strings and 2018’s Bumblebee, as well as the directing duo behind the well-received 2018 documentary Free Solo, Jimmy Chin, and Elizabeth Chai Vaserhelyi. As of this writing, it doesn’t appear that Danny Trachtenberg has been contacted about directing Twisters, but that doesn’t mean the talented filmmaker won’t get the call in the future.
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, Prey was a surprise hit of the summer this year after a stellar debut at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022 and mostly positive reviews from critics and starred newcomer Amber Midthunder as a Comanche warrior that protects her tribe from the dangerous alien known as Predator. Released as a Hulu original film and produced by 20th Century Studios, Prey is the prequel to the first four films of the Predator franchise and is the fifth installment overall. The original 1987 Predator starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of a rescue team tasked with claiming hostages in a Central America rainforest, only to discover a highly advanced extra-terrestrial is waiting to stalk and kill them one by one.
In contrast to Dan Trachtenberg’s supernatural horror film Prey, Twister was directed by Jan de Bont of Speed fame and concerned a group of storm chasers that invent a highly advanced weather alert system, but it is designed to be put into place directly inside a set of violent tornadoes to get accurate readings. The film was a huge box office success upon its release in May 1996, becoming the second highest-grossing movie of that year while netting a box office gross of over $495 million against a budget of around $92 million. Twister starred Helen Hunt, the late Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Succession star Alan Ruck, Jami Gertz, a young Philip Seymour Hoffman, and future Tár director Todd Field when he was still acting.
