Twister Director Explains How The New 4K Release Enhances The Movie & Reflects On Working With Bill Paxton

Summary Twister's 4K UHD release enhances audio and visuals, offering an immersive experience.

Director Jan De Bont emphasizes practical effects and cast performances in the film.

Twister's cast, including Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, create a relatable dynamic for audiences.

In Twister Jo and Bill Harding are two storm chasers hurdling toward divorce. The couple is attempting to create a weather alert system for dangerous weather, notably tornadoes tied in part to Jo's tragic history. In order to accomplish this goal, they must put themselves in the crosshairs of extremely violent tornadoes that put not only their lives at risk but their team as well.

The 4K UHD release of Twister is the perfect way for fans of the iconic movie to experience the movie like never before. Every aspect of the movie is enhanced with better audio quality and cleaner visuals. The storms come alive on screen, dropping fans straight into the danger. This is the perfect time to experience Twister with the theatrical premiere of Twisters just around the corner.

Related Twister Cast & Where They Are Now While the modern cult classic film Twister stands out for a number of reasons, its iconic cast is one of the contributing factors to its greatness.

Screen Rant interviewed Twister director Jan De Bont for the 4K UHD release of the classic disaster movie. De Bont explained what movie inspired the importance of having the actors do their own stunts and the importance of practical effects. He also reflects on the casting process and why he fought for Helen Hunt to be cast.

Jan De Bont Explains Why He Wanted The Cast To Perform Their Own Stunts

De Bont explained how the 4K version of Twister enhances the audio and visuals. This opportunity gave him an opportunity to go back and retool certain details which made the experience even more cinematic and exciting.

Jan De Bont: I'm glad you felt that because we spend a lot of time on improving the soundtrack, not only the visuals, but the soundtrack too because again, at the end of a movie and there's no more times we have to get it finished. Movie has to be in the theater next week. So you do your best. And I was okay, but I never had all the release sounds and also what I really wanted for this ultra DVD. I wanted to not only get a really sense of full surround, but I wanted it to be almost at the same time intimate, like in a movie theater, you have those big echoy rooms, but it's that the sound is so far away from you. But now when you watch that home and all that screens, there's new TV screens and you have this really unique soundtrack around you is so cool. I was so excited listening to it again, it was really fantastic.

It looks so sharp and clean. I mean, we see the sky really go green in this film and it just pops. It's as if I was almost watching it in the theater back in the day.

Jan De Bont: That's exactly what I feel too. I mean because we now have access to super high quality TVs and super high quality surround sound system for your TV, to me, sitting at home looking at it and hearing it, it is actually a little better than in the theater. Because in the theater, I mean this little image of one film is expanded to 50 feet, but here that is all back to scale to 55, 65, 75 inches. So there's a lot more information on this screen. Which is so much more interesting to see, and this to me, you will see a lot more than what you've ever seen on screen. There's no doubt about it.

Bill Paxton said that he didn't have to act a lot in those intense scenes because everything was so real and practical. Can you talk about shooting practically in those scenes, how Bill kind of dove into those scenes, and also how Bill inspired the rest of the team for those type of scenes?

Jan De Bont: That was my ultimate goal is that I wanted first to have a cast that looked like storm chasers. That really had that kind of feel. A little rough, and not only that, but when filming it, the most important thing to me was that you could see the actual reactions of the actors when this stunt is happening, when the action is happening. So not separate, it's always done in movies. You film one side and then you film [the other]. I filmed them both at the same time. The responses are really super real. Not only that, they are confronted with walls of debris and ice and rain all thrown at them. That's all real rain. That's not visual, it's not special effects, but it's real. That reality that makes actors forget that they're acting. They just have to survive, basically. To see that on screen, to see those responses, the audience know this is not acting; this is real. These are real responses.

Jan De Bont On The Dynamic Between Bill Paxton & Helen Hunt

De Bont reflected on the casting process and why he fought for Hunt. He broke down why he argued against casting more famous actors and his concerns about how it could overshadow the story. De Bont also discussed the dynamic between Hunt and Paxton.

Jan De Bont: Of course in the beginning they wanted a biggest star, but I really was reacting very negative to that because stars in a movie like this, it would distract. I don't want to see Tom Cruise playing Bill Paxon for instance, because you would only see Tom Cruise. You never will see the storm chaser. That is with Helen too. I knew that she was a really good actors, she had very little experience in movies, but for the studio they thought there wasn't really enough of a star quality except that's not the star quality. Star quality is the whole group as a team. That's the star. Then the other star are the tornadoes. That's it. It's not about one big star and one other big star. That doesn't work. This film is all about how real people respond to a real situation. She was perfect in that. She really was always a little off stance against Bill, how she plays with him all the time and he falls in every trap that he set for him. That's like real life to me. He wasn't even aware that she set a trap rip and he steps right into it. Then has to realize, and that is something audiences can relate to because we all have made problems in our lives and had to deal with it. It's really funny how that chemistry only became better as the movie went on between the whole team.

In one behind-the-scenes feature, you talk about Philip Seymour Hoffman. You say that he kind of walked in and this is exactly who you pictured for Dustin Davis as the character. Look, he's a brilliant performer and his performance is so nuanced. Can you talk about casting him? Because he was also one of the last people you cast, if I'm not mistaken.

Jan De Bont: Yeah, he was the absolute last person because we had seen a lot of people and I kind of imagined him to just be somebody aloof who is kind of a sloppy but funny, bigger than life. I wanted all those things in that one character and laid back and he was all that. So when I saw him and I saw him in his outfit, in his too baggy pants and the loose shirts and wild hair, I thought that's him. Immediately, I was so convinced. And he turned out that person. He made it into a character. In the script he was barely, I mean he was present but more present as he was there as well. But he never had anything to say. And then I made, of course, scenes for him and then suddenly this character came out that everybody loves and he was just a really big contributor to this movie. I mean really unexpectedly to be honest.

I feel like I'm a part of the team as they're going on their journey. Now, one thing I love about home entertainment releases is that you can do your own at home double features. So if you were to pair Twister up with any other film that people can watch at home as a double feature, what would you choose?

Jan De Bont: I would choose a John Frankenheimer movie. It's called The Train. The reason I named that film is because that was the first time I saw that an actor did all the stunts himself. And how John Frankenheimer climbed on the train, ran on it, climbed down, had fight, climbed down the pole all on camera. I thought, That's what I want to do. I mean, I want the actors to do it and not have stunned, doubles cutaway to stand double cutaway to that. No, I want the actors to actually be able to physically do that. They came, why couldn't they? He could. When I saw that, I said, that's the type of movie I want to make. So to me that was extremely inspiring.

About Twister

Close

Two storm chasers on the brink of divorce must work together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes.

Twister is available on 4K and UHD July 9.

Source: Screen Rant Plus