When Lee Isaac Chung was announced as the director of the long-awaited sequel Twisters, many of us scratched our heads. Chung is, obviously, a talented filmmaker. His most recent film, Minari, had just come off multiple Oscar nominations including a win. But to go from that small, personal film to the big-budget sequel to a beloved, albeit admittedly dumb blockbuster seemed a little beneath him.
In fact, it was the opposite. Twisters was a movie Chung had not only almost been born into but became a near obsession while working on Minari. That film is mostly a quiet take on family but it ends with a burning barn, which Chung decided to do practically. “We actually lit this barn on fire and just took the risk of filming it in one take,” he told the Associated Press. “I remember being so filled with adrenaline after that that I was like ‘I want to make a disaster film.’”
Chung (who directed an episode of The Mandalorian) also grew up in rural Arkansas, near where the original film Twister took place. He saw it in a theater there and had been so well trained to fear tornadoes because they were so devastating, the movie opened him up to things he never imagined possible. “I remember thinking, ‘I didn’t know you could chase after these things,’” Chung said. “That, to me, was very mind-blowing.”
After getting the job, Chung was adamant that he had to shoot it on location in Oklahoma, which is exactly what happened. “I felt like I was coming back home,” Chung said. “Minari and Twisters, even though they’re very different, I kind of think of them as my Oklahoma movies.” And, on at least one occasion, filming had to stop because of actual tornadoes. “We got the shots we needed. The skies were perfect because it looked like a tornado. We got everyone out of there safely. And a tornado actually touched the ground after we filmed it,” Chung said. “It felt like a strange, ‘only when you’re making a movie’ sort of day.”
Basically, while Lee Isaac Chung may not have seemed like the obvious choice to make Twisters, he may have in fact been the only one who could do it justice. Read more from the director over at the AP and be on the lookout for the film when it’s released July 19.
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