A lot of the news we report has the potential to change on a dime, or even fail to come to fruition. It’s Hollywood and that’s the business. Financing falls through or a director leaves and time is wasted. So when we bring news from an interview with Premium Hollywood that Bill Paxton is shopping around a 3D idea for a Twister sequel, know that we’re not even talking about a studio-approved script with an attached director, nor confirmation that Helen Hunt is coming out of obscure semi-retirement to re-team with Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman, a humble enough thespian that returning to the role of Dusty, driver of the “Barn Burner” bus, would not be totally beneath him. We offer none of that.
But we can say Paxton is enthusiastic in the interview about a sequel and has pitched an idea to Kathleen Kennedy after an inspirational road trip to the Ozarks in Missouri with fellow Twister castmate and friend, Scott Thomson (he played Preacher in the film, the one who took a hubcap to the forehead). In Missouri, Paxton followed the trail of the famous Tri-State Tornado of 1925 and developed a story concept that “[gets] into more of the history and the lore, more of a darker version of the first one.” In wanting to make a more serious sequel, Paxton seems to acknowledge the shortcomings of the 1996 blockbuster, but not enough to slaughter those flying cows: “I think you’d still want to have a lot of the dark humor and all of that, with the flying cows and everything.”
Who is for flying bovine animals in 3D? Will we see a new cast? Should Paxton direct? What will the sequel be titled? Will Steven Spielberg and the studio even sign off on this idea? So many questions. Stay tuned.