Most people want the tornado to be the star in such movies. When I was working on the original Twister, I remember Helen Hunt being upset that everyone was talking about the tornado effects, not the acting. Maybe if producers took a different approach and developed better story lines around the "tornado scenes," it would work better. I will be happy to option my life history of chasing for a small fee....lol
I'll have to locate the raw
Twister premiere video from May 1996, which if memory serves was in either Norman or Oklahoma City? I don't recall off hand if there were on camera interviews with actors, staffers, etc... but if so, I'm sure the commentary by a select few was quite reserved and uncritical of the production due to the then box office success. I provided a DVD copy of the
Twister premiere to the OU School of Meteorology library in 2015, which is likely still on a shelf somewhere.
From a writers room "ideas" perspective, and I can only speak from a television newsroom or sketch comedy "table read" perspective, Jan de Bont and his associate producers did have a genuine drive to tell an effective cinematic story, but beyond the "art" of cinema and the wow factor (or cheesy) digital FX's in 1995-96, the bottom line
then was to sell tickets at the box office with a later focus on home video the same year. The story line worked for general audiences because it was new then, and also played a significant role in how many took up the hobby or careers in meteorology. Great! Mission accomplished Hollywood. Flash to 2024 and the reboot machine is full tilt boogie. It's not just
Twisters, of which I still have not watched, but television shows as well.
Story lines, like the atmosphere, evolve effectively
only with the right dynamic ingredients, and that includes the producers, assistant producers, part time writers, etc. You can bang out a pretty effective screenplay solo, but once others get involved, specifically studio executives who rarely have any idea how cinematic creativity functions, a well developed idea, characters or story gets transformed into something that executives think will "sell" to the masses. Did this happen with
Twisters? Probably. I'm certain there were at least a few on that production writing staff that had good intentions and wanted to make a good film, but mostly, the issue I see as a producer is being accepted on a mainstream level when one dares to step out of the box with a original premise
and getting seasoned, well paid executive and studio types on board with "new" said concepts in order to get the production green lit.
Blake
BLAKE WILLIAM NAFTEL
Artist, Comedy Writer, Meteorologist
616.643.7762
blakenaftel.com
threereelfilms.com
That is not a joke. It's a fact.
Those did happen up until a point circa 2001 and boy howdy, are there stories and video as well! Storm chaser gatherings jumped the shark around 2007/08 at one of the Denver Chaser Conventions when a intoxicated altercation led to one infamous moment where one storm chaser kicked another square in the Jacobs during a petty fight over copyright. I've written that moment into a recent script as well. 
While I skipped those years of sky drama gatherings after speaking at the 2005 convention, historically, that era of storm chasing is out to pasture.
