The Story Behind Stanley Kubrick Letting Twister Director Jan De Bont Use A Clip From The Shining In His Tornado Movie: ‘The Studio Actually Didn’t Believe It’
And why it meant so much to Jan de Bont.
Later this month, audiences will ride the stormy summer blockbuster season through the offering that is Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters, a reimagining/reinterpretation of the classic 1996 thriller, helmed by Jan de Bont. The new Twisters already is getting positive reactions, including a vote of confidence from the unofficial King of Blockbusters, Tom Cruise. Imagine the irony, then, if Cruise were to learn the full story behind his one-time Eyes Wide Shut collaborator Stanley Kubrick supporting Jan de Bont on the original Twister, allowing him to use a clip from The Shining during a pivotal scene in the original film?
Behind-the-scenes stories like this are the best. Jan de Bont was coming off of Speed, and looking for his next high-profile adventure. He found it in Twister, a movie about professional storm chasers who increasingly encounter more dangerous tornadoes over the course of the film. De Bont, from the very beginning, knew that he wanted to associate one of the bigger twisters – visually – with Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece, The Shining. And while appearing on CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, De Bont told the cool story about how the movie was included in his film.
You can see a clip of The Shining during this scene from Twister, when a massive tornado rips apart a drive-in movie theater:
Whenever a clip from an existing movie appears in a new movie, you know that permission had to be granted. So I asked Jan de Bont what it took to get The Shining in his tornado movie, and he told ReelBlend:
But Jan de Bont, as expected, met resistance from the studio. For one thing, they assumed that Stanley Kubrick would balk at his footage being used in a tornado blockbuster. Still, de Bont wanted to give it a shot. He told ReelBlend:
Just knowing that Stanley Kubrick, the legend behind so many cinematic classics, saw and loved Speed brings me such joy. But then, when you learn how important Kubrick was to Jan de Bont, the whole story collects a beautiful emotional bow. He finally tells ReelBlend:
And we are fans of Jan de Bont. You have to listen to his full conversation on the ReelBlend podcast.
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And make sure that you grab the 4K release of the original Twister ahead of the new movie arriving in theaters on July 19.
Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.