In the spring and summer of 2023, principal photography on the blockbuster movie "Twisters" zipped from Oklahoma City and El Reno to Fairview and Okarche to Burbank and Pawhuska.
Like the 1996 hit "Twister" before it, the standalone sequel "Twisters" took its production team all over the state, as filming also took place in Chickasha, Midwest Cit y, Spencer, Kingfisher, Calumet, Hinton and Kremlin.
"There's really no skyscapes or landscapes quite like Oklahoma. ... My first time here was January of 2023. So, I had no idea what to expect, but we were embraced right away. The communities were wonderful, the locals were wonderful," executive producer Ashley Jay Sandberg said during the OKC premiere of "Twisters" last month at Harkins Bricktown 16.
"Oklahoma is a character in our film, and there's such a love for it. And we really wanted it to honor the state and the landscape and the people."
Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate in the movie "Twisters," directed by Lee Isaac Chung and filmed in Oklahoma. Scenes of the tornado-ravaged town of Crystal Springs were actually filmed in Chickasha.
But not every Sooner State town depicted in "Twisters" is playing itself in the movie: One of the three Sooner State towns to get torn up by tornadoes in the legacy sequel, Crystal Springs is a real place outside McAlester. But those scenes of devastation were actually filmed in Chickasha, which had its Hollywood close-up delayed for months due to last year's actors strike.
"After we wrapped, my department head, who's been one of the tops in the industry over the last 35 years, she said, 'This is the biggest that it gets,' as far as the scale, the amount of crew, the sets that were built," said John Cowan, a locations assistant who worked on the production in Chickasha.
"I definitely learned a lot about how a studio film is made and what it takes as far as the workforce goes. I call it the traveling circus: 500 people show up in a field, and you've got big wind machines and rain machines and then a bunch of movie stars. So, it was a bunch of fun."
'Twisters' spins to another box-office milestone as it returns to 4DX theatersDirected by two-time Oscar nominee Lee Isaac Chung, who grew up on an Arkansas farm near the Oklahoma border, "Twisters" follows a new generation of storm chasers, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, emerging heartthrob Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos, as they track powerful tornadoes across Oklahoma.
Back in 1996, the original "Twister" rumbled to $241,688,385 at the North American box office, becoming the second-highest grossing movie of the year and whipping up $495.7 million worldwide.
As of Friday, Aug. 23, the long-awaited follow-up film had officially surpassed the domestic box-office total achieved by its 1990s predecessor, having spun up a North American tally of $241,699,420 since it opened in theaters July 19, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
The crew of the movie "Twisters" dressed more than four blocks in Chickasha with destruction and debris to film scenes of a tornado-ravaged neighborhood in Crystal Springs.
Released to own or rent on digital platforms earlier this month, "Twisters" has spun up another $95.1 in international box office for a worldwide theatrical total so far of $336.8 million.
Regal Cinemas is re-releasing "Twisters," along with its 1996 predecessor, in the viral 4DX immersive format for one week starting Aug. 30. In the OKC area, the Regal Warren Moore offers 4DX and will show both "Twisters" and "T wister."
Due to the interest spun up by "Twisters," the National Weather Service Norman is hosting a webinar from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29, on real-life storm science, safety and spotting. The webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
The crew of the movie "Twisters" dressed more than four blocks in Chickasha with destruction and debris to film scenes of a tornado-ravaged neighborhood in Crystal Springs.
How did the 'Twisters' team create cinematic storm damage in Chickasha?Jim Cowan, executive director of the Chickasha Economic Development Council, said it was the look of the shuttered Wan Dora Tavern that inspired Chung to pick Chickasha as a filming location.
To play the part of the twister-ravaged Crystal Springs, the production team selected a four-block stretch in a neighborhood near Chickasha High School, at 101 John Cowan Drive. That street is named for Jim Cowan's father, a longtime educator. His oldest son and his father's namesake, John Cowan, was hired as the local locations assistant.
"Flashback to two years previous, I just moved back to Oklahoma because of the burgeoning film industry, and Reagan (Elkins, a Chickasha filmmaker), had commissioned me through the Oklahoma Film + Music Office to go around the town of Chickasha taking location photographs for future potential movies," John Cowan told The Oklahoman.
"When Isaac Chung and the production team were scouting in the state of Oklahoma and trying to decide where to shoot between Oklahoma and Georgia, they liked some of the photos that I had taken. ... And they decided to shoot in Chickasha."
Production was centered in Chickasha around S 17 Street between W Iowa Avenue and W Dakota Avenue and on Minnesota Avenue between S 16 and 18 streets.
From left, Ashley Jay Sandberg, an executive producer on "Twisters," and John Cowan, a locations assistant who worked on the production in Chickasha, pose for a photo at the wrap party for the movie.
"It was my job to essentially make sure that we had the permission to be there and to make sure that the neighbors in the neighborhood that we were 'destroying' were all taken care of and compensated," Cowan said.
"We built three different prop houses, so it's essentially a real house ... minus a solid foundation or electrical or water fixtures. Through the process of building, though, they built it to make it look like it had already been hit by a tornado."
Set decorator Missy Parker, known for her work on the Oscar-nominated 2016 film "Hidden Figures," and her team scoured area thrift stores buying up items that could be turned into cinematic cyclonic debris.
"The teams that built the prop houses and the set decorators, they're all tops of their craft ... and they were so detail-oriented," Cowan said. "They had cars hanging out of trees; they really dressed it up to make it look like the real deal."
Ahead of filming in Chickasha, a small tornado actually whipped through the Grady County seat, a few blocks away from the fictional Crystal Springs neighborhood.
"We brought in trees that were actually ... mowed over by a tornado, and we brought them onto set at our Chickasha set. To see those trees, it sobers you up a bit, where you realize the violence that they actually do to people and to things," Chung told The Oklahoman. "It helped us to stay sober about that stuff, to shoot it seriously."
The crew of the movie "Twisters" dressed more than four blocks in Chickasha with destruction and debris to film scenes of a tornado-ravaged neighborhood in Crystal Springs.
How did a Hollywood strike leave fake tornado damage in Chickasha for months?Crews spent months researching and shopping, then six weeks building and dressing the Chickasha location, but before filming could take place, production had to be halted last July due to the actors' strike. Principal photography on "Twisters" was only three weeks away from completion when the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), the union that represents American film and TV actors, announced its plans to strike.
"We were two days away from shooting in Chickasha when the strike happened. So, we had our tents and our stuff set up. We actually were set to do the makeup room in the school cafeteria. That was going to work out, because it was July, so school was not in session," Cowan said.
"We wrapped up everything that we could and put up the privacy screen so that it wasn't as atrocious to look at it."
To preserve the structure of the movie houses, they were wrapped in heavy-duty plastic and boarded up. The cinematic debris was pushed into the yards, and a chain-link fence was installed around the properties. Since the strike didn't end until early November, the neighborhood stayed that way for months, and streets had to stay closed around S 16 Street and Minnesota Avenue.
The crew of the movie "Twisters" dressed more than four blocks in Chickasha with destruction and debris to film scenes of a tornado-ravaged neighborhood in Crystal Springs.
When production geared up again in late 2023 after the strike ended, it took crews about two weeks to get the four-block set camera-ready. The production was on a tight deadline to finish filming by the end of December so that the movie could hit its July 19 theatrical release date.
"It definitely was a challenge coming back after Thanksgiving, because the day of shooting, school was literally in session," Cowan said. "Other than maybe the students being able to snap a few photos of Glen Powell, I don't think we disrupted it too much. I think most people thought it was pretty cool, honestly. It was definitely disruptive, but people were excited about what was going on."
For the residents who endured nine months of having their neighborhood play the part of a disaster area, their patience was rewarded with an early screening of the "Twisters" and a chance to snag a few souvenirs.
"The neighbors that were affected by the road closure and had to look at the debris for all that time, it's like each one of them kind of had their eye on a certain piece of memorabilia. ... Whenever they said, 'We're officially wrapped on the location,' I let the neighbors know, 'Go wild, go crazy, take whatever you want,'" Cowan said.
"I got myself a couple of pieces of trash ... but I was absolutely thrilled for the opportunity. I think if anything, it shows that major motion pictures can certainly be made in Oklahoma."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Though filming was delayed, Chickasha still got its 'Twisters' turn
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