EXCLUSIVE: Abramorama has acquired North American distribution rights to Never Stop Chasing, a documentary portrait of storm chaser Reed Timmer who was an inspiration for Glen Powell’s character in Twisters.
Directed by Ken Cole, the film, which has been color graded in Dolby Vision and mixed in Dolby Atmos, is set to release stateside on August 21.
The film is described as “a 20-year reckoning with obsession, loss, and the relentless pull of violent weather”.
Timmer, who has a Ph.D. in meteorology, rose to fame on Discovery Channel’s hit show Storm Chasers. His maverick persona and armored storm-chasing vehicle, the Dominator 3 — featured on Jay Leno’s Garage — directly inspired the character of Tyler Owens, played by Glen Powell in the 2024 summer blockbuster Twisters.
The project reunites Timmer and Cole — longtime collaborators who first worked together on the PBS film Tornado Glory in 2003 and later on the independent documentary series Tornado Chasers, which streamed across Hulu, Prime Video, and Tubi — for their “most ambitious and emotionally charged project to date. Cole, who like Timmer holds a degree in meteorology and has spent two decades chasing storms alongside him behind the lens, brings an intimate insider’s perspective to a story that is as much about grief and mortality as it is about adrenaline.”
The doc is said to anchor its emotional stakes in the subculture’s most tragic moment: the 2013 El Reno tornado — the largest tornado ever recorded — which claimed the lives of legendary chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and chaser Carl Young. The film also explores Timmer’s grief over the 2018 passing of his best friend and longtime Storm Chasers partner, Joel Taylor.
The team deployed a 22-camera verité setup, using high-fidelity cinema cameras including the Sony FX6 and FX3 to capture 360-degree direct-cinema footage as Timmer and “Team Dominator” plunged into violent storms.
Cole enlisted Emmy-winning composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson (Cobra Kai) to craft an 80-minute original score performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra
“Having someone who actually understands the science, who’s felt the same storms, make a film about this journey means everything to me, and Ken has been there for all of it,” commented Reed Timmer. “I’ve never been able to fully explain to people why we do this. I hope audiences walk out of the theater feeling what we feel out there — because once you feel it, you understand why you can never stop chasing.”
“Reed Timmer’s story is one of extraordinary courage, profound loss, and an obsession so pure it borders on the mythic,” said Damon G. Smith, SVP of Business Growth and Creative Strategy, and Karol Martesko-Fenster, CEO of AB2 Media Group & Abramorama. “Ken Cole has transformed two decades of extraordinary access into a film that belongs on the biggest screen possible, with the biggest sound possible. We are proud to bring this experience to audiences nationwide this summer.”
“I’ve been pointing cameras at Reed for over twenty years,” added director Ken Cole. “In hail, in winds that can hurl multi-ton vehicles through the air, in moments of grief none of us expected to face. This film is everything I’ve learned about him, about this world, and honestly about myself. My goal from the beginning was to make an audience feel what it actually feels like to be inside a massive tornado— not the Hollywood version, but the real thing: the low-frequency roar, the green sky, and the terrifying wonder of something much bigger than you.”
Executive producers are Nicole Tao, David Wu, Michael McGrale, Bill Beach, James Groth, Carmel Wood and Jon Wood. Co-producer is Kam Stocks.
Doc and concert film specialist Abramorama recently released Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It and Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants.
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