Furiosa goes to camera (starring Anya Taylor-Joy)

I don’t usually write about the start of production of forthcoming films… hell, I barely bother mentioning new trailers for movies because social media does that so well why go to the trouble?

But given Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the greatest movies of the past 10 years, I wanted to flag, with a lot of excitement, that Aussie filmmaker George Miller is taking another trip to his particular dystopic desert.

Here’s an excerpt from the Warner Brothers press release, which includes plot details:

Principal photography is underway on Academy Award-winning filmmaker George Miller’s “Furiosa,” the much-anticipated return to the iconic dystopian world he created more than 30 years ago with the seminal “Mad Max” films, this time with an original new standalone action adventure that will reveal the origins of the powerhouse character from the multiple Oscar-winning global smash “Mad Max: Fury Road.” 

The new feature is being produced by Miller’s own Australian-based Kennedy Miller Mitchell banner, together with the filmmaker’s “Fury Road” partners Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures.  

Anya Taylor-Joy stars in the title role, alongside Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke.

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus.  Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe.  While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Miller penned the script with “Mad Max: Fury Road” co-writer Nico Lathouris and produces alongside his longtime partner, Oscar-nominated producer Doug Mitchell (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Babe”).  Miller’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes such longtime Australian collaborators as production designer Colin Gibson, editor Margaret Sixel, sound mixer Ben Osmo, costume designer Jenny Beavan and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, each of whom won an Oscar for their work on “Mad Max: Fury Road,” as well as first assistant director PJ Voeten and second unit director and stunt coordinator Guy Norris.  The director of photography is Simon Duggan (“Hacksaw Ridge,” “The Great Gatsby”).

Filming is underway in Australia.  The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Now, I also have to admit my excitement around this film’s production is staunched, slightly, by two observations:

1) This is a prequel, and if Hollywood has proven anything it’s that retroactive prequels never live up to the promise of the original material. Sequels sometimes do. (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior certainly did.)

2)And why hasn’t Mad Max: Fury Road gotten a direct sequel? Is it because they wanted to build a movie around Furiosa as played by Charlize Theron but couldn’t get the funding because she’s in her 40s? If so, that suuuucks, and Theron has gone on the record that she’s disappointed to not be playing the role again.  Miller himself told the New York Times he considered casting Theron in Furiosa with the aid of de-aging tech but he felt movies like The Irishman showed it didn’t work.

Word is there is a script for a proper sequel, called (working title) Mad Max: The Wasteland, which may not feature Furiosa at all, and Miller suggests it’s still a ways off.

The good news for Miller fans like me, as we await Mad Max-related movies, is his new movie, 3000 Years of Longing, is due in cinemas this summer.

About the author

flawintheiris

Carsten Knox is a massive, cheese-eating nerd. In the day he works as a journalist in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At night he stares out at the rain-slick streets, watches movies, and writes about what he's seeing.

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