The dust had barely settled, and the scent of gasoline lingered in the air following Wednesday night's adrenaline-fueled Cannes premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Despite over a decade of development and a challenging production, filmmaker George Miller and stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth still had work to do.
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| Anya Taylor-Joy, George Miller and Chris Hemsworth at the 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' photo call in Cannes COURTESY OF NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY IMAGES |
They faced the international press in a lively conference, discussing the long journey to their Fury Road prequel. Australian filmmaker Miller has crafted five Mad Max films over 45 years, but none have garnered as much anticipation as Furiosa.
This is largely due to the success of Fury Road, Miller's 2015 masterpiece that introduced Imperator Furiosa to the world, portrayed by Charlize Theron. Fury Road is hailed as one of the greatest action films ever made and surprised many by becoming an awards season powerhouse, ultimately winning six Oscars.
Miller and his team developed the Furiosa script alongside Fury Road, also crafting a script detailing Max's (Tom Hardy) life in the year leading up to that film.
"There are certainly other stories there. Mainly because in order to tell the story of Fury Road, we had to know the backstory of Furiosa and Max in the year before," said Miller when asked about the possibility of more Mad Max movies. "That was a tool for the cast and crew. We know the Max story from the year before. I'll definitely wait to see how this [Furiosa] goes, before we even think about it."
The initial reception has been promising. Furiosa received a seven-minute standing ovation on Wednesday night, a reception that could have lasted longer as Miller took the microphone, unintentionally quieting the applause.
During the press conference on Thursday, Miller highlighted how in the early Mad Max days, international distributors preferred the apocalyptic tale with Australian voices. However, when the original Mad Max film from 1979 reached the U.S., it was dubbed over with American accents.
"The film completely flopped in America," noted Miller, who now, with Furiosa, has a Mad Max installment featuring predominantly Australian accents. He expressed initial doubt about British actor Tom Burke, who plays an ally of Furiosa, being able to master the famously challenging accent (which he did).
Miller also admitted that he never imagined he would continue with the franchise for this long. "If you are just repeating what you've done, there's no appetite to do that," Miller said, emphasizing the importance of making each film distinct. "I've often wondered, 'Am I crazy?' Then I realize I'm driven by my curiosity. I feel that I'm learning."
The action-packed Furiosa involved a sequence that required 79 days to shoot, highlighting the film's intense production. Taylor-Joy emphasized the significance of her stunt double, Hayley Wright, for both her safety and mental well-being. The duo met on set and developed a close bond.
Taylor-Joy expressed her gratitude, saying, "She is now one of my best friends in the entire world. Rather than it being an environment of aggression...it was, 'I love you. I believe in you,'" describing how Wright taught her the ropes of stunt performance.
Hemsworth delved into the process of creating his villainous character, Dementus, in collaboration with Miller. One journalist humorously described Dementus as Darth Vader with a hint of Looney Tunes, which made Hemsworth chuckle.
"It was important to George and I to find the humanity in the character and sprinkle in moments of vulnerability and understand he was a product of the Waste Land and had suffered tremendously," Hemsworth shared about portraying the leader of the Biker Horde.
Following its Cannes premiere, Furiosa received a solid 88 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, The Hollywood Reporter's chief critic David Rooney offered a more reserved take, noting in his review, "Hate to be a grouch when legions of social media film bros are breathlessly worshipping at the altar of The Demi-God of Cinema, George Miller, but Furiosa is a big step down from Mad Max: Fury Road."
Rooney compared the films, highlighting Fury Road's grit, gravitas, and relentless energy, contrasting it with Furiosa's more disjointed narrative and lack of tension or fluidity, criticizing its "pretentious chapter structure."
The ultimate test for Furiosa awaits at the box office when the $168 million Warner Bros. feature releases on May 22. Meanwhile, Miller, reflecting on his childhood where he and his brothers crafted stories of medieval knights using trash can lids as shields, plans to continue his creative approach, treating the act of creation with the same imaginative spirit as a child at play.
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