George Miller teases more ‘Max’ during Cannes ‘Furiosa’ premiere

Jordan Hoffman
·3 min read
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The max in “Mad Max” stands for maximizing profit potential?

George Miller, the maverick 79-year-old Australian director, brought the fifth entry into his dystopian action franchise, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” to the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival this week. 

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While it’s been nearly a decade since “Mad Max: Fury Road” – the film that introduced the one-armed automotive avenger Imperator Furiosa, initially played by Charlize Theron but Anya Taylor-Joy in the prequel – Miller says he may not be done with stories set in the “guzzoline”-obsessed Wasteland. 

“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,” Miller said, revving up the engines of devoted fans. “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.”

Initial reviews for “Furiosa” are positive across the spectrum. In her review at the elite, latte-sippin’ New York Times, Manhola Dargis complimented Miller’s attention to detail (“the whirring parts of bodies, machines and ecosystems — how they work”) and at the mouth-breathing video game-centric site IGN, Lex Briscuso whipped out the word “masterpiece” in the opening paragraph. 

The first three “Mad Max” movies, of course, starred Mel Gibson, before Tom Hardy got behind the wheel for “Fury Road.” If the idea Miller is talking about is set “before,” it could mean a similar recasting, like Theron to Taylor-Joy. 

“Mad Max: Fury Road” was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won six of them, in categories like production design and sound. Jenny Bevan won for Best Costumes and wore an outfit straight out of the movie while accepting her trophy. 

Miller has three other Oscar nominations—two screenwriting nods for “Lorenzo’s Oil” and barnyard box office blow-out “Babe,” and a Best Picture nomination for “Babe,” which he produced. He directed the follow-up, “Babe: Pig in the City.” His lone Oscar win is for “Happy Feet,” the dancin’ penguin picture that won Best Animated Feature in 2007.

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