“There’s certainly more stories there,” emphasized George Miller at the Cannes Furiosa press conference about whether there’s more Mad Max on the horizon.
“Maybe because in order to tell the story of Fury Road, we needed to know about Furiosa and Max in the years before,” said the Oscar winning filmmaker.
“I’ll definitely see how this goes,” he added meaning the box office for Furiosa.
Producer Doug Mitchell praised Warner Bros for “the risk” they took on making Furiosa. The pic was in the works for ten years. “It’s a massive film, it’s very expensive to do that and Warners to take a risk supported by the Australian government…hopefully audiences will embrace it.”
Interestingly enough, Mad Max: Fury Road received a B+ CinemaScore.
Safety first before great cinema per Mitchell.
“We wake up with the reality that we can hurt somebody,” the producer said, “Our priority led by George is not to injure anybody. The second responsibility is to make the film.”
Miller has said that there’s a script for The Wasteland, and while he’s mum on it, it sounds like another prequel. One source close to the film hinted to Deadline that we have yet to see the backstory of Immortan Joe; that storyline has been fleshed out and it wouldn’t be a shocker if that’s next in the wings.
Miller wrote Furiosa before Fury Road and showed that script to Charlize Theron. It was part of the reason why he got her to sign on to Fury Road. In regards to using her in this prequel, it wasn’t an option given the fact that Furiosa is told over the character’s ages of 8 to 18. Miller wasn’t impressed with the younger age tech that was out there used in The Irishman, hence the reason why he went with Alyla Browne as the younger Furiosa and Anya Taylor-Joy as the older.
Fury Road cost close to $190M and grossed over $380M at the global B.O. and yielded six Oscar wins. Furiosa cost $168M, so the bar is a high jump for profitability. So far Rotten Tomatoes reviews are solid at 88% fresh — a much better reception for Furiosa out of Cannes this year than Disney’s early blast off of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny a year ago, that early promo movie by the Mouse House putting a nail in the pic’s box office fortunes.
Furiosa received a near eight minute standing ovation at its premiere in the Grand Lumiere Theatre last night.
The Warner Bros/Village Roadshow production opens on May 24. Four-day domestic opening outlook is $50M.
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