George Miller Provides Update On Mad Max: Fury Road Prequel
John F. Trent
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Mad Max creator George Miller recently provided an update on his Mad Max: Fury Road prequel film that is expected to center on a young Furiosa.
Miller spoke with the New York Times indicating that the role of Furiosa will be recast. Charlize Theron played the character in Mad Max: Fury Road, but Miller is looking for a younger actress in her 20s to play the character.
He explained that his original idea was to use Theron and just de-age her, “For the longest time, I thought we could just use CG de-aging on Charlize, but I don’t think we’re nearly there yet.”
He continued, “Despite the valiant attempts on ‘The Irishman,’ I think there’s still an uncanny valley. Everyone is on the verge of solving it, particular Japanese video-game designers, but there’s still a pretty wide valley, I believe.”
The Times reports Miller and company are already looking at actresses to cast in the role.
No specifics on the film were detailed, but the New York Times reveals that Miller and his co-writer Nick Lathouris created extensive back stories for many of the characters in Mad Max: Fury Road including Immortan Joe and the Doof Warrior who is seen playing the guitar that shoots out flames.
In fact, they detail that there is an extensive back story on Theron’s Furiosa that explains what her life was like in the Green Place, how she became one of Immortan Joe’s most hardened warriors, and why she was chosen out of the Vuvalini.
A number of these back stories were adapted into a graphic novel format and published by the now defunct Vertigo Comics label with the same title as the film, Mad Max: Fury Road. The stories in the graphic novel featured Nux, Immortan Joe, The People Eater, and The Bullet Farmer. There was even a Furiosa and Mad Max prequel story as well.
Not only is there an extensive back story for Furiosa, but apparently a full screenplay was written before they even shot Fury Road. Actress Rosie Huntington, who played Splendid in Fury Road, described the screenplay, “It’s genius. I’ve always wondered if that movie’s going to get made.”
The film will also see the return of production designer Colin Gibson. Gibson explained there will be more than a 50% increase in the number of vehicles used in the prequel film. Fury Road used a total of 88 vehicles, but made 135 total. Gibson explained how they plan to go all out in this next film, “The next possible iteration, which is on the table, has even more.”
Cinematographer John Seale is also returning for the prequel, “I’ve had wonderful opportunities to work after ‘Fury Road,’ as you can imagine, and I’ve passed on all of them.”
He added, “But on ‘Fury Road,’ I told George, ‘If anybody else rings, I’m retired. If you ring, we’ll have lunch.’ And seven years later, he rang.”
As for when Fury Road might go into production, Miller explains it won’t happen until he finishes Three Thousand Years of Longing. Miller states, “So after we finish it, and hopefully everything settles down with the pandemic, we’ll see what the world allows us to do with Furiosa.”
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