I think this film is one of the GOATs of the 2010s. The action, the acting by Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, the cinematography
Mad Max: Fury Road Appreciation Thread
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āMad Max: Fury Roadā: The Oral History of a Modern Action Classic (Published 2020)
Production was shut down three times, the stars often clashed, and studio executives were baffled. Hereās how a difficult shoot led to an Oscar-winning masterpiece.
The characters were intriguing, the stunts were exhilarating, and every frame was bursting with incredible, howād-they-do-that nerve. āMad Max: Fury Roadā set a new high-water mark for action filmmaking when it came out in 2015, and no summer blockbuster since has been able to match its turbocharged ingenuity.
Even Oscar-winning auteurs have been awed by George Millerās operatically staged spectacle. āParasiteā director Bong Joon Ho said last year that the scale of the movie brought him to tears, while Steven Soderbergh put it more bluntly: āI donāt understand how theyāre not still shooting that film,ā he said in a 2017 interview, āand I donāt understand how hundreds of people arenāt dead.ā
So how did Miller and his cast pull it off and survive to tell the tale?
Five years after āFury Roadā was released, I asked 20 of its key players what making it was like. Though its post-apocalyptic plot is deceptively simple ā road warrior Max (Tom Hardy) and the fierce driver Furiosa (Charlize Theron) must race across the desert to escape the vengeful Immortan Joe and his fleet of kamikaze War Boys ā filming the movie was anything but easy.
āLike anything that has some worth to it, it comes with complicated feelings,ā Theron said. āI feel a mixture of extreme joy that we achieved what we did, and I also get a little bit of a hole in my stomach. Thereās a level of āthe body remembersā trauma related to the shooting of this film thatās still there for me.ā
āIt was one of the wildest, most intense experiences of my life,ā said the actress Riley Keough, while her co-star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley added, āYou could have made another movie on the making of it.ā As for Hardy? āIt left me irrevocably changed,ā he said.
GEORGE MILLER (director) For so long, whenever the idea of another āMad Maxā movie came up, I thought there wasnāt much more I could do with it, but I specifically remember the moment that changed. I was crossing the street in Los Angeles and this very simple idea popped in my head: āWhat if there was a āMad Maxā movie that was one long chase, and the MacGuffin was human?ā I was flying back to Australia a month later, ruminating on it, and by the time I landed, I called Doug Mitchell and said, āI think Iāve got an idea.ā
DOUG MITCHELL (producer) There were a number of names thrown out for the female lead back when we first started, [like] Uma Thurman.
MILLER I remember we were talking about Charlize even then. Her agent said she wasnāt interested, but I mentioned it to her over a decade later, and she said, āNo one ever told me!ā
With the seriesā star Mel Gibson set once again to play Max, the plan was to shoot āFury Road" for 20th Century Fox. Dozens of expensive vehicles and set pieces were built for a shoot scheduled for March 2003.
MILLER Then 9/11 happened and everything changed. We couldnāt get insured, we couldnāt get our vehicles transported. It just collapsed.
COLIN GIBSON (production designer) I was in Namibia in 2003 when I got the call to stop spending money. I donāt know whether [the studio] decided to reroute their money back to the Iraq war, or if it was the email I got from Mel Gibsonās wife asking me how many Muslims there may or may not be in Namibia and, therefore, how interested she may or may not be in the whole family coming to visit.
Miller pivoted to directing the animated film āHappy Feet,ā and when it proved to be a box-office success for Warner Bros., he was able to convince the studio to take on āFury Road.ā Still, his longtime leading man Mel Gibson was now in his 50s and considered a Hollywood pariah. Miller and Mitchell decided to search for a new Max.
MITCHELL Mel is obviously blighted by a number of things that everyone in the world knows about, even though heās a highly gifted filmmaker and a brilliant actor and a lovely guy behind that demon that sometimes pops out. But he was too old at that point. It just didnāt make sense.
ZOĆ KRAVITZ (Toast, one of the five āwivesā fleeing Immortan Joe) I did a chemistry test with Jeremy Renner reading for Max, because they hadnāt hired Tom yet.
MILLER I had the same feeling about Tom that I had when Mel Gibson first walked into the room: There was a kind of edgy charm, the charisma of animals. You donāt know whatās going on in their inner depths, and yet theyāre enormously attractive.
TOM HARDY (Max) I hadnāt done that much action at that time, certainly not with this level of involvement. The nature and sheer scale and volume of action set pieces was unlike anything I had experienced.
RILEY KEOUGH (Capable, another one of the Immortanās escaped āwivesā) They were holding crazy, nontraditional auditions in Australia. Theyād have bunches of us, five to six girls, go through this audition process with no scenes from the film but a lot of improv, a lot of acting-class stuff. We had no idea if weād get chosen or not, and out of my group, I was the only one who got selected.
KRAVITZ When they cast me, I was brought to a room that I wasnāt allowed to leave, and I sat there and read the script. It was one of the strangest scripts Iād ever seen, because it was like a really long comic book.
JOHN SEALE (cinematographer) I couldnāt make head nor tail of it, so I gave up. I thought, āTheyāve been in preproduction for 10 years, letās just go make it.ā
DOUG MITCHELL (producer) There were a number of names thrown out for the female lead back when we first started, [like] Uma Thurman.
MILLER I remember we were talking about Charlize even then. Her agent said she wasnāt interested, but I mentioned it to her over a decade later, and she said, āNo one ever told me!ā
With the seriesā star Mel Gibson set once again to play Max, the plan was to shoot āFury Road" for 20th Century Fox. Dozens of expensive vehicles and set pieces were built for a shoot scheduled for March 2003.
MILLER Then 9/11 happened and everything changed. We couldnāt get insured, we couldnāt get our vehicles transported. It just collapsed.
COLIN GIBSON (production designer) I was in Namibia in 2003 when I got the call to stop spending money. I donāt know whether [the studio] decided to reroute their money back to the Iraq war, or if it was the email I got from Mel Gibsonās wife asking me how many Muslims there may or may not be in Namibia and, therefore, how interested she may or may not be in the whole family coming to visit.
Miller pivoted to directing the animated film āHappy Feet,ā and when it proved to be a box-office success for Warner Bros., he was able to convince the studio to take on āFury Road.ā Still, his longtime leading man Mel Gibson was now in his 50s and considered a Hollywood pariah. Miller and Mitchell decided to search for a new Max.
MITCHELL Mel is obviously blighted by a number of things that everyone in the world knows about, even though heās a highly gifted filmmaker and a brilliant actor and a lovely guy behind that demon that sometimes pops out. But he was too old at that point. It just didnāt make sense.
ZOĆ KRAVITZ (Toast, one of the five āwivesā fleeing Immortan Joe) I did a chemistry test with Jeremy Renner reading for Max, because they hadnāt hired Tom yet.
MILLER I had the same feeling about Tom that I had when Mel Gibson first walked into the room: There was a kind of edgy charm, the charisma of animals. You donāt know whatās going on in their inner depths, and yet theyāre enormously attractive.
TOM HARDY (Max) I hadnāt done that much action at that time, certainly not with this level of involvement. The nature and sheer scale and volume of action set pieces was unlike anything I had experienced.
RILEY KEOUGH (Capable, another one of the Immortanās escaped āwivesā) They were holding crazy, nontraditional auditions in Australia. Theyād have bunches of us, five to six girls, go through this audition process with no scenes from the film but a lot of improv, a lot of acting-class stuff. We had no idea if weād get chosen or not, and out of my group, I was the only one who got selected.
KRAVITZ When they cast me, I was brought to a room that I wasnāt allowed to leave, and I sat there and read the script. It was one of the strangest scripts Iād ever seen, because it was like a really long comic book.
JOHN SEALE (cinematographer) I couldnāt make head nor tail of it, so I gave up. I thought, āTheyāve been in preproduction for 10 years, letās just go make it.ā
With his cast in place, Miller set a late-2010 shoot in Broken Hill, Australia, the desert mining town where he had filmed the first two āMad Maxā movies.
THERON The roughest moment was when we were in Australia, two weeks away from shooting, and they pulled the plug on us.
MITCHELL During preproduction, the weather pattern changed in Australia and it rained and rained in Queensland, the sort of weather that happens once in a century.
GIBSON Slowly, what was desert turned into beautiful flowers. So we put everything into storage and slunk away yet again.
KEOUGH It was the first time I had experienced a big push on a film, and I was heartbroken. I was like, āIs it really because of the weather? Am I fired?ā
MITCHELL We were basically defeated. How do we move on?
But Miller refused to give up on the film.
MILLER I said, āLetās wait a year and see if it all dries up.ā And when we saw that it wouldnāt, I decided we should to go back to Namibia, where it never rains.
MARGARET SIXEL (editor and Millerās wife) It was kind of nuts to take all those people and all those vehicles to Namibia. Who would do that? I guess thatās George. He isnāt like other people, really ā which is what I love.
HUGH KEAYS-BYRNE (Immortan Joe) It was a wonderful thing to feel everyone around me crashing about in their costumes and absolutely living it.
COURTNEY EATON (Cheedo, another āwifeā) I had never acted in my life before, except for drama class in school. When I got to set and they asked me to stand on my mark, I turned around and said, āI donāt know what that means.ā
KRAVITZ There was something really beautiful about how inexperienced a lot of us were ā we were so down for the cause. I donāt know what it would be like if you had five actresses whoād been working for a long time that would call their agents and be like, āWhat the hell is going on here?ā
ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY (the āwifeā Splendid) Iāve lived with Jason [Statham] for 10 years, and Iāve never known him to have an experience like it. I remember explaining it to him, and he said, āWow, this is so different from how Iāve ever gone to work.ā
The spectacular action sequences were difficult to stage, but they had a sense of actual weight and physics that had been lost in a decade and a half of CGI spectacle.
GIBSON All the action had to be real. The hair canāt stand up on the back of your neck ā not for me, anyway ā watching Vin Diesel drag a three-ton safe down through perfect right-angle turns on the street. The whole rationale was to make it as real as possible so that as much as possible was at stake.
HARDY As we dug in, it was dangerous, or certainly could have been extremely so, if it werenāt for the methodical professionalism and preparation of the experts: stunt coordination, stunt team and riggers.
BEN SMITH-PETERSEN (stunt performer) On most films like this, youāre working your way up to a stunt ā maybe thereās one a week. But on this film, from the time your day starts, youāre already doing a stunt and then thereās another one on top of that. It was a stuntmanās dream.
HOULT I remember turning up one day, and they strapped me under the War Rig in a harness.
KRAVITZ Everything you see is really happening, thereās no green screen. Iām really being pulled out of the truck and going super high in the air ā and Iām pretty sure thatās Rileyās husband, Ben, who grabbed me and pulled me out. They met on the movie.
KEOUGH We ended up falling in love. So my husbandās a War Boy.
THERON The roughest moment was when we were in Australia, two weeks away from shooting, and they pulled the plug on us.
MITCHELL During preproduction, the weather pattern changed in Australia and it rained and rained in Queensland, the sort of weather that happens once in a century.
GIBSON Slowly, what was desert turned into beautiful flowers. So we put everything into storage and slunk away yet again.
KEOUGH It was the first time I had experienced a big push on a film, and I was heartbroken. I was like, āIs it really because of the weather? Am I fired?ā
MITCHELL We were basically defeated. How do we move on?
But Miller refused to give up on the film.
MILLER I said, āLetās wait a year and see if it all dries up.ā And when we saw that it wouldnāt, I decided we should to go back to Namibia, where it never rains.
MARGARET SIXEL (editor and Millerās wife) It was kind of nuts to take all those people and all those vehicles to Namibia. Who would do that? I guess thatās George. He isnāt like other people, really ā which is what I love.
HUGH KEAYS-BYRNE (Immortan Joe) It was a wonderful thing to feel everyone around me crashing about in their costumes and absolutely living it.
COURTNEY EATON (Cheedo, another āwifeā) I had never acted in my life before, except for drama class in school. When I got to set and they asked me to stand on my mark, I turned around and said, āI donāt know what that means.ā
KRAVITZ There was something really beautiful about how inexperienced a lot of us were ā we were so down for the cause. I donāt know what it would be like if you had five actresses whoād been working for a long time that would call their agents and be like, āWhat the hell is going on here?ā
ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY (the āwifeā Splendid) Iāve lived with Jason [Statham] for 10 years, and Iāve never known him to have an experience like it. I remember explaining it to him, and he said, āWow, this is so different from how Iāve ever gone to work.ā
The spectacular action sequences were difficult to stage, but they had a sense of actual weight and physics that had been lost in a decade and a half of CGI spectacle.
GIBSON All the action had to be real. The hair canāt stand up on the back of your neck ā not for me, anyway ā watching Vin Diesel drag a three-ton safe down through perfect right-angle turns on the street. The whole rationale was to make it as real as possible so that as much as possible was at stake.
HARDY As we dug in, it was dangerous, or certainly could have been extremely so, if it werenāt for the methodical professionalism and preparation of the experts: stunt coordination, stunt team and riggers.
BEN SMITH-PETERSEN (stunt performer) On most films like this, youāre working your way up to a stunt ā maybe thereās one a week. But on this film, from the time your day starts, youāre already doing a stunt and then thereās another one on top of that. It was a stuntmanās dream.
HOULT I remember turning up one day, and they strapped me under the War Rig in a harness.
KRAVITZ Everything you see is really happening, thereās no green screen. Iām really being pulled out of the truck and going super high in the air ā and Iām pretty sure thatās Rileyās husband, Ben, who grabbed me and pulled me out. They met on the movie.
KEOUGH We ended up falling in love. So my husbandās a War Boy.
Many of the young actresses were cast as the sex slaves Furiosa was trying to smuggle to freedom. To help them better understand their characters, Miller engaged a surprising recruit: āThe Vagina Monologuesā playwright Eve Ensler, who was working with Congolese survivors of gender violence.
EVE ENSLER It was really surprising for me, too! George would send me pieces of the script for feedback, and we began to get into a dialogue about the women who were going to play the sex slaves and how they would know what that lived experience was. Eventually, he invited me to Namibia to spend time with them in workshops, and my contribution was really to help those actresses become confident in that world. I think it was a really radical thing that he asked me to do that.
KRAVITZ Even if a lot of the womenās history wasnāt in the dialogue, it was really important to George that we understood what we were running from.
HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY The workshopping process was really emotional. Having grown up with a very pleasant childhood in a middle-class family in the U.K., it was a big shock to the system.
KRAVITZ We would do exercises like writing letters to our captor, really interesting stuff that created deep empathy. Iām glad we had that, because it was such a crazy experience ā so long and chaotic ā that it would be easy to forget what we were doing if we didnāt have this really great foundation that we could return to.
KEOUGH I thought it was amazing that George cared so much. It could have just been like, āThis is a big Hollywood movie, now put on your bathing suits and get outside.ā
But the filmās centerpiece character was the determined, resourceful Furiosa.
HARDY Charlize arguably laid down the finest lead character in an action movie, and that credit is much deserved, in my opinion; both to her as a phenomenal talent and also to George for recognizing from the very start that it was time to pass Melās shoes onto Furiosa.
THERON At first, Furiosa was this very ethereal character, with long hair and some African mud art on her face. It was a different costume designer back then, before Jenny Beavan, and the costume felt a little more Barbarella-y. I worried about it.
JENNY BEAVAN (costume designer) I am not into fashion, and I donāt particularly care what people look like ā the clothes have to come out of the stories they tell. Since she travels long distances, Furiosa needed very practical clothing, and when I met with Charlize, that was one of the things we talked about. That, and what on earth would she do with her hair?
THERON George was really incredible in just hearing me out. I called him and said, āI donāt know how sheās getting by in the mechanicsā room with all this hair. I think we need to shave my head, and she needs to be a more androgynous, grounded character.ā You know, he trusted me so much that it kind of makes me emotional. In that sense, I feel like I let him down.
Tensions could run high on the set, where the principal cast was crammed into one vehicle for most of the blockbuster-length shoot.
THERON The biggest thing that was driving that entire production was fear. I was incredibly scared, because Iād never done anything like it. I think the hardest thing between me and George is that he had the movie in his head and I was so desperate to understand it.
SIXEL It was very difficult for the actors, because thereās no master shot, no blocked-out scenes. Their performances were made of these tiny little moments.
SEALE (cinematographer) It was tough for them. The crew can be protected by the elements ā the cold and wind and sand ā but they canāt. Theyāre wearing a wardrobe that is very specific.
ABBEY LEE (the Dag, another āwifeā) It looks warm, but we shot it in the winter and it was blisteringly freezing. Us girls werenāt wearing much, and Riley got hypothermia.
KEOUGH There were night shoots that were brutal, and there was so much dust that your face would be covered with three inches of sand by the end of the day. We kept it together pretty well, I think, for the first five months.
KRAVITZ By the end, we wanted to go home so badly. It had been nine months, and not nine months where youāre in a city and you hang out in your trailer. It was nine months of the environment youāre seeing in the movie, with nothing around. You really do start to lose your mind a little bit.
HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY There was a lot of tension, and a lot of different personalities and clashes at times. It was definitely interesting to sit in a truck for four months with Tom and Charlize, who have completely different approaches to their craft.
HARDY Because of how much detail we were having to process and how little control one had in each new situation, and how fast the takes were ā tiny snippets of story moments were needed to make the final cut work ā we moved fast, and it was at times overwhelming. One had to trust that the bigger picture was being held together.
KRAVITZ Tom really had moments of frustration, of anger. Charlize did, too, but I feel like heās the one who really took it out on George the most, and that was a bummer to see. But you know, in some ways, you also canāt blame him, because a lot was being asked of these actors and there were a lot of unanswered questions.
THERON In retrospect, I didnāt have enough empathy to really, truly understand what he must have felt like to step into Mel Gibsonās shoes. That is frightening! And I think because of my own fear, we were putting up walls to protect ourselves instead of saying to each other, āThis is scary for you, and itās scary for me, too. Letās be nice to each other.ā In a weird way, we were functioning like our characters: Everything was about survival.
HARDY I would agree. I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me. Thatās something that canāt be faked. Iād like to think that now that Iām older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.
LEE The grueling nature of the shoot really served it, in my opinion. The characters are supposed to be exhausted, theyāre supposed to be searching for strength. I just donāt think that any of the performances would have been the same had it all been green-screen and we did it in a controlled environment. The fact that it was a huge mess is why itās so brilliant.
EVE ENSLER It was really surprising for me, too! George would send me pieces of the script for feedback, and we began to get into a dialogue about the women who were going to play the sex slaves and how they would know what that lived experience was. Eventually, he invited me to Namibia to spend time with them in workshops, and my contribution was really to help those actresses become confident in that world. I think it was a really radical thing that he asked me to do that.
KRAVITZ Even if a lot of the womenās history wasnāt in the dialogue, it was really important to George that we understood what we were running from.
HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY The workshopping process was really emotional. Having grown up with a very pleasant childhood in a middle-class family in the U.K., it was a big shock to the system.
KRAVITZ We would do exercises like writing letters to our captor, really interesting stuff that created deep empathy. Iām glad we had that, because it was such a crazy experience ā so long and chaotic ā that it would be easy to forget what we were doing if we didnāt have this really great foundation that we could return to.
KEOUGH I thought it was amazing that George cared so much. It could have just been like, āThis is a big Hollywood movie, now put on your bathing suits and get outside.ā
But the filmās centerpiece character was the determined, resourceful Furiosa.
HARDY Charlize arguably laid down the finest lead character in an action movie, and that credit is much deserved, in my opinion; both to her as a phenomenal talent and also to George for recognizing from the very start that it was time to pass Melās shoes onto Furiosa.
THERON At first, Furiosa was this very ethereal character, with long hair and some African mud art on her face. It was a different costume designer back then, before Jenny Beavan, and the costume felt a little more Barbarella-y. I worried about it.
JENNY BEAVAN (costume designer) I am not into fashion, and I donāt particularly care what people look like ā the clothes have to come out of the stories they tell. Since she travels long distances, Furiosa needed very practical clothing, and when I met with Charlize, that was one of the things we talked about. That, and what on earth would she do with her hair?
THERON George was really incredible in just hearing me out. I called him and said, āI donāt know how sheās getting by in the mechanicsā room with all this hair. I think we need to shave my head, and she needs to be a more androgynous, grounded character.ā You know, he trusted me so much that it kind of makes me emotional. In that sense, I feel like I let him down.
Tensions could run high on the set, where the principal cast was crammed into one vehicle for most of the blockbuster-length shoot.
THERON The biggest thing that was driving that entire production was fear. I was incredibly scared, because Iād never done anything like it. I think the hardest thing between me and George is that he had the movie in his head and I was so desperate to understand it.
SIXEL It was very difficult for the actors, because thereās no master shot, no blocked-out scenes. Their performances were made of these tiny little moments.
SEALE (cinematographer) It was tough for them. The crew can be protected by the elements ā the cold and wind and sand ā but they canāt. Theyāre wearing a wardrobe that is very specific.
ABBEY LEE (the Dag, another āwifeā) It looks warm, but we shot it in the winter and it was blisteringly freezing. Us girls werenāt wearing much, and Riley got hypothermia.
KEOUGH There were night shoots that were brutal, and there was so much dust that your face would be covered with three inches of sand by the end of the day. We kept it together pretty well, I think, for the first five months.
KRAVITZ By the end, we wanted to go home so badly. It had been nine months, and not nine months where youāre in a city and you hang out in your trailer. It was nine months of the environment youāre seeing in the movie, with nothing around. You really do start to lose your mind a little bit.
HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY There was a lot of tension, and a lot of different personalities and clashes at times. It was definitely interesting to sit in a truck for four months with Tom and Charlize, who have completely different approaches to their craft.
HARDY Because of how much detail we were having to process and how little control one had in each new situation, and how fast the takes were ā tiny snippets of story moments were needed to make the final cut work ā we moved fast, and it was at times overwhelming. One had to trust that the bigger picture was being held together.
KRAVITZ Tom really had moments of frustration, of anger. Charlize did, too, but I feel like heās the one who really took it out on George the most, and that was a bummer to see. But you know, in some ways, you also canāt blame him, because a lot was being asked of these actors and there were a lot of unanswered questions.
THERON In retrospect, I didnāt have enough empathy to really, truly understand what he must have felt like to step into Mel Gibsonās shoes. That is frightening! And I think because of my own fear, we were putting up walls to protect ourselves instead of saying to each other, āThis is scary for you, and itās scary for me, too. Letās be nice to each other.ā In a weird way, we were functioning like our characters: Everything was about survival.
HARDY I would agree. I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me. Thatās something that canāt be faked. Iād like to think that now that Iām older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.
LEE The grueling nature of the shoot really served it, in my opinion. The characters are supposed to be exhausted, theyāre supposed to be searching for strength. I just donāt think that any of the performances would have been the same had it all been green-screen and we did it in a controlled environment. The fact that it was a huge mess is why itās so brilliant.
GIBSON Thereās a lack of control you have when youāre sitting in Los Angeles and 600 people are wandering the desert with whatās left of your money.
KRAVITZ We were behind schedule, and we heard the studio was freaking out about how we were over budget.
SEALE The president of Warner Bros. flew to Namibia and had a gold-plated fit.
MILLER Jeff was in a bake-off with Kevin Tsujihara about who was going to head the studio, and he had to assert himself to show his superiors that he was in command and a strong executive. I knew what he was going through, but it wasnāt going to do anybody any good at all. [Robinov could not be reached for comment.]
MITCHELL He said, āThe camera will stop on Dec. 8, no matter what youāve got, and thatās the end of it.ā We hadnāt shot any of the scenes in the Citadel yet, where the opening and closing book ends of the film are set, and we had to go into postproduction without them. It was almost incomprehensible.
SIXEL I was worried about George. You wouldnāt even know the half of it, let me tell you. You should have seen him by the end of the shoot, he was so thin.
IOTA (the Doof Warrior, a War Boy who wields a flame-spewing guitar) I saw him deteriorate over that six months. He looked so shattered by the end.
Still, Miller could not lose faith: He had to continue searching for a way to complete his film.
MILLER A younger filmmaker who has done very well called me before his first feature and said, āAny tips?ā I told him, āThe day will come on the shoot when you think youāre completely crazy and what youāre doing makes no sense. Just keep going.ā When he finished that film, he told me, āRemember what you said? What you didnāt tell me is that itās going to happen every day.ā And itās true.
SIXEL It was really difficult to spend that year cutting a film that didnāt have an opening or closing. I kept thinking, āHow am I going to make this work? Are we going to write voice-over and try to fill in all the gaps during the opening chase?ā
MITCHELL What happened then is that Jeff lost his job and Kevin Tsujihara was appointed, and he decided later that year, āYou know what, letās do this properly. We need to shoot these scenes at the Citadel.ā So we brought back all these vehicles from Namibia, reassembled the team in late 2013, and brought Tom and Charlize to Australia. It could have been completely different, had the gods not been shining down.
Though Tsujihara permitted Miller a month of additional shooting, studio executives remained skeptical as he worked on the final cut.
SIXEL There was this constant thing from the studio: āHow much shorter is it?ā Thatās all they wanted to know. I just got so sick of it. They were just obsessed with getting the film under 100 minutes, which I knew was impossible.
MILLER When someone is directing a film, theyāre thinking about it every waking hour, and even processing it in their dreams. The problem is, if youāre a studio executive, you tend to think about it for 10 minutes on a Wednesday.
SIXEL It was an incredibly painful film to cut. I think the studio didnāt believe in it, so it was really difficult to keep going. Eventually George and I decided, āWeāre just going to make the film we want to make, and if no one else likes it, thatās fine.ā And that last four months is when the film really came together.
KRAVITZ We were behind schedule, and we heard the studio was freaking out about how we were over budget.
SEALE The president of Warner Bros. flew to Namibia and had a gold-plated fit.
MILLER Jeff was in a bake-off with Kevin Tsujihara about who was going to head the studio, and he had to assert himself to show his superiors that he was in command and a strong executive. I knew what he was going through, but it wasnāt going to do anybody any good at all. [Robinov could not be reached for comment.]
MITCHELL He said, āThe camera will stop on Dec. 8, no matter what youāve got, and thatās the end of it.ā We hadnāt shot any of the scenes in the Citadel yet, where the opening and closing book ends of the film are set, and we had to go into postproduction without them. It was almost incomprehensible.
SIXEL I was worried about George. You wouldnāt even know the half of it, let me tell you. You should have seen him by the end of the shoot, he was so thin.
IOTA (the Doof Warrior, a War Boy who wields a flame-spewing guitar) I saw him deteriorate over that six months. He looked so shattered by the end.
Still, Miller could not lose faith: He had to continue searching for a way to complete his film.
MILLER A younger filmmaker who has done very well called me before his first feature and said, āAny tips?ā I told him, āThe day will come on the shoot when you think youāre completely crazy and what youāre doing makes no sense. Just keep going.ā When he finished that film, he told me, āRemember what you said? What you didnāt tell me is that itās going to happen every day.ā And itās true.
SIXEL It was really difficult to spend that year cutting a film that didnāt have an opening or closing. I kept thinking, āHow am I going to make this work? Are we going to write voice-over and try to fill in all the gaps during the opening chase?ā
MITCHELL What happened then is that Jeff lost his job and Kevin Tsujihara was appointed, and he decided later that year, āYou know what, letās do this properly. We need to shoot these scenes at the Citadel.ā So we brought back all these vehicles from Namibia, reassembled the team in late 2013, and brought Tom and Charlize to Australia. It could have been completely different, had the gods not been shining down.
Though Tsujihara permitted Miller a month of additional shooting, studio executives remained skeptical as he worked on the final cut.
SIXEL There was this constant thing from the studio: āHow much shorter is it?ā Thatās all they wanted to know. I just got so sick of it. They were just obsessed with getting the film under 100 minutes, which I knew was impossible.
MILLER When someone is directing a film, theyāre thinking about it every waking hour, and even processing it in their dreams. The problem is, if youāre a studio executive, you tend to think about it for 10 minutes on a Wednesday.
SIXEL It was an incredibly painful film to cut. I think the studio didnāt believe in it, so it was really difficult to keep going. Eventually George and I decided, āWeāre just going to make the film we want to make, and if no one else likes it, thatās fine.ā And that last four months is when the film really came together.
Not boring but for whatever reason Iāve tried to watch this like 3 times and never finished it
One of my favorite movies and one of my favorite movie experiences ever
I've never watched the previous Mad Max movies
The shit was two car chase scenes spread across 2 hours and they somehow made it work. The action/plot ratio separates it from a lot of movies. i definitely fucks with this.
Yea, a movie that is critically acclaimed, considered the best film to come out in 2015 and won 6 Oscars
Doesn't sound like crap to me lol
I will check out the older Mad Max films
Doesn't sound like crap to me lol
I will check out the older Mad Max films
I believe the 2nd one is the best out of the 3
Thunderdome (3rd) is the worst but since a lot of other shows and movies and other forms of pop culture (California lovin) reference that particular movie it probably should be watched
This is one you had to watch in the theaters. It was amazing. It didn't translate well in the home experience
DMorgan
You niggas is EXCOMMUNICADO!!!
I knew they had beef on set but fuck it... Who gets on with all their colleagues. The end result is what matters and the film was epic!