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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action adventure film co-produced and directed by George Miller, who co-wrote it with Nico Lathouris. It is the fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise, serving as both a spin-off and prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne as the titular character Imperator Furiosa, with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke also starring.
In March 2020, Miller conducted casting auditions for the title role of the film. In October, Taylor-Joy, Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II were cast in starring roles, but due to a scheduling conflict, Abdul-Mateen was replaced by Burke in November. Several crew members from Fury Road returned for the film, including screenwriter Lathouris, film editor Margaret Sixel, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and composer Tom Holkenborg. Principal photography took place in Australia from June to October 2022.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2024, and is scheduled to be released in theatres in Australia by Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures on 23 May 2024, and in the United States the following day.
Premise[]
Set 15 to 20 years before the events of Mad Max: Fury Road, as the world falls apart, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. While two Tyrants war for dominance over the Citadel, Furiosa survives many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.
cast[]
- Anya Taylor-Joy as Imperator Furiosa
- Alyla Browne as young Furiosa
- Chris Hemsworth as Warlord Dementus
- Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack
- Lachy Hulme Joe / Rizzdale Pale
- Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus
- Josh Helman as Slit
- John Howard as The People Eater
- Angus Sampson as The Organic Mechanic
- Charlee Fraser as Mary Jo Bassa
- Quaden Bales as War Boy
- Daniel Webber as War Boy
Development[]
In 1987, George Miller came on the idea by making the fourth instalment have "almost a continuous chase"; however, plans for a fourth instalment in the Mad Max franchise hit financial difficulties and the project spent several Director George Miller and co-writer Nick Lauthoris spent over 15 years writing the script for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and developed backstories for every character, particularly focusing on protagonist Imperator Furiosa. This eventually culminated in a screenplay centered around Furiosa, which actress Charlize Theron, who portrayed Furiosa in Fury Road, used as reference for her performance in the film. In July 2010, Miller announced plans to shoot Fury Road back-to-back with a prequel film entitled Mad Max: Furiosa but it was decided to only shoot the former during pre-production. In November 2017, Miller's production company filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. over unpaid salaries which delayed the production of any additional entries in the franchise. In July 2019, Miller revealed that a Furiosa film was still being planned in addition to two Mad Max sequels. By May 2020, Miller planned to develop a prequel Furiosa film after completing his other film Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022). At the same time, he also began the casting process for the role after resolving legal disputes with Warner Bros. Miller sought to cast a younger actress for the role rather than using de-agingtechnology for Theron. The setting of the film occurs across a timeframe of 15 years, depicting Furiosa's backstory of how she was displaced from her home and spent her life "trying to get back".
In March 2020 amid COVID-19 lockdown, Miller used Skype to conduct casting auditions for the title role of Furiosa. He chose Taylor-Joy after seeing her performance in an early cut of the film Last Night in Soho and auditioning her with the "Mad as Hell" monologue from Sidney Lumet's Network. Taylor-Joy received advice from Nicholas Hoult, who had previously portrayed Nux in Fury Road. Tom Burke joined the cast in autumn of 2021, replacing Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for the same role due to a scheduling conflict. Multiple Fury Road crew members agreed to return for the film, including film editor Margaret Sixel, production designer Colin Gibson, composer Junkie XL, sound mixer Ben Osmo, costume designer Jenny Beavan and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt.
In January 2022, it was reported that Simon Duggan would be serving as cinematographer. In June 2022, it was reported Nathan Jones and Angus Sampson were set to reprise their roles from Fury Road. In August, Quaden Bayles, who worked on Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) after a video about his mistreatment at school went viral, was announced to be appearing in Furiosa, in a small role.
filming[]
After multiple different dates were reported for the start of filming, Deadline Hollywoodconfirmed in a May 2022 interview with Miller that second unit filming was underway in Australia in advance of principal photography. The film was awarded a AU$175 million filming incentive, and spent a total of US$233 million (AU$343.2 million) in Australia, the most-ever for a film production in the country.Hemsworth stated that Miller had hired ex-convicts as supporting artists for the film. In May 2022, second unit filming moved to Hay with more scheduled to take place in Silverton. Principal photography began on 1 June 2022, in Australia, and was expected to wrap by September. Filming officially wrapped by October 2022. Following production, Taylor Joy declared the film to have been an unpleasant working endeavor, stating: "I’ve never been more alone than making that movie ... I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard."
Post-production[]
In March 2024, it was revealed that Lachy Hulme would portray a younger Immortan Joe in the film, taking over the role from Hugh Keays-Byrne, who had since died in 2020 after portraying him in Mad Max: Fury Road. Mad Max: Fury Road production VFX supervisor Andrew Jackson returns for duty on Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagaworking with visual effects studios DNEG, Framestore, Rising Sun Pictures and slatevfx.
Theatrical[]
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2024, and is scheduled to be released theatrically in Australia on 23 May 2024, and in the United States on 24 May 2024, by Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. It was originally scheduled to be released on 23 June 2023.
Reception[]
Box office projection[]
In May, Deadline Hollywood projected Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga to earn $50 million on its opening weekend in North America.
critical response[]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 36 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Retroactively enriching Fury Road with greater emotional heft if not quite matching it in propulsive throttle, Furiosa is another glorious swerve in mastermind George Miller's breathless race towards cinematic Valhalla." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for RogerEbert.com, Robert Daniels awarded the film 4 out of 4 stars and called it "one of the best prequels ever made". He praised the film's storytelling and the action sequences, as well as the performances of Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-joy. Pete Hammond of Deadline viewed the movie as possessing "the best screenplay of any Mad Max film".
In a critical review, Owen Gleiberman of Variety described Furiosa as filled with “pretension” and as “franchise overkill”. Nicholas Barber of BBC also disliked some aspects of the movie and gave it 3 out of 5 stars. He viewed the plot as meandering and as draining, writing: “You soon reach the point where you're sick of sand, sick of explosions, sick of off-puttingly sadistic violence.”
References[]
External Links[]
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on Warnerbros.com
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga at the Internet Movie Database
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