Mad Max: Fury Road hit cinemas screens 10 years ago today, but director George Miller was considering focussing on a female hero three decades earlier.
In the summer of 2015, it’d been three decades since a Mad Max movie, and the last effort – 1985’s Beyond Thunderdome – was the weakest of George Miller’s original trilogy. But with Tom Hardy replacing Mel Gibson as the title character in a belated fourth entry, and early trailers ripping the roof off cinemas worldwide, expectations were high for the belated sequel.
Mad Max: Fury Road duly exceeded those expectations, delivering high-octane thrills that defied belief, grossing double its sizeable budget, receiving rave reviews pretty much across the board, and eventually being crowned best action movie of all-time by this very website.
But there was a surprise for longtime fans of the franchise, as while the story starts with Max, it quickly becomes Furiosa’s movie, as Charlize Theron’s ‘Imperator’ endeavours to defeat her former captor Immortan Joe, and escape to the ‘Green Place.’ Which is a switch that Miller was considering back in the Thunderdome days.
George Miller said “yes” to female Mad Max in 1985
Around the release of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, journalist Anne Bilson spoke to George Miller on behalf of Time Out, only for the interview to be bumped when Orson Welles died.
But in 2015 she posted the full transcript, and it’s fascinating to see what Miller said when asked about the potential for a female Mad Max movie. “I thought a lot about that,” comes Miller’s response. “I think there’s no question about it.”
He then discusses myths like Beauty and the Beast and King Kong, as well as violence, aggression, sexuality, and how women’s liberation has changed the world, before coming back to the core question.
“If you agree that heroes are the agents of revolution, there have been very few women heroes in society. I don’t think there’s any reason why there can’t be a female version.
“In fact the Tina Turner [character] in the subtext of Mad Max 3, before the story started, probably followed a very classic hero story – the story of how she built Bartertown would be a very interesting story. And – in the way we discussed her back story, she would pretty well follow the hero story – she would have to.
“So a short answer is yes, I think there can be a female hero in the same way. How we would respond collectively as audiences, I don’t know. I suspect that we would respond very well, if the story was well told.”
And audiences did respond well some 30 years later, to the tune of more than $380 million at the global box office. The movie also paved the way for Imperator to feature in the title of prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in 2024.
And while that film failed commercially (if not critically), it hasn’t put studios off, with another franchise going the way of the woman this summer, via From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Meaning Hollywood is finally catching up with what George Miller was saying four decades ago.
Toyota bZ4X cresce di dimensioni e diventa Touring: più spazio e comfort