It is often an agreement between veteran directors that the usage of CGI should be kept to a minimum when creating cinematic movies. Director George Miller who directed both Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and the 1982 film Mad Max 2 or The Road Warrior, seems to agree with these statements.
Relying mostly on stunt people and real explosions for his movies, Miller is known for the iconic Mad Max franchise. In an interview, the director revealed that if the 1980s had the technology of today, his stuntmen and women would have been much safer.
George Miller’s Mad Max Team Would Have Been Much Safer
It is no secret that veteran director George Miller and veteran actor Mel Gibson started with humble beginnings during the production of Mad Max. Originally released in 1979, the film received critical success and soon, a sequel was announced.
The sequel, titled Mad Max 2 (released as The Road Warrior in the U.S.) was way ahead of its time in terms of stunt scenes. Having stuntmen perform these death-defying stunts and shooting them on a camera was quite difficult back in the 1980s since there wasn’t such strong CGI at that time. With the upcoming release of George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the director sat down for a chat with Comicbook.com for an interview.
During their chat, the interviewer asked the director what would have happened if they had the modern technology of CGI back in the 1980s. Here’s what Miller had for a fun reply: –
“Look. I hadn’t thought about it but the one thing I can say… they [stuntmen and actors] would have been safer. Yeah, that’s definitely—and the other thing I can say is that the cameras are way more edgier that you can do things with cameras now and put them in places that you couldn’t before”
All jokes aside, the crew being safe on the sets of a George Miller film is actually based on an accident that happened when they were shooting Mad Max 2. With stuntmen, racing, and, filming the iconic landscape, George Miller heard the sound of a femur bone breaking and it was his stuntman who had fallen!
George Miller Saw His Stuntman Break A Femur Bone!
It was 1981 when George Miller released the sequel to Mad Max titled Mad Max 2 or The Road Warrior. Having some iconic stunts in the film, stuntman Guy Norris had quite a hurtful experience while filming one of the stunts.
In one of the scenes, a biker hits a totaled car, flies off the bike, and lands towards the camera. This stunt wasn’t planned at all and it was stuntman Guy Norris who had a real accident while on the sets of that film. While chasing on his bike, Norris hit the totaled car and it was seen that his leg was bent in an unnatural shape. Hitting the car and flying off his bike, Norris ended up in a real accident and broke his femur bone.
Luckily director George Miller is a qualified medical doctor and immediately rushed to help Norris. The cherry on top is that Mad Max 2 was Guy Norris’ first film! On the other hand, the world is waiting eagerly for the release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Acting as a prequel to Miller’s 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road, the film stars Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role alongside Chris Hemsworth as the villain. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is slated for a release date of 24 May 2024 in theaters across the U.S.