Australian filmmaker George Miller is set to release his upcoming movie Furiosa for a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Thereafter, the movie is scheduled to hit the theatres on May 22, for global screening. Meanwhile, speaking at CinemaCon, Miller took us back on a journey about how he initially came up with the idea for the Mad Max franchise.
Having graduated from medical school, filmmaker George Miller revealed how he combined his experience in the emergency room with his passion for action films to birth the idea for Mad Max. Discussing the tragic real-life incident that spawned the story of a hero in a dystopian future, Miller revealed how the original idea was conceived.
George Miller Delved Into the History of Mad Max
Set to release his post-apocalyptic action prequel flick Furiosa on May 22, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, the 79-year-old filmmaker George Miller shared some insight on how he initially conceived the idea for the renowned Mad Max franchise. Speaking at CinemaCon via Deadline, in Las Vegas where he received the International Career Achievement in Filmmaking Award, Miller delved into the history of Mad Max.
Ahead of becoming a cultural icon and an acclaimed filmmaker, George Miller graduated medical school and was pursuing a career as a doctor. Claiming to be “always interested in cinema” Miller noted how the impetus for the original Mad Max movie sparked when he was working as a junior doctor and witnessed a tragedy. Having met a policeman who had attended his own son’s fatal accident, the filmmaker noted conceiving the idea for his franchise.
“It really stuck with me and one thing led to another and we ended up writing a film”.
According to Mad Max, the storyline follows the protagonist Max (Mel Gibson), a police officer in a futuristic Australia, whose wife and child gets murdered by a vicious biker gang. Much like the real-life incident that Geroge Miller witnessed as a doctor, even his films followed the story of a policeman who lost his child. Only in the films, Max exacts revenge and becomes a drifting loner in the Australian Wasteland.
The Reason Behind Mad Max’s Apocalyptic World
Delving deeper into the history of the $529M Mad Max franchise (via The Numbers), George Miller noted being deeply influenced by the tragic incident which led him to create a film that relied “entirely on visual language”. Willing to create something epic, Miller later revealed why the franchise was set in the apocalyptic world, while the tragedy that influenced him, apparently happened in reality.
Revealing that the original idea for the film wasn’t set in a dystopian world, George Miller discussed what eventually led him to delve into an allegorical land. Apparently, according to the filmmaker, finding it almost impossible to do action scenes in Melbourne, in the modern day, he was sparked with the idea to create a dystopian future so as to portray empty streets and shoot his film.
“[It was] almost impossible to do action sequences in the streets of Melbourne in the city in the modern day… the idea was to set it in a dystopian future simply because we could play in empty streets — and that was a really lucky thing because accidentally the film, which otherwise would have been present-day naturalistic, turned out to be more allegoric, unwittingly, and that’s what led to Mad Max and that’s why I’m still doing them because they’re very addictive.”
Well, that’s how the story of a hero in a wasteland began to take form, and the iconic Mad Max franchise was born. George Miller was thereafter credited for fathering the post-apocalyptic genre, which helped him build an eclectic resume and earn Academy Award nominations.
The Mad Max movies are available on Prime Video and Max.
