Mad Max: Director George Miller on tech limitations, the origin of the franchise and the future of film
Director George Miller says the Mad Max film franchise that exists today was borne out of limitations.
Originally an emergency room doctor, the Australian director transitioned into film and created the story of a world where limitation is a central theme and abundance a dream.
(L-R): Taylor-Joy with Miller on set. Pic: Warner Bros/Domain Pictures
The Australian director made his first Mad Max film in 1978 with a crew of 35 and a fresh-faced Mel Gibson as the lead.
He says it was filmed on a discarded camera lens from a Steve McQueen film, and the lack of resources to create the project ended up working in his favour.
George Miller. Pic: Reuters
He tells Sky News: “The first Mad Max was definitely borne out of limitations. It ultimately turned out to be very key to it.”
The 79-year-old says the original story was written as a “contemporary story set in the city of Melbourne,” but financial limitations spawned the idea of it being set in a “dystopian future”.
“We couldn’t afford to have car chases in the middle of the street,” he says. “We couldn’t afford [to have] the extra cars or put stuntmen in those cars. We couldn’t have extras in the street, trams or busses and we couldn’t use the buildings so we decided to set it a few years in the future.”
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Miller says they decided to instead focus on what they could use and thus the Mad Max franchise we know today was created.
“We could shoot in backstreets, where there were no extras and no cars, or shoot in really old, decrepit buildings where the people wouldn’t ask you for rent. And that led to the film becoming more allegorical.
“Had we not done that? I don’t think we’d be still doing it.”
Pic: Warner Bros/Domain Pictures
Burnt land and no speed limits
Miller is a cinephile at heart and for Mad Max, he had a vision – for it to be shot on a “big anamorphic widescreen”.
He previously credited his childhood in rural Queensland and the over-powering car culture there as the influences for Mad Max.
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At the time, the area consisted of completely flat roads, burnt land and no speed limits – the results of which Miller witnessed as an emergency room doctor at the age of 26.
“We couldn’t afford the cameras, or the lenses, but there was a set of lenses in Australia at the time, in one particular place that had been dumped out of Hollywood from the movie that Sam Peckinpah shot called The Getaway with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw”.
All but one of these lenses was “wrecked”.
He says: “The rental house virtually gave it to us for nothing. There was one lens called the 35mm lens, and we used that and it allowed us to get much more dynamics in the shot”.
Pic: Warner Bros/Domain Pictures
Why are moments in the Mad Max franchise sped up?
Inspired by the silent film era, Miller’s aim was to create “pure cinema” and make “‘a silent film with sound”.
To achieve the aesthetic he craved, he played around with frame rates.
In film, video is essentially a number of images (frames) captured sequentially to make the image move. Movies display 24 frames per second.
Miller says his plan was to shoot everything at high speed but, because of financial restraints, could not use speed ramps as it would cost the equivalent of a day of filming.
When he started to edit Mad Max he noticed “something was too slow” and to achieve the look he desired, began removing frames from the sequence.
“It looks a little bit like the old silent movies and sped up. By the time I got to Mad Max two, we would shoot at 20 frames or 18 frames. And so, I started to do a lot of that.”
Pic: Warner Bros/Domain Pictures
Reflecting on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, he says: “Nowadays digitally I shoot most things at 48 frames because you can ramp it up and down from 48 frames, provided you’ve got the resolution, you can do so much more with that.”
The film Mad Max was released in 1979 and put Mel Gibson on the road to stardom.
Oddly, at that time the film distributor in the US, American International Pictures, opted to dub the strong Australian accents used by the actors for fears that they would not be understood by American audiences.
A far cry from misunderstanding the Australian accent, the country’s actors have become some of the most well-known faces in Hollywood nowadays.
Pic: Warner Bros/Domain Pictures
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Miller’s latest release, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga serves as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road.
It was written before the Tom Hardy film began in production in order to “fully understand” the characters on screen.
It stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Imperator Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth as Dementus.
Miller says it feels good for the prequel to finally be in cinemas.
“We had a magnificent cast and crew who gave their very best. We tried to get the best story we could have on the screen using all the tools we have and hopefully it means something significant to people.”
Pic: Warner Bros/Domain Pictures
Miller on the future of film
The Australian director decided against using de-ageing technology for the role of Furiosa and instead cast Anya Taylor-Joy to play the character first depicted by Charlize Theron.
It is not that he is against using AI technology in fact, Taylor-Joy recently revealed they used software to mix her face with that of the child actor, Alyla Browne, for her scenes.
Miller says the beauty of cinema is that it constantly changes.
“From the very beginning of cinema, which is 130 years old, there’s always change. The silent era and sound. Then there was Technicolor, then there was the digital dispensation in the early 90s. Once that’s come along, things have changed so rapidly even since then.”
Always attracted to the tech behind the scenes, Miller cites the digital ability to make Sheep-Pig talk in Babe or Mumble tap dance in Happy Feet as game-changing moments for him.
“By the time we got to do Fury Road, I realiSed, ‘Oh my God, we could do things that we never dreamed of doing back in the celluloid days’.
“Technology will keep changing and advancing… I don’t think we should limit ourselves if the tools are available. It’s always been the case, and cinema has to adjust.”
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in cinemas now
Sir Rod Stewart appeared to be booed as photos of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were shown at a concert in Germany.
The 79-year-old singer, who has spoken out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was playing at Leipzig’s Quarterback Immobilien Arena on Friday.
Before performing his 1991 hit Rhythm Of My Heart – which he calls a war song and has dedicated to Kyiv in recent shows – the Ukrainian flag was projected on screen behind Sir Rod.
Images of Mr Zelenskyy were then shown, prompting loud boos, shouts, and whistles from the crowd.
Videos from social media show the crowd appearing to jeer as Sir Rod salutes the Ukrainian president.
The singer has regularly condemned Russia since 2022, and recently called Vladimir Putin an “arsehole” during an interview with Sky News.
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From February: ‘Music brought us together’
He told Sky News’s Friday Night With Niall Patterson in February: “We have to support Ukraine right to the end.”
In October 2022, Sir Rod also revealed had rented and furnished a home for a family of seven Ukrainian refugees.
“Words couldn’t describe what we were watching,” he told the Daily Mirror at the time. “The bombing of innocent children, the bombing of hospitals and playgrounds.
“Like everyone else, we were completely beside ourselves. I don’t wish that on anyone. This is evil, pure evil.”
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Sir Rod will return to Germany for a show at Hamburg’s Barclays Arena later this week, before performing in Cologne on 25 June and Munich on 28 June.
A representative for Sir Rod has been asked for comment.
Entertainment
House Of The Dragon is back – here’s everything you need to know ahead of the new series
It doesn’t get much more hotly anticipated than the first Game Of Thrones spin-off, but House Of The Dragon gave us a brand new story in a familiar world and was largely seen to have lived up to expectations.
The first series, which launched in 2022, was critically acclaimed and won awards – and also gave HBO its largest single-day viewership for a series debut in the service’s history.
But if there was criticism, it was that it was a little slow, too much set-up and not enough action, with decades being covered throughout the season as characters grew up and sides were taken.
Has the pace ramped up for series two?
The second season kicks off where the first left off, with battle lines drawn, blood spilt and two former best friends fighting for the crown – and Sky News has spoken to the cast about what to expect.
Be warned – spoilers for series one ahead.
Team Green v Team Black
“I feel like I was like trying to throw my body over the crack between the Targaryen family,” says Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent Hightower – a powerful member of the Greens and whose son Aegon was hastily crowned after she claims his father named him as his heir while on his deathbed.
This effectively usurped Rhaenyra (played by Emma D’Arcy) from the Blacks, who claimed she was the rightful Queen as the King’s first-born – and if that wasn’t enough to put them at odds, the series ended with Alicent’s other son killing Rhaenyra’s.
Cooke says ‘the chasm is well and truly opened’ this series
“The chasm is well and truly opened,” says Cooke. “And it’s about management of that and trying to make sure that we don’t descend into bloody, horrible, civil war.
“And the men around us are just so hellbent on having their names in the annals of history, and trying to mitigate that is a nightmare.”
Returning to and expanding Westeros
With the second series commissioned after the first proved to be a hit, D’Arcy says there was a different feel on set when they returned.
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“The first time around, we were trepidatious for so many reasons, not least because Westeros is a much beloved site and you need a very good reason to return there. We thought we had one, but even so, a prequel is a big ask of a fandom – you’re asking those people to sort of take a bit of a gamble with you and we knew that there was different ways that that might go.
“I think what was lovely, certainly I felt, it’s very helpful to watch the show and to have a much clearer sense of the job description, the job at hand, the context, the sorts of identity, the aesthetic of the show. But also, I felt certainly that I sort of finally got my Westerosi passport, that I was, you know, no longer a foreigner.”
Emma D’Arcy stars as Rhaenyra Targaryen
Fans of the world of Westeros will see more of it this season, says Matt Smith who plays Rhaenyra’s husband – and uncle – Daemon Targaryen.
“The show is evolving and getting bigger and exploring different parts of Westeros, which I think is quite exciting as well. “Hopefully it ticks the boxes it’s meant to.”
Dragon-riding
Mitchell: ‘It’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to dragon riding in real life’
While both sides of the Targaryen family have access to the ultimate weapon – dragons – wiser members are not in a hurry to use them, knowing the massive amounts of death and destruction that could be unleashed.
But it wouldn’t be much of a series of House Of The Dragon without us seeing plenty of the creatures, and we know that five new ones are being introduced.
For Ewan Mitchell, who plays Prince Aemond Targaryen – the rider of the largest dragon – it’s an opportunity like no other.
Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower and Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen in series two of House Of The Dragon. All pictures: Sky UK/HBO
“A hundred per cent it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to dragon riding in real life,” he says. “You are ultimately suspended, 15, 20 foot up in the air, you have a wind machine, you have a rain machine, we use something called the volume, which utilises this game engine which projects the environment around you.
“So it really gives you something to react off, you’re not just playing make-believe, and for an actor, that’s just super liberating – it’s escapism taken to another level.”
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One of the show’s most out-and-out villainous characters returning with Team Green is the duplicitous Lord Larys Strong, played by Matthew Needham.
He admits drawing inspiration for the role from a surprising source – the reality show Couples Therapy.
“You know, the doctor – Dr Orna Guralnik, I think is her name,” he says.
“Her quality of listening… I know, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to insult her, but her quality of listening – she’s very focused and attentive, so it takes everything in – was something I thought a lot about. But, I feel like I’m really disparaging her.”
Matthew Needham plays villain Larys Strong
Facts and figures
The first series was made during the pandemic, so an already challenging production was made even more so.
This time around there were fewer restrictions in terms of tests and masks, but the filming was no still no mean feat – with the show made across England, Wales and Spain at its peak, some 1,250 crew were working at one time, and 2,430 were involved in total during the almost six-month-long shoot.
Four hundred costumes were made for key characters, while another 5,000 were created for the supporting cast.
And we know there will be at least one epic battle scene – as it needed 250 extras for weeks at a time.
House Of The Dragon returns to Sky Atlantic on 17 June
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