The awards season has perhaps been better than expected for "Mad Max: Fury Road." Blockbuster movies don’t always get a fair shake from critics groups and other organizations, but the path towards an Oscar is looking better with each passing day for George Miller‘s film. This past week, the kudos from various organizations, including a big win from the National Board Of Review, resulted in two Golden Globes nominations for ‘Fury Road,’ for Best Picture and Best Director. I would wager if you had asked Warner Bros. what film they have to focus on in December, they might’ve said "Black Mass." But clearly, Miller’s action spectacle has become the studio’s awards horse. So, could they celebrate all the good things to happen to the movie in 2015 by re-releasing it next year?
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You might recall that throughout the promotion for ‘Fury Road,’ Miller spoke at length about cutting a black-and-white version of the movie, and that he had insisted to the studio they make it available on the home video release. That didn’t happen. While a fan version of a monochrome ‘Fury Road’ briefly hit the web in September, it was quickly yanked offline, but it seems there’s still hope for Miller’s vision.
Screen Daily reveals that an official black-and-white version does exist, "which Miller confirms was his original intent," and producer Doug Mitchell says it might be released in 2016. Big news, indeed.
I would imagine Warner Bros. are still waiting to see how the film does when the Oscar nominations are unveiled next month, and even if it were to do well, I’d wager they won’t go wide with a black-and-white "Mad Max: Fury Road." I’d guess it might be a special event screening, or something that might make its way in limited release to theaters like Alamo Drafthouse. But, we’ll just have to wait and see. However, it’s probably worth noting that the re-cut of Alfonso Cuarón‘s "Gravity" featuring just the score and sound effects, never hit the big screen, and was only released on a special edition Blu-ray of the film. And the sci-fi flick did far better box office numbers than ‘Fury Road.’ Food for thought.
But are you interested in ‘Fury Road’ as a big screen, black-and-white experience? Or would you rather just see the current version again? Let us know below.
To people saying black and white is just "take out the colors"… that\’s not how it works. It\’s like saying you can just change the engine on a ferrari with some big american muscle engine and it will be the same thing, no, you need to tune everything else or it\’ll just be a mess. B&W, to be good, needs a total rework of the tones in every scene.
Im not sure I would be sold on a b/w cut of Mad Max in theaters (unless it was in Imax again, because 1 day in Imax wasn\’t enough for this film)). However that is exactly the sort of thing that Blue-Ray sales are for. Hell, Id love to get just the music/score track on the b/w cut. Sell me THAT…
Miller\’s alternate version isn\’t only graded to black and white perfection, it also removes any dialogue and sound effects, with only the score accompanying it. Much like a true silent film. Without the obligatory dialogue title cards.
This would be fantastic. Once again many are forgetting the grueling process of color grading.. If you just set the movie in greyscale clearly it would be worse. This movie would be perfect for black and white to go alongside the gritty aesthetic of Frank Miller\’s Sin City. The beautiful desert in the daytime will be interesting, bring it on!
Well if it\’s just a black-and-white version of the film we already saw, then it\’s not a big deal. But if there are other differences, like alternate angles or scenes or whatnot, then absolutely.
Not interested. If I want to see it black and white, I can always adjust the color settings of my TV.