George Miller To Debut ‘Three Thousand Years Of Longing’ Starring Tilda Swinton & Idris Elba At Cannes

While filmmaker George Miller is prepping his “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel “Furiosa” to shoot in Australia later this year, he’s already got his next film in post-production— “Three Thousand Years of Longing” starring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. According to Variety, the epic fantasy romance picture budgeted at $60 million will be making its debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Cannes takes place between May 17-28; other big studio projects dropping there include Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick“ and Baz Lurman’s “Elvis” biopic. Miller previously attended Cannes back in 2015 and brought “Fury Road” with him.

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Here’s the basic synopsis for “Three Thousand Years of Longing”:

“Three Thousand Years of Longing” revolves around the encounter between a scholar and a djinn who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. Their conversation in a hotel room in Istanbul leads to consequences neither would have expected.

If you’re unfamiliar with the romanized term “djinn,” it originates from Arabian and Muslim mythology and is basically another way of saying genie. An “intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans.” The anglicized version is a genie and would explain the fantasy element expected in the film.

Elba famously caught COVID-19 while shooting the film in Australia and documented his recovery process on social media.

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Meanwhile, Warner Bros. had bumped the release of “Furiosa,” which was pushed from June 23, 2023, to May 2024 during the Memorial Day weekend. Its move was due to production delays and cast members such as Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth shooting other projects during the hiatus. The film’s production company Village Roadshow is also in the middle of a lawsuit against Warners and could become another headache for the prequel.

We’re still waiting on a domestic release date from MGM for “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” but the film was always eyeing the awards season, so we’ll likely see it in the fall or early winter later this year.