George Miller is officially coming back. Yes, we know that his “comeback” was complete in 2015 thanks to “Mad Max: Fury Road,” but since then, the filmmaker has been on a bit of an extended break (whether or not it was self-imposed or circumstance is still not completely known). No matter the reason, it’s official — Miller’s long-awaited film, “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” is greenlit and will begin production in March 2020.
Announced more than a year ago, “Three Thousand Years of Longing” has been in development for ages, with Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton now signed on to co-star in the film which is being described as an epic romance. Outside of that, we’re not 100% sure what the film will end up looking like. What we do know, according to a new interview with Deadline, is that “Three Thousand Years of Longing” is no “Mad Max.”
And though we’ve been talking about this film for quite a while already, for Miller, “Three Thousand Years of Longing” is a project he’s been “working on and thinking about for at least 15 years.”
“Look, I’m happy to talk about the new film very elliptically, but I’ve always felt that if you talk about these films before they’re actually completed, you jinx them,” Miller said. “And ultimately until it’s done you don’t know what it is. I see the title of this film as a riddle, and it’s more or less at heart a two-hander, even though it’s way more complex than that. Tilda and Idris are the two characters at the center of this thing. I can’t even decide what genre it is, to be honest. And that’s a good thing.”
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He continued, “I like to think in these days that to have a chance of people taking notice of what you’re doing, without being overly flamboyant, your film needs to be uniquely familiar. That’s the term I use. The audience is looking for that, something that seems fresh and atypical. In this case, every time I think, oh it’s this kind of film, I say yes but also it’s that kind of film. I would hope that translates into people feeling that what we’re trying to do is interesting.”
However, if you’re a film fan looking for Miller’s latest to be another “Mad Max: Fury Road,” then you’re in for a bit of a shocker. The filmmaker not only says “Three Thousand Years of Longing” isn’t another ‘Fury Road,’ but it’s about as far away from that film as possible.
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“One thing I can tell you; it’s not [another ‘Fury Road’],” he revealed. “It’s a movie that is very strongly visually, but it’s almost the opposite of ‘Fury Road.’ It’s almost all interior and there’s a lot of conversation in it. There are action scenes, but they are by the by and I guess you could say it’s the anti-‘Mad Max.’”
As for that franchise, in which Miller broke out decades ago, the filmmaker says the “Mad Max” story is far from over. In fact, while he works on “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” he’s going to be also working on the ‘Fury Road’ sequel, which he thinks will begin production sometime soon after his next film.
“I’m not done with the ‘Mad Max’ story and I think you have to be a multi-tasker and there’s certainly another ‘Mad Max’ coming down the pike after this,” he said. “We’re in preparation on that as well.”
Yes, it’s been years since Miller reclaimed his iconic status thanks to ‘Fury Road,’ but it appears that film fans won’t have to wait too much longer before we see what he has up his sleeve next. With filming beginning in March, we’re likely still well over a year away from seeing “Three Thousand Years of Longing” hit theaters, but we’ll try our best to be patient. Miller has earned that, at the very least.
