After hitting the Cannes Film Festival with “Three Thousand Years of Longing” in 2022, George Miller is eyeing a splashy Croisette comeback with “Furiosa,” his post-apocalyptic “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel movie. The Warner Bros. tentpole casts Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger version of Imperator Furiosa, the action heroine made famous by Charlize Theron in “Fury Road.” Miller is producing “Furiosa” along with his longtime producing partner Doug Mitchell. The prequel also stars Chris Hemsworth in the villain role.
Cannes proved to be a successful launching pad for “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which debuted out of competition at the festival in 2015 and was released in theaters shortly after, grossing $374 million worldwide. The movie also went on to be nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture and best director, and it won six awards.
According to an insider, the tentative plan is for Warner Bros. to world premiere “Furiosa” at Cannes just as it did “Fury Road” nine years ago. Any premiere plan for the movie depends on clearing the actors’ schedules to do the promotion, and those talks can’t happen until the SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved. Warner Bros. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We kept an extraordinary memory of the world premiere of ‘Fury Road’ at Cannes,” the festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux told Variety. “It would be wonderful to welcome them again with ‘Furiosa,’ especially since George Miller was a marvelous jury president in 2016. I know he’s working on the film and I hope it will be at Cannes.”
Miller earned positive reviews at Cannes 2022 for “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” but nothing like the unanimous acclaim that greeted “Fury Road” in 2015. Many festival-goers agreed at the time that had “Fury Road” premiered in competition it would’ve been a contender for major prizes such as the Palme d’Or. Warner Bros. last attended Cannes with a major tentpole in 2022 for the world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.”
Word that “Furiosa” could be headed for Cannes first appeared on World of Reel.