News on the Fury Road : "The Wasteland" & "Furiosa"

[Immortan Joecutter]

true words !

[KamicrazyWarGal]

George Miller has said (describing characters from The Road Warrior) that in the post-apocalypse, gender roles don't matter. Saying Fury Road is "female-centric" because it has female characters that are just as diverse, strong, and important as male characters is the fault of our modern society, not the film!

[Taipan]

George Miller has said (describing characters from The Road Warrior) that in the post-apocalypse, gender roles don't matter. Saying Fury Road is "female-centric" because it has female characters that are just as diverse, strong, and important as male characters is the fault of our modern society, not the film!

I agree times million. "the wasteland is an equal opportunity ass kicker". Everyone's going to get hurt and if they try to escape the adversities it doesn't make the movie feministic, meninistic, whatever-istic, except maybe 'survivalistic'.

And interestingly enough, I just watched an interview with Miller where the interviewers brought up the the fact of hiring Eve Ensler for Fury Road. Miller's response was that - again - Eve was only a part of many consultants hired to help out different groups of actors get in their roles. In fact, everyone except The Wives had some consultant to help them out, so when Eve was in Africa for a week, so Miller brought her in to do some work.
Link to the interview, Eve Ensler question is around 8 min mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvyJNaXkTU

But holy damn, everyone except the director exaggerates her involvement...sign of our times I guess. C'mon, questions about changing the script because of her? Give me a break... Sure, the movie deals with some feminist issues in it, but it wasn't a feminist movie. Just as Max having mental issues didn't make it a 2 hour PSA about PTSD.

[MWFV8]

Packaging a female centric movie within a male led franchise was an overly complacent move by the studios. What initially helped bring two sides together is clearly going to create a massive divide as Miller is now going to be seen as politically siding with one extreme view over another - when in fact he just wants to continue making great movies.

Sorry man, but this is nonsense. Complacent move from the studio? The studio had nothing to do with shaping any aspect of Fury Road. They had NO IDEA what the hell they were getting to begin with. The female-centric themes were all Miller. That's the movie he wanted to make. If anything, the studio would have balked at that as the core of a movie franchise predominantly appealing to males, especially when they look at its nearest modern rival, the Fast and Furious franchise. The fact he had no screenplay to show corporate drones at WB means he got away with murder with making this movie, and thank fuck he did.

There'll be no divide because Furiosa's not there. People went to see a Mad Max movie and got Furiosa but that won't hurt the next one.

I stand corrected.

I had no idea they'd managed to hide any synopsis development, storyboards, casting, dailies, stunt choreography, concept work, etc from the studio during all that time. Quite a remarkable effort when you consider the funding.

And there was me believing all these directors that complain about too much involvement from the executives!

[MWFV8]

George Miller has said (describing characters from The Road Warrior) that in the post-apocalypse, gender roles don't matter. Saying Fury Road is "female-centric" because it has female characters that are just as diverse, strong, and important as male characters is the fault of our modern society, not the film!

I agree times million. "the wasteland is an equal opportunity ass kicker". Everyone's going to get hurt and if they try to escape the adversities it doesn't make the movie feministic, meninistic, whatever-istic, except maybe 'survivalistic'.

Good points. Please note I'm saying female-centric because I feel Fury Road puts Furiosa as the lead, but I respect not everyone feels that way about the movie.

[MWFV8]

Packaging a female centric movie within a male led franchise was an overly complacent move by the studios.

It wasn't Miller's idea since the very begining ?

It was, but it was also backed by WB in the form of a Xena: The Warrior Princess type TV show that fell through (95-96). AFAIK, the TV show wasn't even that much about Max either. Around the same time (96) Miller met McCarthy and they turned this idea into a movie, with more Max in it because of McCarthy (at least that's what he says).

It's funny how the pendulum swung in the other direction with Fury Road sequels being about Max now, despite the whole deal starting out with Furiosa. Fury Road is in dead center of this transition.

Even more amusing when you consider a Xena reboot has now suddenly been greenlit.

A Furiosa TV series would be awesome.

[blackmocco]

I stand corrected.

I had no idea they'd managed to hide any synopsis development, storyboards, casting, dailies, stunt choreography, concept work, etc from the studio during all that time. Quite a remarkable effort when you consider the funding.

And there was me believing all these directors that complain about too much involvement from the executives!

Nah man, my only point was that this movie was always going to defy studio interference. For one thing, Miller owns the rights to this franchise so Warner Bros didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to making suggestions (although I'm sure they were leaning heavily in the editing suites, when it's too late to suggest script changes).
Also, he came to them with it. This wasn't a studio commissioning something. His property, his story, his characters, his vision.
It was being made far away from a studio lot and there was no opportunity for them to take a script home and stick a bunch of stupid, pointless notes all over it. Dailies must have had the execs terrified. What the hell would you do if you'd handed someone $150 million of your bosses' money and the result is this madness? Haha!

For the other side of the coin, here's what happens when studios (Warners again, in this case) interfere:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/w ... ead-831412

[draknoir2]

George Miller has said (describing characters from The Road Warrior) that in the post-apocalypse, gender roles don't matter. Saying Fury Road is "female-centric" because it has female characters that are just as diverse, strong, and important as male characters is the fault of our modern society, not the film!

I agree times million. "the wasteland is an equal opportunity ass kicker". Everyone's going to get hurt and if they try to escape the adversities it doesn't make the movie feministic, meninistic, whatever-istic, except maybe 'survivalistic'.

Good points. Please note I'm saying female-centric because I feel Fury Road puts Furiosa as the lead, but I respect not everyone feels that way about the movie.

I think it's more a Theron-centric movie.

And the claims by Miller that any perception of feminist undertones is just "the fault of modern society" is intellectually dishonest at best. Every aspect of a film is deliberate... including the resulting "controversy". Claiming to hold a mirror to society doesn't alter the fact that you bought and aimed the mirror to reflect a particular thing.

[Artemis Flow]

Miller cast so many female characters because up until now Mad Max has been a guys franchise , he's not silly now chicks dig it as well , do the math *ker ching*
The quote about Fury Road being the most analysed movie of the decade is on the money

[MachRider]

Miller cast so many female characters because up until now Mad Max has been a guys franchise , he's not silly now chicks dig it as well , do the math *ker ching*

Based on my significant and extensive field-research on the subject of Mad Max female audience , I'd say 21 y.o. Mel Gibson has drawn more women to the franchise than both Tina Turner and Charlize efforts combined.