It’s official: George Miller returns to La Croisette for the world premiere of his latest “Mad Max” saga. Deadline reports that “Furiosa” will open the 2024 edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 15. But like Miller’s previous film “Three Thousand Years Of Longing,” another Cannes world premiere, it’ll debut outside the festival’s main competition.
No Palme d’Or? No problem for Miller. Fans may remember that the director screened “Mad Max: Fury Road” out of competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival a week after its world premiere in LA on May 7. So it only makes sense for “Furiosa” to resemble the debuts of Miller’s past two films. The news comes three weeks before the festival officially announces its 2024 main competition titles on April 11 in Paris. But many anticipated a Cannes premiere for “Furiosa” as early as October last year, so it opening the festival comes with little surprise.
Miller will debut the film with stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Burke in attendance for an out-of-competition gala on the festival’s first night. “The idea of this prequel has been with me for over a decade,” Miller said in a press statement. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to return to the Festival de Cannes – along with Anya, Chris and Tom – to share “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” There is no better place than La Croisette to experience this film with audiences on the world stage.”
Taylor-Joy stars in Miller’s origin story of Charlize Theron‘s woman warrior from 2015’s “Fury Road.” An epic prequel, “Furiosa” spans 15 years, with a young Furiosa fighting her way to freedom after getting kidnapped from the Green Place of Many Mothers. Miller promised “an odyssey” of a blockbuster to Empire earlier this month, filled with countless trials for his heroine as she tries to return home.
Here’s an official logline for “Furiosa,” courtesy of Warner Bros.: As the world falls, young Furiosa (Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. She will spend the rest of her life battling to get back home.
Along with directing, Miller co-writes “Furiosa” with his “Fury Road” collaborator Nico Lathouris. And many other members of the “Fury Road” team return too, like assistant director PJ Voeten and second unit director/stunt coordinator Guy Norris. Simon Duggan also returns as director of photography, with composer Tom Holkenborg again providing music, along with editor Eliot Knapman, visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, colorist Eric Whipp, and sound designer Robert Mackenzie.
Miller brought other longtime collaborators back for his latest film, too. Colin Gibson returns as production designer, as does editor Margaret Sixel, sound mixer Ben Osmo, costume designer Jenny Beaven, and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt. All these crew members won Oscars for “Fury Road,” so don’t be surprised if “Furiosa” is a favorite at the 2025 ceremony.
But Cannes 2024 comes first, and the festival couldn’t be more excited to promote the fifth title in the “Mad Max” franchise. “In 5 episodes and in almost 5 decades, George Miller has created a cathartic myth, even a cathartic mythology,” read a press statement from the festival. “Mad Max is a chronicle of societal and environmental collapse, playing with genre codes to question these themes, initially visionary and now cruelly topical. Originally filmed in the Australian Outback, this revisited “Western on Wheels” describes a dystopian world where speed and movement are just as synonymous with life energy as with death as a result of resource depletion, offering the viewer a dose of adrenaline rarely equaled on the big screen.”
After its world premiere on May 15, “Furiosa” hits French theaters on May 22 and US theaters two days later on May 24. As for what other titles will bow at the Croisette? The festival’s announcement of 2024 titles on April 11 will provide details, but don’t be surprised if Francis Ford Copolla‘s “Megalopolis” and David Cronenberg‘s “The Shrouds” are on the list.