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Oct 27, 2017
45,240
Seattle
Full Title (I shortened it because Deadline's was super long)

George Miller On March Start Date For Next Film, More 'Mad Max', Defending Superheroes As Cinema & The Search For Depth That Makes Movies Like 'Fury Road' Unforgettable


EXCLUSIVE: George Miller has gotten his green light and a March production start in Australia on Three Thousand Years of Longing, with Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton now locked to star. That Miller is making this film isn't a surprise: independent distributors rarely get a shot at a big-ticket film from a commercially successful auteur like Miller as he was coming off his Best Picture-nominated Warner Bros blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road. FilmNation had a crowd eager to open their wallets for international rights when the script was shown to buyers at 2018's AFM. CAA Media Finance is selling North American and Chinese distribution rights and FilmNation is finishing overseas sales, but Miller has the money he needs to make his movie.

While the market for independently constructed films has been challenging, it has been strong for packages like this one, driven by self-generating writers and directors. That both Roland Emmerich's Midway and Rian Johnson's Knives Out raised large budgets for films that performed well at the box office bolsters the idea that distributors here and abroad are ready to pay large sums.

on Super Hero Cinema debate

"I watch all of them," Miller said. "To be honest, in terms of this debate, cinema is cinema and it's a very broad church. The test, ultimately, is what it means to the audience. There's a great quote I saw that applies to all we do. It was from the Swahili storytellers. Each time they finished a story they would say, 'The story has been told. If it was bad, it was my fault because I am the storyteller. And if it was good, it belongs to everybody.'


"It's a mistake and a kind of hubris if a film does well at the box office to dismiss it as clever marketing or something else," Miller said. "There's more happening there, and it's our obligation as storytellers to really try and understand it. To me, it's all cinema. I don't think you can ghettoize it and say, oh this is cinema or that is cinema. It applies to all the arts, to literature, the performing arts, painting and music, in all its form. It's such a broad spectrum, a wide range and to say that anyone is more significant or more important than the other, is missing the point. It's one big mosaic and each bit of work fits into it."
 

Deleted member 45211

User requested account closure
Banned
Jun 19, 2018
492
There's a great quote I saw that applies to all we do. It was from the Swahili storytellers. Each time they finished a story they would say, 'The story has been told. If it was bad, it was my fault because I am the storyteller. And if it was good, it belongs to everybody.'


"It's a mistake and a kind of hubris if a film does well at the box office to dismiss it as clever marketing or something else," Miller said.

What a goddamn monster quote.

What's the positive equivalent of OK Boomer for his gen?

'Speak up, Silent One.'
 

Nothing Loud

Literally Cinderella
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,987
Well yeah, he's right that superhero films are cinema, of course they are and of course there's an audience for them. I'm just not it. I just think most of them are vapid and cliché at this point. You've seen one Marvel film you've seen them all. People who are hooked keep watching, people who don't give a shit about spandex colorful mutants keep not watching.
 

Nisaba

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,942
Canada
Ah yes George Miller!

Excited for his new movie and I completely agree with his comments about cinema which is what I was trying to say on this forum before but got scoffed at for it. The quote from the Swahili storytellers was really nice to learn about!

Any sort of holier-than-thou attitude comes off as pretentious and gate-keeping to me.

Superhero movies are cinema. Scorcese movies are cinema. Both entertain with their types of stories but in different ways.
 

DanGo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,742
Ooh, I forgot this new Miller film was a thing. Glad to hear it's funded and moving forward.
 

Seesaw15

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,819
The man who directed the movie of the Decade thinks superhero movies are cinema.
03090D133A8FC1F68C7809F5F3A7DD4442857D67

Well said Miller. I stand by my previous statement that everyone tripping over themselves to agree with Martin Scorsese's gatekeeper definition of cinema are clowns.
 

LGHT_TRSN

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,136
I will watch anything Miller makes....I just hope one of those films gets to be another Mad Max.
 

Blader

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,620
Interesting he says that another Mad Max is coming up after this film... I guess that lawsuit with WB was settled then?
 
Oct 26, 2017
9,859
MORE MAD MAX

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

TOM HARDY AGAINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
 

YukiroCTX

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,996
Great director and curious about Three Thousand year Longing and excited for more Mad Max. I'm not quite surprised by the comments given his work and being fairly open minded about films in general. He's directed an animated film despite the genre being fairly looked down upon and not getting the same recognition and though people are more focused on MM, Babe will always be my favourite work he's directed.
 

cognizant

Member
Dec 19, 2017
13,756
George Miller joins the battle. The armies are building their forces steadily. The MCU forces need more heavyweights to join the ranks to survive attacks from the likes of Scorsese and Coppola. We need a prestige 70s director at the very least. LIVES ARE ON THE LINE HERE.
 

Extra Sauce

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,917
why won't people drop this fucking thing already FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE MAKE IT STOP NO ONE CARES

...oh he's defending the MCU? amazing response, thank you!

- Era
 
Oct 25, 2017
10,326
"I watch all of them," Miller said. "To be honest, in terms of this debate, cinema is cinema and it's a very broad church. The test, ultimately, is what it means to the audience. There's a great quote I saw that applies to all we do. It was from the Swahili storytellers. Each time they finished a story they would say, 'The story has been told. If it was bad, it was my fault because I am the storyteller. And if it was good, it belongs to everybody.'
Seriously, how hard was that? Wonderful quote that didn't require an op-Ed or 30 clarification quotes to respect everyone's merit as artists.
 
Dec 12, 2017
9,686

EdibleKnife

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,723
Seriously, how hard was that? Wonderful quote that didn't require an op-Ed or 30 clarification quotes to respect everyone's merit as artists.
Yeah but then some artists wouldn't get to feel superior to their peers which sadly seems so be a significant factor that drives the creativity of a not insignificant amount of creatives in the industry.
 

butalala

Member
Nov 24, 2017
5,278
I've seen enough of them in the last 10 years and given them enough chances seeing them with friends who ask me to join them to know I can skip marvel films for the rest of my life happily.

Yeah, it's fine if you don't like them, but you look silly when you say "if you've seen one, you've seen them all. You can't take two movies like Spider-Man Homecoming and Avengers Endgame and say that they have nothing unique to offer.
 

BlackGoku03

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,275
It bothers me that all people want to debate is the definition of "cinema" and not the context of what he said. That being said, I don't disagree with him. It's just that he doesn't provide a rebuttal to anything Scorsese said.
 

Nothing Loud

Literally Cinderella
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,987
Yeah, it's fine if you don't like them, but you look silly when you say "if you've seen one, you've seen them all. You can't take two movies like Spider-Man Homecoming and Avengers Endgame and say that they have nothing unique to offer.

They don't have much different to offer to me that I enjoy, so yes I can. Pretty much any Marvel movie I've seen in the last decade borrows similar plot themes, cliches, humor, cinematography, pacing, fight choreography; I don't care to sit through another Avenger movie for the rest of my life.
 

Graven

Member
Oct 30, 2018
4,105
"More Mad Max" is the only set of words i managed to read, everything else does not matter.
 
Jan 10, 2018
6,327
We live in that sad world where people are asked whether Disney movies are movies, but noone asks about Century Fox movies disappearing.

But atleast more Miller.
 

Dalek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,962
The world would be seriously deprived if he doesn't get to make one more Mad Max movie. Legend!
 

SpankyDoodle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,082
You've seen one Marvel film you've seen them all.
You don't have to like them and I'm not gonna try to change your opinion on liking them but this is some stanky doo right here. The MCU Spider-Man movies just did shit they've never even done in the comics before. Ant-Man isn't Civil War which isn't Eternals which isn't Black Panther which isn't Guardians of the Galaxy, and none of those are Fantastic Four which isn't X-Men 2, which isn't even X-Men 3, which isn't First Class, which isn't Amazing Spider-Man, which isn't DareDevil. The same goes for DC movies too. Like, what?
 

MaitreWakou

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
May 15, 2018
13,180
Toulouse, France
You've seen one Marvel film you've seen them all.
One thing that people don't really realize... Is that you could say that to basically every period of Hollywood minus New Hollywood ?
Hollywood is based on the studio system. "You've seen one MGM film from the Classic era, you've seen them all", and apply that to all the studios, and you had the most common critic made by european critics back in the 30s and 40s, until the Cahier du Cinéma french critics in the 50s (that would then be part of the New Wave in the late 50s and 60s) first defended those mainstream, commercial films.
But at each new Hollywood era, people say this as criticism, even though it's just part of the studio system of Hollywood which is there since the very beginning.