By Garry Maddox
The War Boys are back in town.
On Tuesday, a gang of the shaven-headed, white-painted, tattooed young warriors from Mad Max: Fury Road put on a noisy display of post-apocalyptic aggression as director George Miller launched Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, an Australian-made prequel with a reputed budget of more than $400 million, on the eve of the local premiere.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth launch Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney.Credit: Janie Barrett
While the Cannes Film Festival is claiming its out-of-competition screening later this month is the world premiere, Miller and stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth are giving Sydney another moment in the international cinema spotlight by getting in first.
Furiosa is regarded as the biggest film to be shot in Australia, starring US-born Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) as the younger version of the fierce one-armed warrior played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road.
“I’m not sure what the exact figures are,” Miller said. “But with the [federal and state] rebates, we could shoot it here, which was great, with not only an Australian crew but a big Australian cast.”
The fifth film in the seminal action series has Furiosa trying to find her way home after being snatched by a biker horde led by the warlord Dementus, played by Hemsworth. The cast includes Lachy Hulme, John Howard, Angus Sampson and Charlee Fraser.
George Miller at the launch of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.Credit: Janie Barrett
Miller said the script for Furiosa came out of writing 2015’s Fury Road, a famously difficult-to-shoot action film that was acclaimed by critics and won six Oscars.
“In order to sell Fury Road, we had to write Furiosa’s story and Max’s story beforehand so that everyone knew what the story was like,” he said. “The thought was that if Fury Road worked, we might go into Furiosa.
“It took a lot longer than I thought, as these things do, but I have to say it was great to be working with most of the same people that we worked with before.”
The shooting locations for Furiosa included Broken Hill, where Mad Max II was shot, Kurnell in Sydney’s southern suburbs, which was one of the locations for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, and Hay in the western Riverina.
Hemsworth said he grew up watching Mad Max films and his dad, who raced motorbikes, knew a lot of the stunt riders who had worked on them.
“As a young Australian actor, I think it’s everyone’s dream to be a part of a Mad Max film,” Hemsworth said.
Being in the centre of one as epic in scale as Furiosa was “bonkers and crazy and wild and fun” but there were still connections to the original ultra-low-budget Mad Max in 1979.
War Boys take to the poles at the launch of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.Credit: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
“There are people who worked on the first film who are still involved in George’s team,” Hemsworth said. “It was honestly the best experience I’ve ever had on set.”
Taylor-Joy, who had to do some of the driving of a souped-up vehicle that fires harpoons in the film, did not even have a driver’s licence when she auditioned over Zoom. During extensive work with personal, stunt, action and fight trainers, she learnt how to do wheelies on motorbikes and 180-degree turns.
The toughest part of the shoot was a chase scene that had 52 characters and 200 stunt performers, and goes for 15 minutes on screen.
“That was shot over 78 days,” Taylor-Joy said. “By the end of it, we were like, ‘oh my God, it’s over! We did it!’ It was really a mammoth undertaking, but I’m so proud of it.”
But there was one driving skill that she never learnt on set – parallel parking.
“They never taught me to,” Taylor-Joy said. “They only taught me to do ridiculous stunts in the car.”
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