Last week, The New York Times columnist Kyle Buchanan debuted his new book titled Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, which gives readers an oral history of the making of George Miller’s acclaimed 2015 film, ranging from its nearly two-decades-long development phase up to its challenging production shoot.
The book included more than 130 new interviews featuring key members of the cast and crew, with one of them being Fury Road‘s assistant director P.J. Voeten who revealed an interesting new character detail about Warner Bros. Pictures’ Mad Max prequel Furiosa.
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In Blood, Sweat & Chrome, Voeten confirmed that Chris Hemsworth will be portraying the upcoming film’s lead antagonist. He also went on to share the story of how the Thor: Love and Thunder star landed the role.
“George saw Chris initially as a courtesy and then fell in love with the idea,” Voeten said in an excerpt from the book (via SlashFilm). “He’s going to play totally against type, the lead baddie. Unfortunately, we’ve got to find all of our other characters that aren’t around anymore: a new Immortan, a new Bullet Farmer, and a few others.”
Furiosa is being described as a standalone story that will dive into the origins of the character previously portrayed by Charlize Theron (The Old Guard) before crossing paths with the eponymous antihero of the mothership franchise. The film will be led by Golden Globe winner Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit), Chris Hemsworth (Avengers: Endgame), and Tom Burke (Mank). The latter replaced Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who exited the project due to scheduling conflicts.
Set to debut on May 24, 2024, the Mad Max prequel will again be written and directed by George Miller, who is co-producing the film along with Oscar-nominated producer Doug Mitchell. Miller’s Australian-based Kennedy Miller Mitchell banner is also attached to produce.
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Even though the film had a poor box-office turnout with a worldwide gross of over $370 million, Mad Max: Fury Road was still a critical success, with critics praising its cinematography, production design, and the performances of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, who both had a difficult time during filming. It also won six Oscar awards out of 10 nominations, including Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design.
