An Ordinary Life

In June 2012, filmmaker George Miller went back to original story where he made his name way back in 1979, to the world of Mad Max.The world he created with his producer friend, Byron Kennedy was one of a pre apocalyptic one, where the gangs took over the highway and only the lone warrior, the samurai, the cowboy, the vigilante with the badge could stand between anarchy and civility. Due to Mad Max’s budgetary restrictions, its best hope was to be released at the drive-in, where all exploitative B-movies ended up. Its depiction of violence and vehicular mayhem guaranteed that it would find an audience somewhere and possibly make back its $350,000 budget.

It did that and more, thanks to its spectacular stunt and camera work, stylish direction and a charismatic performance in the lead role by Mel Gibson, Mad Max would go on to become “the most profitable film off all time relative to cost”(1), grossing over $100 million in its lifetime. 

The success of the film allowed George and Byron to receive a larger budget from Warner Brothers in Hollywood to make its inevitable sequel and also for George and Byron (2) to help fund their production company, Kennedy-Miller productions. At this stage, the Australian government had introduced the tax scheme, 10BA, essentially allowing anybody who invested in an Australian film production to receive a massive tax return. As Warners had now invested in the sequel, Kennedy-Miller Productions did not utilise the new tax break, however they could’ve used it for the original film. (3) The Warners financed Mad Max 2, or The Road Warrior in the United States, was a real post-apocalyptic film, whose look and style would go on to influence other films, as well as fashion and rock stars.

(Billy Idol adopted his early ‘80′s look from Mad Max 2)

The film would not only go on to influence the way action films were directed, shot and edited, but would influence George himself as he went into the Namibian desert in 2012, and attempted to not only revisit the world of Mad Max, but to totally re-energize the action genre. With this story, I would like to show how one man went from raising money independently to make his first film, to convincing a major studio to give him $150 million to make a sequel, 36 years after the original. 

Getting a film made is not easy. Once you have the story, it’s then all about getting your cast, crew and most importantly, funding to get the film made. And that money is not just for the shooting, the film has to be edited, sound effects mixed, colour coding, scored and printing. All of which requires money whether it is a low budget film or a huge Hollywood blockbuster. When George Miller set about making the first Mad Max film, his vision was to set it in the city, however they didn’t have the money to make that sort of film. It would have required city streets to be shut down, permits from city councils, all of which are expensive. George and Byron had to raise the finances themselves. George is a trained doctor and was working in the emergency ward of a hospital on weekends and trying to get Mad Max made during the week. They raised the budget via family and friends and also through Roadshow Entertainment (now Village Roadshow).  George has said that it took longer to raise the money than it did to actually make Mad Max (audio below from “The Hollywood Reporter” “Awards Chatter” podcast.)(4)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_o0iKieoSPXM1RNdkhndzF1WEE/view?usp=sharing

Mad Max played all over the world and was recognised in different markets, with the Japanese identifying with the Samurai aspect, and the Scandinavians comparing it to Viking mythology. It was released by American Intl. Pictures in the United States  with a re-dubbed soundtrack to remove the Australian accents where it did well in the drive-in and exploitation theatres.(5) The film would also go along to influence filmmakers such as James Cameron, Guillermo Del Toro, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. 

Warner Brothers came to the party for the sequel, providing a budget of  $4.5 million, not a lot of money by Hollywood standards but a lot for an Australian movie. George was able to flesh his story out more with more spectacular action sequences. George has said that with the extra money he wasn’t really making a sequel, “but got to make the film he originally wanted to in the first place”. (6) 

After the tragic death of Byron Kennedy in a helicopter accident in 1983, George would continue to operate Kennedy-Miller Productions, making TV mini-series in Australia (The Dismissal, The Cowra Breakout, Bodyline, Vietnam and The Dirtwater Dynasty) and movies such as Dead Calm, as well as making films in America for Hollywood studios such as The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and Lorenzo’s Oil (1992).

He was preparing to make the film Contact based on the novel by Carl Sagan for Warner Brothers when he felt that the studio were starting to lose their nerve with his vision for the film. He parted ways with them and went to Universal where he produced Babe (1995) and directed its sequel Babe: Pig In the City (1998). (audio below of George’s involvement with Contact and his problems with Warner Bros and how he got the Mad Max films back from the “Awards Chatter” podcast) (7)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_o0iKieoSPXLU11cjFtRmhkd2M/view?usp=sharing

Warner Brothers wanted to work with George Miller again, despite the problems they were having. George had acquired the rights back to the Mad Max character and story and on a long plane flight from Los Angeles to Sydney in 1999, he said he came up with the whole story for a new Mad Max film. 

The fourth film in the Mad Max saga would prove to be a difficult production. Firstly, George Miller enlisted the help of Brendan McCarthy, a comic book artist to draw the storyboards. George had envisioned the story visually and with the help of McCarthy, they put together a total of over 3,500 storyboard images for the film. In essence, there wasn’t going to be an actual screenplay but a screenplay in images. (8) 

This was enough to secure Mel Gibson, then still one of the biggest movie stars in the world. It was then announced in 2002 that George Miller and Mel Gibson were going to make “Fury Road” under their respective banners (Kennedy-Miller-Mitchell (producer Doug Mitchell was now a business partner with Miller) and Icon Productions (Mel Gibson’s production company)) as well as financing from Twentieth Century Fox. The budget was set at $104 million with Mel’s fee being $25 million with shooting to begin in Namibia with a release date set for 2004. It was then that the production ran into difficulty; firstly, the attacks on the World Trade Centre had just happened on the 9th September, 2001 resulting in the American dollar losing its value against the Australian currency and thus reducing the budget by seventy-five per cent. Secondly, the U.S. led invasion of Iraq concerned Twentieth Century Fox so much that they asked for production to be delayed until the situation settled down. Mel and George were still on board at this stage. (9)

By this time, George was being pressured by Warner Brothers to begin work on another film that he had pitched to them, the animated film Happy Feet. George put Mad Max Fury Road on hold and went to make Happy Feet (released in 2006, it would gross $384 million dollars worldwide) and its sequel Happy Feet Two (2011). George was also committed in 2009 to direct Justice League:Mortal for Warner Brothers as well with a budget of $220 million and to be filmed in Sydney but that project collapsed due to a tax rebate problem with the Australian government. (10) (This article from cinemablend.com explains in more detail)

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-George-Miller-Justice-League-Movie-Never-Happened-110997.html

in 2011, George was ready to make Mad Max Fury Road again, this time with funding from Warner Brothers (Fox had withdrawn their funding) and Village Roadshow and also without Mel Gibson in the lead (he had become too controversial at the time. He was replaced by Tom Hardy). Shooting was also to begin in Australia this time, more specifically Broken Hill where Mad Max 2 and 3 were shot. The desert that George was looking for in the outback was no longer there as Broken Hill had received record rain and was now a lush, green garden. Production was moved to Namibia in western Africa, where it never rains, in 2012. (11) (Here is an excerpt from the “Awards Chatter” podcast about the production of Mad Max Fury Road)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_o0iKieoSPXOFhwMFNHb29lY2M/view?usp=sharing

This video also explains the production of the film (from Vice.com)

Warner Brothers has invested somewhere in the vicinity of $150 million to $220 million into Mad Max Fury Road, backing the vision of George Miller. The film needed to compete with the likes of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Nation in a busy American summer (as when all the big budget movies get released). According to BoxOfficeMojo.com it has grossed $378 million worldwide which didn’t make it a spectacular success. (12)

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2015&p=.htm

George Miller and his production company, Kennedy-Miller-Mitchell Productions would have received a fee from Warner Brothers to make the film and it would have been Warners who would pay to distribute Mad Max Fury Road. Where Fury Road was a success though was with the critics, receiving a 97 per-cent approval rating from RottenTomatoes.com 

(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mad_max_fury_road/?search=mad%20max%20fury%20road ) 

and a score of 90 from Metacritic.com 

(http://www.metacritic.com/movie/mad-max-fury-road).

It also received ten Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director for George Miller and it looks very likely that another film may be in the pipeline in the Mad Max series. 

George Miller has taken what he thought would never be a career to the heights of the film world. Mad Max Fury Road was a massive production that needed a lot of money and directors like George Miller require that funding from major studios like Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox. It is up to him to make a film that not only please him, but the public who are paying to see the film via the box-office and the studios need to see those returns so that they can either feel more confident in funding another film, or whether they pass on it. George has followed his vision and has seen success which is something that would please the studios. In actuality, George Miller still does not see his filmmaking as a career in any way. Initially trained as a doctor, George highly recommends that one get a back-up plan just in case being a film director doesn't pan out...

“I think definitely. Two reasons why you need a fallback option. It's changing so rapidly, you have to be very agile and very adaptive - that's number one. Number two, the more multiskilled you are, the more - if you master one area, it really informs you in another area. People say, "Well what's a doctor - what got to do with making movies?" For me it's got everything to do with making movies: problem solving, I've spent my whole life observing other human beings, sometimes really intimately, and film making is all about perspective shifts and so on, so ... .” (12)