George Miller | |
---|---|
Born | Chinchilla, Queensland, Australia | 3 March 1945
Education | Sydney Boys High School, Ipswich Grammar School |
Alma mater | University of New South Wales |
Occupations |
|
Spouses | |
Children | 3 |
Relatives | Bill Miller (brother) |
Awards | Full list |
George Miller AO (born 3 March 1945) is an Australian filmmaker. Over the course of four decades he has received critical and popular success creating the Mad Max franchise starting in 1979 with two of the films having been hailed as two of the greatest action films of all time. [1] He has also earned numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
Miller rose to prominence directing the dystopian action-adventure films Mad Max (1979), Mad Max 2 (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). He then directed the dark fantasy comedy The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and the biographical medical drama Lorenzo's Oil (1992), which he also co-wrote earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He produced and co-wrote the family film Babe (1995) earning a Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination and later directed the sequel Babe: Pig in the City (1998).
In 1995, he also produced the confronting cinema verité documentary Video Fool for Love , which dealt with film editor Robert Gibson's personal life as captured in hundreds of hours of camcorder footage.
He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet (2006) and directed its sequel Happy Feet Two (2011). He returned to Mad Max directing the critically acclaimed sequel Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), which went on to win six Academy Awards with Miller receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. He then directed the prequel film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024).
Trained in medicine at the University of New South Wales, Miller worked as a physician for several years before entering the film industry full-time. He is a co-founder of the production houses Kennedy Miller Mitchell, formerly known as Kennedy Miller, and Dr. D Studios. Since the death of his producing partner Byron Kennedy, his younger brother Bill Miller and Doug Mitchell have produced his later films.
Miller was born on 3 March 1945 [2] in Chinchilla, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents: Jim Miller and mother Angela. Jim (aka Dimitrios) was born on the Greek island of Kythira (at Mitata), Jim's father anglicised his surname from Miliotis to Miller when he emigrated to Australia in 1920; Angela's family were Greek refugees from Anatolia, displaced by the 1923 population exchange. [3]
Miller attended Ipswich Grammar School and later Sydney Boys High School, [3] then studied medicine at the University of New South Wales with his twin brother John. While in his final year at medical school (1971), George and his younger brother Chris made St. Vincent's Revue Film, a one-minute short film that won them first prize in a student competition. [4]
In 1971, George attended a film workshop at Melbourne University where he met fellow student Byron Kennedy, with whom he formed a lasting friendship and production partnership, until Kennedy's death. In 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, spending his time off crewing on short experimental films. That same year, Miller and Kennedy founded Kennedy Miller Productions. [5] The pair subsequently collaborated on numerous works. After Kennedy died in 1983, Miller kept his name in the company. It was later renamed Kennedy Miller Mitchell in 2009 as a way to recognise producer Doug Mitchell's role in the company. [6]
Miller's first work, the short film Violence in Cinema: Part 1 (1971), polarised critics, audiences and distributors so much that it was placed in the documentary category at the 1972 Sydney Film Festival due to its matter-of-fact depiction of cinematic violence. [7] In 1979, Miller made his feature-length directorial debut with Mad Max . Based on a script written by Miller and James McCausland in 1975, the film was independently financed by Kennedy Miller Productions and went on to become an international success. [5] As a result, the film spawned the Mad Max series with two further sequels starring Mel Gibson: Mad Max 2 also released as The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).
During the time between the second and third Mad Max films, Miller directed a remake of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" as a segment for the anthology film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Despite not being involved or present, the infamous helicopter crash shook him, leading to a re-evaluation of the stunt-work in his future films. [8] He also co-produced and co-directed many acclaimed miniseries for Australian television including The Dismissal (1983) and The Cowra Breakout (1984).
In 1987, Miller directed The Witches of Eastwick , starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer. The film proved to be a troubling experience for Miller. "I quit the film twice and Jack [Nicholson] held me in there," said Miller. "He said, 'Just sit down, lose your emotion, and have a look at the work. If you think the work is good, stick with the film.' And he was a great man. I learnt more from him than anybody else I’ve worked with - he was extraordinary." [9] Nicholson also coached Miller to exaggerate his needs during the production, asking for 300 extras when he only needed 150, knowing that his producers would give him less than he requested. [10] The award-winning production designer Polly Platt also collaborated closely with Miller on The Witches of Eastwick. Cher later said that prior to working on the film, Miller called her at home, the day after her 40th birthday, to inform her that he and Nicholson didn't want her in the film. She was deemed "too old and not sexy". [11]
Following The Witches of Eastwick, Miller focused primarily on producing Australian projects. [12] His role as producer of Flirting , Dead Calm and the TV miniseries Bangkok Hilton and Vietnam , all starring Nicole Kidman, was instrumental in the development of her career. Miller returned to directing with the release of the biographical medical drama Lorenzo's Oil (1992), which he co-wrote with Nick Enright. [13] The film starred Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. The film received critical acclaim [14] with Variety describing the film as a "true-life story brought to the screen intelligently and with passionate motivation by George Miller". [15] For his work on the film Miller was nominated for the Academy Award and Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay. [16] [17] The following year Miller was hired to direct the science fiction drama film Contact based on the story by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. [18] After working on the film for over a year, Warner Bros. and Miller mutually agreed to part ways and Robert Zemeckis was eventually brought on to direct. [19]
In 1995 Miller produced and co-wrote the comedy-drama Babe directed by Chris Noonan. The film was a critical and financial success. [20] [21] The film earned 7 Academy Award nominations including for Miller for Best Adapted Screenplay. [22] Miller went on to write and direct its sequel Babe: Pig in the City (1998). [23] Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars praising Miller's work on the sequel writing, "It outdoes itself with the sets and special effects that make up "the city." And it is still literate, humane and wicked. George Miller, who produced, directed and co-wrote the film, has improved and extended the ideas in Babe: Pig in the City, instead of being content to copy them." [24] Critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune named it the Best film of 1998. [25]
In 1995, Miller also produced Video Fool for Love , a controversial and divisive cinema verité documentary shot on video by film editor Robert Gibson that deals with Gibson's personal life and relationship issues. [26]
Miller was also the creator of the animated jukebox musical film Happy Feet (2006) about the life of penguins in Antarctica. [27] The Warner Bros.-produced film was released in November 2006. It was a runaway box office success earning $363 million worldwide, and also brought Miller his fourth Academy Award nomination, and his first win in the category of Best Animated Feature. [28] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the film writing, "Miller...shows a remarkable persistence of vision. Even in a story about singing-and-dancing fat and feather, Mr. Miller can’t help but go dark and deep" adding, "[He] brings an unusual depth of feeling to his work as well as a distinct moral worldview". [29]
In 2007, Miller signed on to direct a Justice League film titled Justice League: Mortal . [30] While production was initially held up due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, [31] further production delays and the success of The Dark Knight led to Warner Bros. deciding to put the film on hold and pursue different options. [32] As a partnership between his production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell and Omnilab Media, George Miller co-founded Dr. D Studios, a Sydney-based digital animation studio in mid-2007. [33] In 2011, the Happy Feet sequel Happy Feet Two was released by Dr. D Studios. [34] But following the financially unsuccessful release of Happy Feet Two and the long delay of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), the studio closed down in 2013. [33] [35]
In 2012, Miller began principal photography on Mad Max: Fury Road , the fourth film in the Mad Max series, after several years of production delays. [36] Fury Road starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron was released on 15 May 2015. [37] The film became a box office success and was met with widespread critical acclaim with several critics calling it one of the greatest action films ever made. [38] A.O. Scott of The New York Times labeled it a "New York Times Critic's Pick" writing, "Miller has always stayed true to his scrappy, pragmatic roots. At 70, he has a master craftsman’s intuitive sense of proportion and a visual artisan’s mistrust of extraneous verbiage" adding, "It’s all great fun, and quite rousing as well — a large-scale genre movie that is at once unpretentious and unafraid to bring home a message". [39] It went on to receive 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, while Miller himself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. [40]
In October 2018 it was announced that Miller would direct Three Thousand Years of Longing , which began filming in November 2020. [41] The film starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. [42] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described the film as "a heartfelt Aladdin-esque adventure for grownups" adding, "Miller shows he is now doing one-for-him-and-one-that’s-even-more-for-him. It’s an Arabian Nights-type fantasia which he has clearly been gagging to make for years". [43] Justin Chang of NPR wrote that "Miller unveils an outlandish premise with a sly wit that's initially hard to resist" but added the film "ends on a muted, uncertain note". [44] The film was a box office bomb grossing $20 million worldwide off a budget of $60 million. [45] [46]
In April 2017, Miller said that he and co-writer Nico Lathouris have finished two additional post-Fury Road scripts for the Mad Max series. The Fury Road lead, Tom Hardy, is committed to the next sequel. [47] In 2015, and again in early 2017, Miller said "the fifth film in the franchise will be titled Mad Max: The Wasteland." [47] [48] In 2020, it was reported that Miller would next direct the Mad Max spinoff Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth. [49] The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim. [50] [51] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film a "NYT Critic's Pick" declaring, "Miller is such a wildly inventive filmmaker that it’s been easy to forget that he keeps making movies about the end of life as we know it. It’s a blast watching his characters fight over oil, water and women, yet while I’ve long thought of him as a great filmmaker it’s only with Furiosa that I now understand he’s also one kick-ass prophet of doom." [52]
Miller was married to actress Sandy Gore from 1985 to 1992; they have a daughter. He has been married to film editor Margaret Sixel since 1995. They have two sons. [53] [ needs update ] Sixel has worked in some capacity on many of Miller's directorial efforts. [54] Miller is a feminist, having told Vanity Fair in May 2015, "I've gone from being very male dominant to being surrounded by magnificent women. I can't help but be a feminist." [55]
Miller is the patron of the Australian Film Institute and the Brisbane International Film Festival, and a co-patron of the Sydney Film Festival.[ citation needed ]
Miller has said many times that the 1940 version of Pinocchio is one of his favourite films. [56] [57] [58]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | Mad Max | Yes | Yes | No | |
1981 | Mad Max 2 | Yes | Yes | No | Also additional editor |
1985 | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-directed with George Ogilvie |
1987 | The Witches of Eastwick | Yes | No | No | |
1992 | Lorenzo's Oil | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1995 | Babe | No | Yes | Yes | |
1997 | 40,000 Years of Dreaming | Yes | Yes | No | Documentary; also presenter |
1998 | Babe: Pig in the City | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2006 | Happy Feet | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2011 | Happy Feet Two | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2015 | Mad Max: Fury Road | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2022 | Three Thousand Years of Longing | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2024 | Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Producer
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1987 | The Year My Voice Broke | |
1989 | Dead Calm | Also second unit director |
1991 | Flirting | |
1996 | Video Fool for Love | Documentary |
Other credits
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1978 | In Search of Anna | First assistant director |
1980 | The Chain Reaction | Second unit director (uncredited) and associate producer |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1971 | "St. Vincent's Revue Film" | Yes | Yes | |
"Violence in the Cinema, Part 1" | Yes | Yes | ||
1974 | "The Devil in Evening Dress" | Yes | Yes | |
1983 | "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" | Yes | No | Segment from Twilight Zone: The Movie |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1983 | The Dismissal | Yes | Yes | Yes | TV miniseries |
1984 | The Last Bastion | Yes | No | No | |
Bodyline | No | Story | Yes | ||
1987 | The Far Country | Yes | No | No | |
Producer
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1985 | The Cowra Breakout | TV miniseries |
1987 | Vietnam | |
1988 | The Dirtwater Dynasty | |
The Clean Machine | TV film | |
The Riddle of the Stinson | ||
Fragments of War: The Story of Damien Parer | ||
Sportz Crazy | Documentary miniseries | |
1989 | Bangkok Hilton | TV miniseries |
Year | Title | Artist |
---|---|---|
1985 | "We Don't Need Another Hero" | Tina Turner |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2025 | Death Stranding 2: On The Beach | Likeness |
Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
1985 | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome | 1 | |||||
1987 | The Witches of Eastwick | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
1992 | Lorenzo's Oil | 2 | 1 | ||||
1998 | Babe: Pig in the City | 1 | 1 | ||||
2006 | Happy Feet | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
2015 | Mad Max: Fury Road | 10 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 2 | |
Total | 16 | 7 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 1 |
Mad Max 2 is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic dystopian action film directed by George Miller, who co-wrote it with Terry Hayes and Brian Hannant. It is the second installment in the Mad Max franchise. The film stars Mel Gibson reprising his role as "Mad Max" Rockatansky and follows a hardened man who helps a community of settlers to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders. Filming took place in locations around Broken Hill, in the Outback of New South Wales.
The Pursuit Special, also referred to as the Last of the V8 Interceptors, is a modified Ford Falcon muscle car prominently featured in much of the Mad Max franchise and driven by the titular character, where it appears in Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the canon comic book prequel, as well as both video games.
Max Rockatansky is the title character and antihero protagonist of the Australian post-apocalyptic action film series Mad Max created by director George Miller and producer Byron Kennedy. Max was played by actors Mel Gibson in the first three films from 1979 to 1985, Tom Hardy in the fourth film in 2015, and in a cameo appearance by Jacob Tomuri in the prequel spin-off film Furiosa in 2024.
Nico Lathouris is an Australian actor and writer. He is best known for his roles as George Polides in the 1993 romantic comedy film The Heartbreak Kid and as George Poulos in the 1994 television teen drama spin-off Heartbreak High. In both, he plays a Greek Australian patriarch, father of the protagonist, Nick. Lathouris was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film at the 1993 Australian Film Institute Awards.
Bill Miller is a Sydney-based feature film producer.
Hugh Keays-Byrne was a British-Australian actor. He began his career on stage in his native England, where he was member of the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1968 and 1972. After emigrating to Australia in 1973, he established himself as a supporting actor in action and thriller films like Stone and The Man from Hong Kong. His breakthrough film role was as the antagonist Toecutter in the original Mad Max. Decades later, he played another villain in the series, Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Furiosa may refer to:
Mad Max is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centers on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with Mad Max, and was followed by three sequels: Mad Max 2, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015); Miller directed or co-directed all four films. A spin-off, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, was released in 2024 and was also directed by Miller. Mel Gibson originally portrayed the series' title character, Max Rockatansky, in the first three films, while Tom Hardy and Jacob Tomuri portrayed the character in the later two films.
Kennedy Miller Mitchell is an Australian film, television and video game production house in Potts Point, Sydney, that has been producing television and film since 1978. It is responsible for some of Australia's best-known and most successful films, including the five Mad Max films, the two Babe films, and the two Happy Feet films.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a 2015 Australian post-apocalyptic action film co-written, co-produced, and directed by George Miller. Miller collaborated with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris on the screenplay. The fourth instalment in the Mad Max franchise, it was produced by Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Kennedy Miller Mitchell, and distributed by Roadshow Entertainment in Australia and by Warner Bros. Pictures internationally. The film stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, with Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton in supporting roles. Set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland where petrol and water are scarce commodities, Fury Road follows Max Rockatansky (Hardy), who joins forces with Imperator Furiosa (Theron) against warlord Immortan Joe (Keays-Byrne) and his army, leading to a lengthy road battle.
Joshua Helman is an Australian actor. He is best known for playing Slit in the action film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), William Stryker in the superhero film X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and its sequel X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), and Scabrous Scrotus in the action film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). He has also appeared in several television series, as well as the films Jack Reacher (2012), Monster Hunter (2020), and Thirteen Lives (2022).
Doug Mitchell is a film producer.
Margaret Sixel is an Australian and South African film editor. She is best known for her work as editor on her husband George Miller's films, including Babe: Pig in the City (1998), Happy Feet (2006), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). For Fury Road, she won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and the BAFTA Award for Best Editing.
Imperator Furiosa is a fictional character in the Australian post-apocalyptic action film series Mad Max. Introduced in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and portrayed by Charlize Theron, she serves as an officer in Immortan Joe's army but turns against him in order to free "The Five Wives", Joe's "breeders". During her journey, she meets Max Rockatansky. Despite initial hostility, the two become allies and team up to drive The Five Wives to a safe environment called the "Green Place".
Colin Gibson is an Australian production designer. He is known for his collaborations with George Miller, including Babe, Babe 2: Pig in the City, Happy Feet, Happy Feet Two, and Mad Max: Fury Road, the latter of which resulted in winning the Academy Award for Best Production Design and an AACTA Award. Gibson's other work includes The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, for which he shared a BAFTA award nomination with Owen Paterson.
The following is a list of unproduced George Miller projects in roughly chronological order. During a career that has spanned over 40 years, George Miller has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. A few of the projects were made after he had left production.
Three Thousand Years of Longing is a 2022 fantasy romantic drama film directed and produced by George Miller. Written by Miller and Augusta Gore, it is based on the 1994 short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" by A. S. Byatt and follows a djinn who is unleashed from a bottle by a professor and tells her stories from his thousands of years of existence. The film is dedicated to Miller's mother Angela, as well as Rena Mitchell, relative of producer Doug Mitchell.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action film directed and produced by George Miller, who wrote the screenplay with Nico Lathouris. It is the fifth installment in Miller's Mad Max franchise, and the first not focused on series protagonist Max Rockatansky, instead acting as both a spinoff prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and an origin story for the Fury Road character Furiosa, portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne in the prequel. Set years before the events of Fury Road, the film follows the title character's life for over a decade, from her kidnapping by the forces of warlord Dementus to her ascension to the rank of Imperator. Tom Burke also stars as Praetorian Jack, a military commander who befriends Furiosa. Several Fury Road cast members return in supporting roles, including John Howard, Nathan Jones, and Angus Sampson reprising their characters.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the soundtrack to the 2024 film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga directed by George Miller, which is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). The film's original score is composed by Tom Holkenborg and released through WaterTower Music on 17 May 2024.
There are no dates yet, but director George Miller is ready to head out to "The Wasteland" to revisit the 2015 blockbuster hit.