FURY ROAD FOLLOW-UP FURIOSA FIRES UP IN AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK

Principal photography is underway on Academy Award-winning filmmaker George Miller’s Furiosa, the much-anticipated return to the iconic dystopian world he created more than 30 years ago with the seminal Mad Max films. Anya Taylor-Joy stars in the title role, alongside Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke.

An original new standalone action adventure will reveal the origins of the powerhouse character from the multiple Oscar-winning global smash Mad Max: Fury Road. The new feature is being produced by Miller’s own Australian-based Kennedy Miller Mitchell banner, together with the filmmaker’s Fury Road partners Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. 

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Taylor-Joy (pictured, right) is on a meteoiric career trajectory, coming off Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho and Robert Eggers’ The Northman and the Netflix blockbuster mini-series, The Queen's Gambit. She has also starred in the romantic comedy Emma, based on the Jane Austen novel, Split from M. Night Shyamalan, and his follow up Glass.

Hemsworth is right at home with high-octane action, having starred in the Avengers and Thor films as well as the recent Netflix films Extraction and Spiderhead. His other film credits include Bad Times at the El Royale, 12 Strong, In the Heart of the Sea, Rush, Snow White and the Huntsman and Star Trek, among many others. His social media post featuring the first clapperboard of the Furiosa shoot (pictured, top) went viral with fans of the Mad Max saga.

Burke (pictured, left), stepping into a key role vacated by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is perhaps best-known for his award-nominated role in Joanna Hogg’s film The Souvenir, as well as playing the lead in the popular UK crime series C.B. Strike. He also starred as Athos in the BBC series The Musketeers, appeared in such feature films as Nicholas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, and played famed filmmaker Orson Welles in David Fincher’s Oscar-winning Mank.

Miller penned the script with Mad Max: Fury Road co-writer Nico Lathouris and produces alongside his longtime partner, Oscar-nominated producer Doug Mitchell (Mad Max: Fury Road; Babe).  Miller’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes such longtime collaborators as production designer Colin Gibson, editor Margaret Sixel, sound mixer Ben Osmo, costume designer Jenny Beavan and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, each of whom won an Oscar for their work on Mad Max: Fury Road, as well as first assistant director PJ Voeten and second unit director and stunt coordinator Guy Norris.  The director of photography is Simon Duggan (Hacksaw Ridge; The Great Gatsby).

R.I.P. HUGH KEAYS-BYRNE

Actor Hugh Keays-Byrne, a towering presence in Australia’s acting community and iconic genre cinema figure, has passed away in hospital overnight, aged 73. Destined to be forever remembered as ‘The Toecutter’ in the 1979 action classic Mad Max, Keays-Byrne reunited with director Dr George Miller 36 years later to play ‘Immortan Joe’ in the blockbuster reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road. It would be his final film role.

Born in Srinigar, India in 1947 to British parents, Keays-Byrne acted extensively on the London stage in his formative years, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on productions of  As You Like It, Hamlet, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing and Troilus and Cressida. A RSC tour of Australia performing in A Midsummer’s Night Dream led to the actor relocating here, his classically trained credentials providing entry into the burgeoning film and television sector.

The imposing physicality and enigmatic screen presence for which he would garner a legion of fans was evident in his big screen debut as ‘Toad’ in the late Sandy Harbutt’s motorbike-gang classic, Stone (1974; pictured, right), a role which caught the eye of director Brian Trenchard-Smith, who cast him in the action opus, The Man From Hong Kong (1975). This was a prolific period for the actor, with television work in the made-for-small-screen movies Essington (1974) and Polly My Love (1975) and the popular historical series Ben Hall (1975) and Rush (1976), for which he won a Best Actor Logie award.

Recognised as an invaluable ensemble player, support parts began to mount; Keays-Byrne supplied vivid character work in Phillipe Mora’s Mad Dog Morgan (1976), John Duigan’s The Trespassers (1976), Carl Schultz’s Blue Fin (1978) and Simon Wincer’s Shapshot (1979). With the industry hungry for local content, TV-movie production was at an unprecedented high, demand that the actor benefitted from with compelling turns in Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1977), Say You Want Me (1977), The Death Train (1978) and The Tichborne Affair (1978).

His star-making role came when he provided the villainous ying to young NIDA graduate Mel Gibson’s heroic yang in Miller’s low-budget, high-octane Mad Max. In a fearlessly crafted performance that perfectly conveys the anarchy and brutality of the post-apocalyptic setting, Keays-Byrne’s ‘Toecutter’ is one of Australian film’s most enduring figures; his left-field interpretation of psychotic villainy has ensured lines such as “Jessie, Jessie, Jessie, you've not got a sense of humor,” and “What a wonderful philosophy you have” will live forever. The performance earned Keays-Byrne a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the1979  Australian Film Institute Awards.

Hugh Keays-Byrne remained loyal to the sector that embraced him as a young English actor, staying in Australia and working steadily throughout the 1980s in such films as ian Barry’s  The Chain Reaction (1980; pictured, right, with Steve Bisley), Jonathan Dawson’s Ginger Meggs (1982), Werner Herzog’s Where the Green Ants Dream (1984), Richard Lowenstein’s Strikebound (1984), Graeme Clifford’s Burke & Wills (1985), Tim Burstall’s Kangaroo (1986), George Miller (the other one)’s Les Patterson Saves the World (1987) and David Webb Peoples’ Salute of the Jugger (1989). In 1992, he co-directed the dystopian action-thriller Resistance, reuniting him with fellow Mad Max alumni Vincent Gil (‘Nightrider’) in a support role.

International productions utilising Australian facilities recognised the value of a professional presence like Hugh Keays-Byrne, providing steady work for the actor throughout the 1990s in series such as Moby Dick (1998), opposite Patrick Stewart and Henry Thomas; Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1999), starring Treat Williams; and, as fan favourite ‘Grunchik’ in the sci-fi hit, Farscape.

Dr George Miller always acknowledged the invaluable contribution the actor made during the guerilla-style shot of Mad Max. It is known that the director had written a key role for the actor in his planned DCU adaptation, Justice League: Mortal, a Warner Pros tentpole project that was ultimately shut down only weeks before production was due to begin in 2007. His casting as ‘Immortan Joe’ in Mad Max: Fury Road was seen as a spiritual bond back to the original film and greeted with adoration by the franchise’s fanbase.

OZ SHOOT CONTINUES AS CANNES BUYERS EYE FIRST IMAGES.

Productions only get one chance to create the kind of buzz that a presence on The Croisette can deliver. Having only commenced its far north coast shoot on May 2, reps for director Luke Sparke’s sophomore effort Occupation have rolled out images and announced plot and cast details at the Marche du Film, the frantic sales and distribution trade show component of the Festival de Cannes.

Sparke’s directorial debut, the low-budget high-concept B-thriller Red Billabong, made a splash in 2016, securing niche international engagements (including screens in Vietnam) and home-vid exposure in monster-movie friendly markets, such as Japan. Shot with a natural storytelling flair and turning a tidy profit meant that the young Queensland-based director had industry cache, the kind that has allowed him to move ahead with haste on his follow-up production. The budget is estimated to be close to A$3million. (Pictured, above; key cast of Occupation)

"We're in the thick of [the shoot] right now, pulling massive days on back-to-back action scenes, which is quite rare for Australia,” said Sparke via press release. “It's looking great and I'm looking forward to rolling it out over the next months." The narrative pits residents of a small rural township against a mysterious and devastating ground invasion, a summary that reads like a cross between local blockbuster Tomorrow When The War Began and such classic sci-fiers as Invaders from Mars and War of The Worlds.

Sparke reteams with his Red Billabong leading man Dan Ewing, who heads up a quality cast that includes Temuera Morrison, Izzy Stevens, Stephany Jacobsen and Rhiannon Fish; local character actor legends Bruce Spence, Felix Williamson and Roy Billing; and, AFI award winner Jacqueline McKenzie. Producer Carly Imrie also returns. (Pictured, right; teaser poster for Occupation, courtesy of Film Mode Entertainment)

The early sneak images have been presented in Cannes by sales agent Film Mode Entertainment (FME), who are spruiking Occupation to international territories, including the all-important North American market. President of FME, industry veteran Clay Epstein, has a passion for Australian-lensed genre works, having worked for leading Oz outfit Arclight Films and represented films such as The Spierig Brothers Predestination, with Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook.

Epstein is particularly high on Occupation, stating, “We have incredible footage after only 2 weeks of production. Luke shoots action very well and is an extremely talented director.  This is a huge film and we are confident the market is going to embrace it.”

Occupation will be released in 2018 in Australia and New Zealand by specialist distribution outfit Pinnacle Films. (Pictured,below; from left, stars Izzy Stevens, Dan Ewing and Temuera Morrison, on location)