George Miller’s anticipated sequel "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga", the latest installment of the post-apocalyptic franchise, will get its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 15, organizers said Thursday.
The pic will be unveiled in the presence of Miller and cast led by Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Burke in an Out of Competition Gala session on Wednesday, May 15.
It had been widely anticipated as the opening film of this year’s edition but instead is playing on the second evening of the festival, which kicks off on May 14.
The Cannes premiere for the fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise comes nine years after Warner Warner successfully launched "Mad Max: Fury Road" at Cannes in 2015.
The new installment releases theatrically in France on May 22, two days ahead of its U.S. launch.
“The idea of this prequel has been with me for over a decade,” Miller said. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to return to the Festival de Cannes – along with Anya, Chris and Tom – to share Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. There is no better place than La Croisette to experience this film with audiences on the world stage.”
The prequel, which is the fifth entry in Miller’s “Mad Max” franchise, sees Taylor-Joy taking on the role of Imperator Furiosa, the fierce war captain that Charlize Theron played in the 2015 action film.
It follows a young Furiosa as she comes into her own after being taken away from the Green Place of Many Mothers and is immersed into a sinister world. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke also star in the movie.
Per the official logline: “As the world falls, young Furiosa (Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. She will spend the rest of her life battling to get back home”.
Miller was last in Cannes in 2022 with "Three Thousand Years of Longing" with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, Out of Competition.
The festival paid tribute to the Mad Max franchise.
“Mad Max (1979), Mad Max II: The Challenge (1981) [released as The Road Warrior in the U.S.], Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024): in 5 episodes and in almost 5 decades, George Miller has created a cathartic myth, even a cathartic mythology,” it declared.
“Mad Max is a chronicle of societal and environmental collapse, playing with genre codes to question these themes, initially visionary and now cruelly topical. Originally filmed in the Australian Outback, this revisited “Western on Wheels” describes a dystopian world where speed and movement are just as synonymous with life energy as with death as a result of resource depletion, offering the viewer a dose of adrenaline rarely equalled on the big screen.”
The 77th Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14 to 25, with Greta Gerwig as the head of its jury. The full line-up is due to be announced on April 11.
Follow the latest news on Google News
