George Miller Shares Details on His Epic Fantasy Romance Film THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING

While we all impatiently wait for George Miller to make his Mad Max sequel, he’s got a new film he’s developing with Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton titled Three Thousand Years of Longing. All we really know about the film is that it’s an epic fantasy romance film that revolves around a genie.

Well, thanks to a recent interview with Deadline, Miller discussed the film and offered up some details on what we can expect from it. One thing he hasn’t quite figured out yet is what genre the film is:

“I see the title of this film as a riddle, and it’s more or less at heart a two-hander, even though it’s way more complex than that. Tilda and Idris are the two characters at the center of this thing. I can’t even decide what genre it is, to be honest. And that’s a good thing. I like to think in these days that to have a chance of people taking notice of what you’re doing, without being overly flamboyant, your film needs to be uniquely familiar. That’s the term I use. The audience is looking for that, something that seems fresh and atypical. In this case, every time I think, oh it’s this kind of film, I say yes but also it’s that kind of film. I would hope that translates into people feeling that what we’re trying to do is interesting.”

The filmmaker went on to make a point of saying that this movie is not Fury Road and explains what we can expect from it… like a lot of conversation:

“One thing I can tell you; it’s not [another Fury Road]. It’s a movie that is very strongly visual, but it’s almost the opposite of Fury Road. It’s almost all interior and there’s a lot of conversation in it. There are action scenes, but they are by the by and I guess you could say it’s the anti-Mad Max.”

Miller then talked about what went into casting Elba and Swinton in the lead roles:

“It arose out of the characters as written. I met both of them at some events at separate times and the moment I got to talk to them, they suddenly just slotted into the roles. I was really very happy they were available and interested and that they responded very well to the material. My hope is they will be doing something quite different than either of them has done before. I know I’m being a bit enigmatic but I don’t want to say more about the content of the film.”

As for his comment earlier about the title of the film being a riddle, he explained:

“I guess I’m hardwired to story in some way, and for me what happens is, stories seed in your head and they rattle around. It becomes rather Darwinian, survival of the fittest: the ones that have the most comprehensive promise are the ones that survive. This story I have been working on and thinking about for at least 15 years. There would always be several of these stories in my mind and it’s interesting, the ones that tend to fall away and why they fall away. The ones that are more insistent are usually so because they tick a lot of boxes and organically do a lot of things.”

When asked to expand on that, Miller said:

“The best way I can say it is, I really like stories where there is a lot of iceberg under the tip. Too often, a story can be quite dazzling but it’s amazing how quickly you can forget about it. I must say, going back to Mad Max: Fury Road, that was the thing that satisfied me the most. For a film like that, it could have been read just on the surface. It was very, very hard to get in a lot of subtext and exposition while you are on the run. That was the formal exercise of that film and I was really happy when people started to read a lot of stuff underneath that film. They saw the allegory. I think that’s why the film got traction to the extent it did. That’s my hope on this film even though you never know until it’s out there and people tell you what the film is.”

I also enjoy stories where there’s a lot of iceberg under the tip. Stories where the characters and world that they inhabit can be explored in depth. I love digging into that kind of stuff with stories that I like. I’m really curious to see what Miller is going to give us with this next film of his, and as a fan of Miller, I can’t wait to watch it and find out!