Furiosa's poor performance could throw a wrench in George Miller's plans
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
Tom Hardy is not confident in a new Max film after the poor results of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in theaters. The film has so far not made more than US$65 million at the box office in the US and is far from reaching US$200 million worldwide. The path to the cinema should be even shorter with the arrival of the film for rent and purchase on June 24th. These factors could put a heavy brake on any other project in the world of Mad Max, such as The Wasteland, a film that George Miller had already said he was waiting to make. In a lengthy Forbes profile, Hardy dismissed any idea that the film is actually being made. “I don’t think that’s happening,” he said.
The Wasteland, which would take place a year before Fury Road and would star Tom Hardy in the lead role. In 2017, Miller was apparently in pre-production and even got Hardy to commit, but the director's lawsuit against Warner Bros. prevented the film from moving forward. With a supposed budget of US$168 million, the film starring Anya Taylor-Joy made US$25.6 million in the North American market and another US$33.3 million globally. However, there is still no box office opening for this Monday (27th), which is a holiday in the United States. Furiosa's opening numbers are the lowest for this holiday in 29 years. The last film that opened below that was Gasparzinho, the Little Ghost (1995), with US$22 million.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth star in the film which has its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on May 15. It is worth remembering that Miller also chose the French event to premiere Fury Road. The new film is set 45 years after the meltdown that ended the world and 15 years before Mad Max: Fury Road. The story was thought up by George Miller even before the original, and the success of the 2015 film allowed the development of the derivative. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will tell the origin of the character played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road, now played by Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen's Gambit).
Hemsworth (Thor) plays Dementus, a gang leader who arrives in the desert to challenge Immortan Joe. Tom Burke (Mank) completes the cast. Director George Miller talks about his desire to make the prequel since Furiosa took off as the highlight of Fury Road, which had Tom Hardy as Max and Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe in what is considered one of the best films of the century, in addition to being a success at the box office (US$380 million raised worldwide) and at the Oscars (5 statuettes). Max should not be part of the film, which focuses on the past of the Citadel built by Joe and the Many Mothers, who welcomed Furiosa in her youth.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opened in theaters on May 23 this year.