Acclaimed director George Miller has spent a good part of his career making ‘Mad Max‘ movies.
The Australian filmmaker began his career by making ‘Mad Max’ with Mel Gibson, and followed it up with ‘Mad Max 2‘ and ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome‘ before starting to make non-‘Mad Max’ movies like ‘The Witches of Eastwick‘, ‘Babe: Pig in the City‘ and the ‘Happy Feet‘ films.
But in 2015, Miller returned to the franchise that put him on the map with the Oscar-nominated ‘Mad Max: Fury Road‘, which recast the title character with Tom Hardy and introduced Charlize Theron as fan-favorite Furiosa.
Now, Miller returns once again to the ‘Mad Max’ universe with the prequel ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga‘, which also recasts the title character with Anya Taylor-Joy and co-stars Chris Hemsworth.
In honor of the new film, Moviefone is counting down every movie that George Miller has ever directed, including his latest.
Note: For this list, we are only including Miller’s theatrical films as a director, and not his documentary ‘40,000 Years of Dreaming‘, or ‘Babe‘, which he only produced and co-wrote.
Let’s begin!
11. ‘Babe: Pig in the City‘ (1998)
Babe, fresh from his victory in the sheepherding contest, returns to Farmer Hoggett’s farm, but after Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) is injured and unable to work, Babe has to go to the big city to save the farm.
313410. ‘Happy Feet Two‘ (2011)
Mumble (Elijah Wood) the penguin has a problem: his son Erik (Elizabeth Daily), who is reluctant to dance, encounters The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria), a penguin who can fly! Things get worse for Mumble when the world is shaken by powerful forces, causing him to brings together the penguin nations and their allies to set things right.
378929. ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome‘ (1985)
Mad Max (Mel Gibson) becomes a pawn in a decadent oasis of a technological society, and when exiled, becomes the deliverer of a colony of children.
10217758. ‘Lorenzo’s Oil‘ (1992)
Augusto (Nick Nolte) and Michaela Odone (Susan Sarandon) are dealt a cruel blow by fate when their five-year-old son Lorenzo (Zack O’Malley Greenburg) is diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease. But the Odones’ persistence and faith leads to an unorthodox cure which saves their boy and re-writes medical history.
10213157. ‘Mad Max‘ (1980)
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.
227616. ‘The Witches of Eastwick‘ (1987)
Three single women (Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer) in a picturesque Rhode Island village have their wishes granted – at a cost – when a mysterious and flamboyant man (Jack Nicholson) arrives in their lives.
5305. ‘Mad Max 2‘ (1982)
Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by the charismatic Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson), a violent leader whose scruples are as barren as the surrounding landscape.
7MyNIR2VFOUoG0Cs76uF434. ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga‘ (2024)
As the world falls, young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Sweeping through the wasteland, they encounter the citadel presided over by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). The two tyrants wage war for dominance, and Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
FtGrvRM9cIruQe6dnSUJj3 wUFNU5RQ3. ‘Happy Feet‘ (2006)
Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin (Elijah Wood) is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!
218622. ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing‘ (2022)
Dr Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is an academic – content with life and a creature of reason. While in Istanbul attending a conference, she happens to encounter a Djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.
8KNHW7Wc8J48OynD3hUKX61. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road‘ (2015)
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
10018715
MEDIOCRE.
Thirty-five years after it detonated on these shores (on May 21, 1982), “The Road Warrior” remains one of the greatest action films ever made.
1. The international success of 1979’s “Mad Max” gave Miller license to retell Max’s story the way he might have if he’d had greater resources. Miller has said he made “Road Warrior” partly to “overcome all my frustrations on the first ‘Mad Max’ because that was such a low budget — and such a tough– movie that I had all this sort of pent up energy for the story and the filmmaking.”
3. The filming location was a remote Australian mining town called Broken Hill. Despite being off the beaten path, when the filmmakers staged the explosion of the refinery compound, the blast was so big that they had to alert all jetliners flying over the area and make sure all the mines were closed.
5. Norris was one of several stuntmen seriously injured during production. On one stunt, he went flying off his motorcycle, clipped his leg on a dune buggy, and broke his femur. (The shot stayed in the film, and Norris returned to the set a couple days later for a fight scene against Gibson, with his broken leg kept out of the frame.) Stuntman Max Aspin was successfully hurled from a vehicle during a staged crash, but he insisted on a second take and broke a vertebra.
7. Max’s dog (above), simply named “Dog,” was adopted from a pound a day before he was set to be put to sleep. Unfortunately, he was terrified by all the roaring engines on the set, and the filmmakers had to plug his ears with cotton so that he wouldn’t ruin takes by barking — or lose control of his bladder in Max’s car.
9. One more dog item: What was in that dog food can Gibson was eating from? Miller says he doesn’t think it was actually dog food, but he’s not sure.
11. The massive actor who played Lord Humungus (above) was Kjell Nilsson, a former Mr. Sweden and a weightlifter who had trained Swedish Olympic athletes.
13. Those two guys strapped to the front of the car (above) who are seen smashing into the back of the tanker? Semler has said those were dummies with watermelons for heads — “watermelons with wigs,” he specified.
15. The rolling of the tanker was the film’s most dangerous stunt. Driver Dennis Williams, who had never done it before, had to pull it off in one take, and on an empty stomach. Former emergency room doctor Miller had Williams fast for 12 hours beforehand because, if things went wrong and he were to need surgery, there would be fewer complications if he had no food in his system. A helicopter and ambulance were present, but many of the cast and crew were not; they were too squeamish to watch. Fortunately, Williams executed the stunt perfectly and safely.
17. “Road Warrior” cost about $2 million to make, or about 10 times the cost of “Mad Max.” It was a hit around the world, including $24 million earned in the U.S.