George Miller

Source: Wiki Commons

George Miller

MGM has acquired North American rights to George Miller’s Three Thousand Years Of Longing, the delayed project the Australian filmmaker intends to shoot before he tackles a Mad Max: Fury Road spin-off.

Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton star in the long-gestating Three Thousand Years Of Longing, a fantasy romance that had been scheduled to shoot this spring before the coronavirus pandemic put it on hold. Production will take place in Australia, London, and Istanbul once guidelines permit in each locale.

MGM sources confirmed the film will open in North America through its joint distribution and marketing entity United Artists Releasing.

Miller wrote the screenplay and said the idea, which he has declined to explain in any detail except to describe it among other things as the “anti-Mad Max”, has been percolating for more than 15 years.

Miller is producing Three Thousand Years Of Longing with Doug Mitchell and the film will open in North America through MGM’s joint distribution and marketing entity United Artists Releasing.

CAA Media Finance negotiated the North American deal and also represents Chinese rights. FilmNation launched pre-sales at AFM in 2018 and licensed territories such as France to Metropolitan and Italy to Eagle.

Separately, Miller confirmed to The New York Times on Thursday (May 14) that once he has finished Three Thousand Years Of Longing he intends to get to work on a stand-alone film about Imperator Furiosa, the formidable central character of 2015 multi-Oscar winner Mad Max: Fury Road played by Charlize Theron. The story will centre on Furiosa’s earlier years and Miller said he is looking to cast an actress in her 20s.