George Miller.
MGM has acquired North American rights to George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, a virtual two-hander which will star Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton.
Production was scheduled to start in March but was postponed due to the pandemic. Shooting is expected to take place in Australia, London and Istanbul next year, according to Deadline, which broke the news.
Miller has been coy about the genre, previously described by Deadline as a fantasy romance, while acknowledging it will be a very different beast to Mad Max: Fury Road.
“It’s a movie that is very strongly visual, but it’s almost the opposite of Fury Road,” he told Deadline. “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.”
The writer-director, who will produce with his long-time partner Doug Mitchell, said he met Elba and Swindon separately at industry events and as soon as he talked to them they “slotted” into the roles, which would be very different from what each has done before.
Glen Basner’s FilmNation pre-sold the film to virtually every international market at the American Film Market in 2018.
There has been no announcement yet on the Australian distributor. However as Village Roadshow owns a stake in FilmNation, Roadshow Films is the likely outlet.
Miller’s agent CAA negotiated the North American deal. In a statement, MGM Film Group chairman Michael De Luca and president Pamela Abdy said: “We are thrilled to be working with George and Doug on their next film, and are especially excited to be a part of the sweeping and timeless world that George has created.
“This uniquely original film, by one of the world’s greatest storytellers, will be something truly special for moviegoing audiences.”