George Miller is not just the director of the Mad Max movies from Australia. He also made other types of movies like The Witches of Eastwick, Lorenzo’s Oil, Babe: Pig in the City, and Happy Feet. This makes his list of movies very varied. Furiosa, his new movie, will come out on May 24, 2024. Here are some things you might want to know about him before the movie comes out. He turns 79 on March 3rd.
1. George Miller has a twin brother.
Miller had three brothers, one of whom was his fraternal twin, John. They went to the same college to study medicine and both became doctors. However, John continued in the medical profession for a longer time. George admitted that his twin was much more skilled as a doctor than he was. He praised John’s abilities, saying, “He’s a really excellent doctor. I’m not saying that because he’s my brother. I would not have been anywhere near the doctor that he is. I would have been OK. But not compared to him.”
2. His time as a doctor inspired Mad Max.
Although Miller didn’t work as a doctor for a long time, his experience in the medical field had a big impact on his movie career. While working at a hospital in Sydney, he saw how dangerous Australia’s car culture could be, with many people getting hurt in car accidents. This experience directly inspired his movie Mad Max (1979), which is set in a future where there’s not much gas left, and people are willing to do anything to get it.
3. Mad Max broke the record for most profitable film.
Miller’s first movie, Mad Max, was made with a budget of $350,000. That’s not much money, especially for a Hollywood film, even back in 1979. To make the most of the limited funds, Miller edited the movie by himself in his kitchen, while his producing partner Byron Kennedy worked on the sound. Miller also used money he earned from working weekends at the hospital to add to the budget when they needed more funds. All their hard work paid off; Mad Max made $100 million when it was released in theaters, making it the most profitable movie at the time. It held that record until The Blair Witch Project came out in 1999.
4. His sole Oscar win wasn’t for Fury Road.
Miller won an Oscar once in his career, but it wasn’t for his most famous movie. At the 2007 Academy Awards, his movie Happy Feet, about dancing penguins, won the award for Best Animated Feature. He’s been nominated for Oscars five more times, including for Best Picture and Best Director for his 2016 movie Fury Road.
5. Happy Feet is still his highest-grossing film.
Happy Feet, besides winning Miller his only Academy Award, was a huge success at the box office. It made almost $200 million in the United States, even though it cost $100 million to make. It’s still Miller’s highest-earning movie so far, but it’s not his only big hit. Fury Road also did really well, making over $153 million in the United States in 2016.
6. He almost directed Contact.
Miller has worked in many different movie types, including kids’ movies, action films, sad dramas, and comedies. He almost directed a science fiction movie about aliens too. Warner Bros. asked him to make a movie out of Carl Sagan and Annie Druyan’s book Contact. He spent a year getting ready to make it, but then they decided not to let him do it anymore.
“They got scared because the movie was too much like European films,” Miller said in an interview. “As the budget got bigger, they didn’t want to take a big risk. They wanted to be safe.” Instead, they chose Robert Zemeckis to direct the movie. He’s the one who made Back to the Future and Forrest Gump.
7. Hollywood wasn’t for him.
After Mad Max did well, Miller moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s. But he didn’t really like it there because it’s the center of the movie business. So, he moved back to Australia. He still makes movies there and talks to people in Hollywood over video calls. He hasn’t flown to Los Angeles in a long time. Because Miller has made so many successful movies and Australia helps filmmakers with tax breaks, Hollywood still listens to him and works with him, even though he lives far away.
