It’s been seven years since Australian filmmaker George Miller dropped “Mad Max: Fury Road,” the acclaimed action fantasy some consider the best movie of the century. Now, the visionary writer/director/producer is back in the spotlight with another idiosyncratic original story.
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“Three Thousand Years of Longing” is an epic fantasy romance starring Tilda Swinton as a depressed academic who encounters a genie in a bottle played by Idris Elba. The whimsical premise is rooted in the classic folk tale tradition, but with an intriguingly modern spin.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“A lonely and bitter British woman discovers an ancient bottle while on a trip to Istanbul and unleashes a Djinn who offers her three wishes. Filled with apathy, she is unable to come up with one until his stories spark in her a desire to be loved.”
The film was co-produced with Miller’s longtime collaborator Doug Mitchell and shot by his esteemed ‘Fury Road’ cinematographer John Seale. However, it’s notably the first of Miller’s movies in which he received sole screenwriting credit. Besides the ‘Mad Max’ franchise, Miller previously co-scripted the “Babe” and “Happy Feet” films, plus 1992’s “Lorenzo’s Oil.”
Swinton is coming off a stirring lead performance in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria” and also appears in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Her upcoming projects include a David Fincher neo-noir titled “The Killer” and Wes Anderson’s latest, “Asteroid City.” Elba, meanwhile, has been busy filming a “Luther” feature and a Baltasar Kormákur thriller called “Beast.”
“Three Thousand Years of Longing” is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later in May, with its US theatrical release scheduled for August 31. Check out the trailer below: