It’s been over seven years since the great George Miller directed Mad Max: Fury Road. And although he’s continuing the Mad Max mythology with the upcoming Furiosa film, before that he’s got a totally different kind of film on the way. One with far less post-apocalyptic car chases, and decidedly more Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, in the fantasy/romance Three Thousand Years of Longing.
In the upcoming film, Swinton plays Alithea Binnie, a scholar perfectly content with her life, who doesn’t want for anything. She ends up summoning a Djinn while in Istanbul, played by Elba. For his freedom, he promises to grant her three wishes. But she is well aware of all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. Regardless, things go sideways, as they often do. Especially when she casually says “I’m beginning to wish we never met.” Oops. You can watch a clip of Three Thousand Years of Longing above.
George Miller based his film on a short story from 1994, named The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye. Written by A.S. Byatt, the story first appeared in a collection of several fantasy tales by the author. All of which used folk tales and myths as jumping-off points to explore modern themes.
Three Thousand Years of Longing recently had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and it received a six-minute standing ovation from the audience. So film lovers are very eager to see just what George Miller’s long-awaited follow-up to Fury Road looks like. Although seven years might seem like a long time between films, this is typical for the Australian director. He once went eight years between films, after Babe: Pig in the City and before Happy Feet. Luckily, we won’t have to wait so long for Furiosa.
Three Thousand Years of Longing hits theaters on August 26.