BLOOD, SWEAT & CHROME

Just deserts

RELEASED 17 MARCH

384 pages pages | Hardback/ebook/ audiobook

Author Kyle Buchanan

Publisher William Morrow Books

If you think the Beatles wrote the book on long and winding roads, they’ve got nothing on the fourth Mad Max movie and its journey to the big screen. This in-depth oral history (subtitled The Wild And True Story Of Mad Max: Fury Road) charts director George Miller’s two-decade quest to resurrect his post-apocalyptic franchise, and the behind-thescenes story is almost as aweinspiring as the film itself.

The main conclusion of Blood,

Sweat & Chrome is that, under any normal circumstances, a movie as ambitious and downright crazy as

Fury Road should have stalled long before it arrived in cinemas. Miller started working on his magnum opus in the distant days of the 20th century, and saw an early incarnation – starring original Max Mel Gibson – scuppered by 9/11. Salvation eventually came in the unlikely form of some dancing penguins, after the success of Happy Feet made Miller a hot property at Warner Bros.

But even then, production was – to put it mildly – challenging, as unprecedented rain turned his Australian desert location into a verdant oasis for the first time in decades, and nervous studio execs pulled the plug before he’d shot a beginning or end.

This is as much a story of persistence as of filmmaking genius. Boasting well over 100 interviewees, the level of New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan’s access is impressive – even when the effort to cram in so many voices leads to a degree of repetition. That’s a minor quibble, however, about a book that doesn’t shy away from candid revelations; this entertaining tome is fitting testament to a film that played by its own rules.

Eminem was briefly in contention to play Max, though Miller says the rapper wasn’t keen on leaving home to shoot in Australia.

As much a story of persistence as of filmmaking genius