George Miller (filmmaker)
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox person George Miller Template:Post-nominals (born 3 March 1945) is an Australian filmmaker. Over the course of four decades he has received critical and popular success, and is widely known for creating and directing every film in the Mad Max franchise starting in 1979, including two entries which are considered two of the greatest action films of all time according to Metacritic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has earned numerous accolades including an Academy Award from six nominations in five different categories.
His directing career started in Australia with the first three Mad Max films between 1979 and 1985 with his friend and producing partner Byron Kennedy, after which he transitioned to Hollywood with The Witches of Eastwick (1987). His family drama Lorenzo's Oil (1992) earned him his first Academy Award nomination after which he produced and co-wrote Babe (1995) and directed the sequel Babe: Pig in the City (1998). He would venture into animation with Happy Feet (2006), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and the sequel Happy Feet Two (2011), before returning to Mad Max with the acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), which went on to win six Academy Awards, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024).
Trained in medicine at the University of New South Wales, Miller worked as a physician for several years before entering the film industry. Miller and Kennedy are the founders of the production house Kennedy Miller Mitchell. Since the death of Kennedy in 1983, his main producers have been his younger brother Bill Miller and Doug Mitchell. Other accolades include a British Academy Film Award, a Critics Choice Awards, a Golden Globe Award and six Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.
Early life and education
[edit]Miller was born on 3 March 1945<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in Chinchilla, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents: Jim Miller and mother Angela. Jim (aka Dimitrios) was born on the Greek island of Kythira (at Mitata), Jim's father anglicised his surname from Miliotis to Miller when he emigrated to Australia in 1920; Angela's family were Greek refugees from Anatolia, displaced by the 1923 population exchange.<ref name="Kytherian">Template:Cite web</ref>
Miller attended Ipswich Grammar School and later Sydney Boys High School,<ref name="Kytherian" /> then studied medicine at the University of New South Wales with his twin brother John. While in his final year at medical school (1971), George and his younger brother Chris made St. Vincent's Revue Film, a one-minute short film that won them first prize in a student competition.<ref name="autogenerated1">UNSWorld (2007) p. 15</ref>
In 1971, George attended a film workshop at Melbourne University where he met fellow student Byron Kennedy, with whom he formed a lasting friendship and production partnership, until Kennedy's death. In 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, spending his time off crewing on short experimental films. That same year, Miller and Kennedy founded Kennedy Miller Productions.<ref name="AtoZ">Template:Cite book</ref> The pair subsequently collaborated on numerous works. After Kennedy died in 1983, Miller kept his name in the company. It was later renamed Kennedy Miller Mitchell in 2009 as a way to recognise producer Doug Mitchell's role in the company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Career
[edit]1971–1985: Ozploitation and Mad Max trilogy
[edit]Miller's first work, the short film Violence in Cinema: Part 1 (1971), polarised critics, audiences and distributors so much that it was placed in the documentary category at the 1972 Sydney Film Festival due to its matter-of-fact depiction of cinematic violence.<ref>Film Ink Magazine, Geoff Stanton, November 2008, page 60</ref> In 1979, Miller made his feature-length directorial debut with Mad Max. Based on a script written by Miller and James McCausland in 1975, the film was independently financed by Kennedy Miller Productions and went on to become an international success.<ref name="AtoZ" /> As a result, the film spawned the Mad Max series with two further sequels starring Mel Gibson: Mad Max 2 also released as The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).
During the time between the second and third Mad Max films, Miller directed a remake of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" as a segment for the anthology film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Despite not being involved or present, the infamous helicopter crash shook him, leading to a re-evaluation of the stunt-work in his future films.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also co-produced and co-directed many acclaimed miniseries for Australian television including The Dismissal (1983) and The Cowra Breakout (1984).
1987–1995: Established director
[edit]In 1987, Miller directed The Witches of Eastwick, starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer. The film proved to be a troubling experience for Miller. "I quit the film twice and Jack [Nicholson] held me in there," said Miller. "He said, 'Just sit down, lose your emotion, and have a look at the work. If you think the work is good, stick with the film.' And he was a great man. I learnt more from him than anybody else I've worked with - he was extraordinary."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nicholson also coached Miller to exaggerate his needs during the production, asking for 300 extras when he only needed 150, knowing that his producers would give him less than he requested.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The award-winning production designer Polly Platt also collaborated closely with Miller on The Witches of Eastwick. Cher later said that prior to working on the film, Miller called her at home, the day after her 40th birthday, to inform her that he and Nicholson didn't want her in the film. She was deemed "too old and not sexy".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Following The Witches of Eastwick, Miller focused primarily on producing Australian projects.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His role as producer of Flirting, Dead Calm and the TV miniseries Bangkok Hilton and Vietnam, all starring Nicole Kidman, was instrumental in the development of her career. Miller returned to directing with the release of the biographical medical drama Lorenzo's Oil (1992), which he co-wrote with Nick Enright.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The film starred Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. The film received critical acclaim<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with Variety describing the film as a "true-life story brought to the screen intelligently and with passionate motivation by George Miller".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For his work on the film Miller was nominated for the Academy Award and Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following year Miller was hired to direct the science fiction drama film Contact based on the story by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After working on the film for over a year, Warner Bros. and Miller mutually agreed to part ways and Robert Zemeckis was eventually brought on to direct.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1995–2011: Babe and Happy Feet films
[edit]In 1995 Miller produced and co-wrote the comedy-drama Babe directed by Chris Noonan. The film was a critical and financial success.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=mojo>Template:Cite web</ref> The film earned 7 Academy Award nominations including for Miller for Best Adapted Screenplay.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Miller went on to write and direct its sequel Babe: Pig in the City (1998).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars praising Miller's work on the sequel writing, "It outdoes itself with the sets and special effects that make up "the city." And it is still literate, humane and wicked. George Miller, who produced, directed and co-wrote the film, has improved and extended the ideas in Babe: Pig in the City, instead of being content to copy them."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune named it the Best film of 1998.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1995, Miller also produced Video Fool for Love, a controversial and divisive cinema verité documentary shot on video by film editor Robert Gibson that deals with Gibson's personal life and relationship issues.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Miller was also the creator of the animated jukebox musical film Happy Feet (2006) about the life of penguins in Antarctica.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Warner Bros.-produced film was released in November 2006. It was a runaway box office success earning $363 million worldwide, and also brought Miller his fourth Academy Award nomination, and his first win in the category of Best Animated Feature.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the film writing, "Miller...shows a remarkable persistence of vision. Even in a story about singing-and-dancing fat and feather, Mr. Miller can't help but go dark and deep" adding, "[He] brings an unusual depth of feeling to his work as well as a distinct moral worldview".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2007, Miller signed on to direct a Justice League film titled Justice League: Mortal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While production was initially held up due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> further production delays and the success of The Dark Knight led to Warner Bros. deciding to put the film on hold and pursue different options.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As a partnership between his production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell and Omnilab Media, George Miller co-founded Dr. D Studios, a Sydney-based digital animation studio in mid-2007.<ref name=TSMHSellsUp>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2011, the Happy Feet sequel Happy Feet Two was released by Dr. D Studios.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> But following the financially unsuccessful release of Happy Feet Two and the long delay of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), the studio closed down in 2013.<ref name=TSMHSellsUp /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2015–present: Career resurgence
[edit]
In 2012, Miller began principal photography on Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth film in the Mad Max series, after several years of production delays.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Fury Road starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron was released on 15 May 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film became a box office success and was met with widespread critical acclaim with several critics calling it one of the greatest action films ever made.<ref name="GreatestActionFilmsBundle">Multiple sources; see, for example:
- Template:Cite web
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- Template:Cite web</ref> A.O. Scott of The New York Times labeled it a "New York Times Critic's Pick" writing, "Miller has always stayed true to his scrappy, pragmatic roots. At 70, he has a master craftsman's intuitive sense of proportion and a visual artisan's mistrust of extraneous verbiage" adding, "It's all great fun, and quite rousing as well — a large-scale genre movie that is at once unpretentious and unafraid to bring home a message".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It went on to receive 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, while Miller himself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In October 2018 it was announced that Miller would direct Three Thousand Years of Longing, which began filming in November 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022.<ref name="Cannes">Template:Cite web</ref> Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described the film as "a heartfelt Aladdin-esque adventure for grownups" adding, "Miller shows he is now doing one-for-him-and-one-that's-even-more-for-him. It's an Arabian Nights-type fantasia which he has clearly been gagging to make for years".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Justin Chang of NPR wrote that "Miller unveils an outlandish premise with a sly wit that's initially hard to resist" but added the film "ends on a muted, uncertain note".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film was a box office bomb grossing $20 million worldwide off a budget of $60 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In April 2017, Miller said that he and co-writer Nico Lathouris have finished two additional post-Fury Road scripts for the Mad Max series. The Fury Road lead, Tom Hardy, is committed to the next sequel.<ref name="cooper">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2015, and again in early 2017, Miller said "the fifth film in the franchise will be titled Mad Max: The Wasteland."<ref name="cooper"/><ref name="naryd">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2020, it was reported that Miller would next direct the Mad Max spinoff Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film a "NYT Critic's Pick" declaring, "Miller is such a wildly inventive filmmaker that it's been easy to forget that he keeps making movies about the end of life as we know it. It's a blast watching his characters fight over oil, water and women, yet while I've long thought of him as a great filmmaker it's only with Furiosa that I now understand he's also one kick-ass prophet of doom."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal life
[edit]Miller was married to actress Sandy Gore from 1985 to 1992; they have a daughter. He has been married to film editor Margaret Sixel since 1995. They have two sons.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Update inline Sixel has worked in some capacity on many of Miller's directorial efforts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Miller is a feminist, having told Vanity Fair in May 2015, "I've gone from being very male dominant to being surrounded by magnificent women. I can't help but be a feminist."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Miller is the patron of the Australian Film Institute and the Brisbane International Film Festival, and a co-patron of the Sydney Film Festival.Template:Cn
Miller has said many times that the 1940 version of Pinocchio is one of his favourite films.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Filmography
[edit]Feature film
[edit]Producer
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | The Year My Voice Broke | |
| 1989 | Dead Calm | Also second unit director |
| 1991 | Flirting | |
| 1996 | Video Fool for Love | Documentary |
Other credits
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | In Search of Anna | First assistant director |
| 1980 | The Chain Reaction | Second unit director (uncredited) and associate producer |
Short film
[edit]| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | "St. Vincent's Revue Film" | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | |
| "Violence in the Cinema, Part 1" | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | ||
| 1974 | "The Devil in Evening Dress" | Template:Yes | Template:Yes |
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | The Dismissal | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | TV miniseries |
| 1984 | The Last Bastion | Template:Yes | Template:No | Template:No | |
| Bodyline | Template:No | Template:Partial | Template:Yes | ||
| 1987 | The Far Country | Template:Yes | Template:No | Template:No |
Producer
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | The Cowra Breakout | TV miniseries |
| 1987 | Vietnam | |
| 1988 | The Dirtwater Dynasty | |
| The Clean Machine | TV film | |
| The Riddle of the Stinson | ||
| Fragments of War: The Story of Damien Parer | ||
| Sportz Crazy | Documentary miniseries | |
| 1989 | Bangkok Hilton | TV miniseries |
Music video
[edit]| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | "We Don't Need Another Hero" | Tina Turner |
Video games
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Death Stranding 2: On the Beach | Tarman | Likeness only |
Awards and recognition
[edit]| Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 1985 | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome | 1 | |||||
| 1987 | The Witches of Eastwick | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 1992 | Lorenzo's Oil | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 1998 | Babe: Pig in the City | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2006 | Happy Feet | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2015 | Mad Max: Fury Road | 10 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 2 | |
| Total | 16 | 7 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 1 | |
- 1996: Appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 1999: Received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New South Wales<ref name="autogenerated1" />
- 2007: Received The Queensland – United States Personal Achievement Award at the Queensland Expatriate Awards at the Rainbow Room in New York
- 2007 (April): Awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the Australian Film Television and Radio School.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2008: Awarded an honorary Doctorate from the Griffith University.
- 2009: Awarded the French Order of the Arts and Letters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2010: First non-US Filmmaker to be awarded "honorary member" status among the VES.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2016: Served as president of the jury for the Palme d'Or at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.
- 2018: Inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
[edit]References
[edit]External links
[edit]- Template:IMDb name
- Dr George Miller Digital Story and Oral History, Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame 2018, State Library of Queensland.
Template:George Miller Template:Navboxes Template:Cannes Film Festival jury presidents Template:Mad Max
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