BLOOD, SWEAT & CHROME

Just deserts

- Richard Edwards

4/5

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-the-scenes story is almost as awe-inspiring 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.