As a renowned art director in the industry, having won two Best Art Direction Oscars, Hannah received a solemn task from Duke: to build at least one hundred and fifty motor vehicles that blend seamlessly with the setting of the Wasteland and its sunscreen-covered savage rulers.
"Make them look badass, or I’ll kill you."
Encouraged (threatened) by Duke’s "terrifying remarks," Hannah led her design team and spent a full three weeks completing the first version of the draft.
Besides being manic and surreal in style, each of the designs in the draft was created with explosive effects during high-speed driving in the New xico desert in mind.
These designs had to be approved by Duke before they could be implented. Hannah had the props team make a batch of models, then brought them to Duke.
In a Warner Bros. studio, the finished models of the first batch were all placed on display racks. Duke first took a general look, then examined them one by one under Hannah introduction.
The most prominently displayed model was, of course, the heroine Furiosa’s vehicle — the War Rig.
Though, this was only a model just over a foot long.
Standing in front of this petite yet formidable model, Hannah explained to Duke, "This is the War Rig, the heroine Furiosa’s personal war vehicle. It consists of a fuel truck towing another fuel trailer. The prototype is the Czech Tatra the 1983 Tatra T815 model serves as the lead truck. The driver’s cab is shifted rearward, expanding the space in the front hood engine compartnt. It features both 6-wheel and 18-wheel drive, with dual V8 engines!"
Duke was satisfied with the appearance, but since he didn’t know much about cars, he asked, "It doesn’t quite look like a Tatra."
"Our mod team will enlarge the front hood engine compartnt," Hannah pointed to the War Rig’s long front nose, "The extent of the modifications is pretty big, so it’s hard to tell."
"Approved!" Duke accepted the plan. "As long as it doesn’t affect usability."
"Don’t worry." Hannah added, "There are automotive experts on the design team."
They then turned to the vehicle of the villainous big boss Immortan Joe. Hannah nad the model "Gigahorse."
"I thought spikes and rocket tails would bring a very unique vibe, so I combined two 1959 Cadillac Eldorados with a monster truck and made this huge beast. Not counting the tail wings and other flags, this thing is four ters high."
She shrugged and teased Schwartzman, who was passing by, "Anyway, that guy John won’t be able to climb up."
Then, under Hannah introduction, Duke carefully reviewed the other modified car models.
War Boy Nux’s vehicle was modified from a 1932 Ford Chevrolet supercharged hot rod, with added nitrous, steel plating, V8 engine, tilted wheels, and diving exhaust pipes.
The Buzzard tribe’s "Spike Car" was modified from a 1937 Plymouth sedan.
"Don’t doubt it. The steel spikes on the body can absolutely tear enemies apart in battle," Hannah explained, "The design inspiration ca from Australian echidnas."
The most eye-catching character in Fury Road was undoubtedly the guitarist in the villain’s convoy, though from a side angle, Duke couldn’t even tell what the base model of the vehicle was.
"Doof Wagon. Its base model is the German MAN Group’s MAN KAT A1 8x8 off-road truck. I think this will be the coolest scene in the movie."
Hannah was clearly excited about this vehicle. "It’s equipped with giant speakers. There are several drumrs standing at the rear, accompanied by the Doof Warrior’s double-neck flathrower guitar to fuel the convoy’s march. This vehicle is just insane. A moving stage stacked with all kinds of speakers your idea of a fla-throwing guitar is the biggest highlight."
After looking through them all, Duke’s biggest impression was how crazy and over-the-top Aricans were with car modifications it was all evident from these models.
When it ca to vehicles, Duke was a total amateur. His only requirent was that these custom cars had to look cool, and Hannah designs basically t his expectations.
After reviewing the modified car models, Duke went to the stunt departnt. The film would use a large number of stunt perforrs, and a thirty-year veteran acrobat was specially hired from a circus. Many stunts would be shot live on location. Aside from the perforrs’ skills, so specialized equipnt was also in preparation.
One scene in the finalized shooting script required the modified vehicles to showcase a spectacular collision effect. Stunt coordinators needed to find the safest way to flip a vehicle.
To solve this problem, they created a flat steel plate that could be installed under the car. It would strike the ground and then retract, allowing the stunt driver to control the car during the flip.
This new thod made flipping vehicles much safer. A stunt driver nad Galin Norris did a test run and completed eight and a half flips.
"Probably broke the world record for the film industry,"
Hannah said this to Duke while they stood together.
One of the iconic stunts in the script was also using poles to catapult attackers from one fast-moving vehicle to another.
Sebastian Dinkins, a stunt actor with thirty years of acrobatics and gymnastics experience, was the specialist the team hired. In his own words, the pole vault stunts felt like "swinging on a swing except upside down."
The stunt departnt designed and tested these setups. The poles were made of a special steel that combined toughness and elasticity. So poles were mounted on hydraulic bearings, and the movent was controlled by others through a counterweight chanism to achieve more natural swinging effects.
While CGI has taken the film industry by storm in recent years, Duke was one of the most representative figures in the field. Yet for Fury Road, he chose to go with old-school practical stunts.
Duke’s goal was to shoot a film that relied heavily on visual storytelling one that Japanese audiences could understand without subtitles. But this didn’t an drastically cutting down character dialogues. Rather, it was about transcending language and cultural barriers, and using cross-cultural symbolism that filmgoers could relate to in order to communicate.
On the basis of a traditional script, Duke also collaborated with several illustrators on his team to create over a thousand storyboards, and as many as three thousand shot breakdowns these sketch-like images served as the final script.
The cast and crew would need to constantly communicate with him, the director, throughout the entire filming process.
Fury Road was a massive production requiring at least 1,700 crew mbers. Among them were over 200 stunt perforrs, stunt drivers, cinematographers, and even snake charrs hired to clear deadly rattlesnakes and venomous lizards from the set.
Although Duke aid to complete 90 percent of the stunts with real people, the film still needed Industrial Light & Magic’s visual effects team to produce around 1,500 VFX shots.
The film’s appeal largely stemd from the wildly imaginative lineup of villains. All of this was designed to enrich Duke’s vision of a post-apocalyptic, insane world. He gave team mbers complete creative freedom—as long as a character or elent had a backstory tied to this sci-fi world, they were welco to pitch ideas to him as the director.
For instance, John Schwartzman believed the production team should actually make a fully functional flathrower guitar for the movie.
And Duke let them do it. If the film generated enough buzz, maybe it could even be marketed as rchandise?
Amidst all this busy work, Duke often t with Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise to continually discuss their roles and the film itself.
When October arrived, Charlize Theron returned to the crew—and gave him a big surprise.
"Is it weird?"
Walking into Duke’s office, Charlize Theron casually took off her hat, hung it on the rack, and shook her short stubbled head. She sat across from Duke’s desk. "If I don’t cut it now, I’ll have to cut it later anyway. Might as well get used to it early."
Leaning back in his high-backed chair, Duke crossed one arm and rested his chin on the other hand, staring at Charlize’s bald head. "If you sared a bit of engine oil on your forehead, it’d have even more flair."
"Flair?" Charlize suddenly curled her lips into a smile and stared at Duke. "What kind of flair? I rember you always liked golden long hair. Since when did your tastes change?"
Duke shrugged, not bothering to answer her kind of question.
Charlize Theron withdrew her sowhat pressing gaze and said again, "Good thing I’m not endorsing shampoo, or I’d get sued for breach of contract."
"You still endorsing Dior?" Duke asked casually.
For all these years, Charlize Theron had been a spokesperson for Dior.
"Yeah. No other brands want ," she said bluntly, grabbing a cup from the side and pouring herself so water from the kettle on the table. After taking a sip, she added, "If I don’t have another major hit soon, even Dior might drop ."
"All right, let’s talk about the character," Duke shifted the topic back to the film. "Where did we leave off last ti?"
"The relationship between Furiosa and the people she rescues," Charlize reminded him. "You said everyone still has potential, but the paths differ—and Furiosa is the one who changes their path."
She asked Duke, "She’s a hero, right?"
Duke didn’t answer but asked in return, "What do you think?"
"Furiosa is the kind of hero I want to see. Though the script doesn’t ntion it, when you think about it, her journey couldn’t have been smooth," Charlize clearly put a lot of effort into understanding the character. "She was abducted at a young age, grew up in a society where won were only seen as milk machines, and to fight her way to beco a general—what she paid wasn’t just an arm."
"She’s powerful in combat!" Charlize Theron added, "So she’s a hero."
But Duke shook his head. "What truly makes Furiosa powerful isn’t her combat ability."
...
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