In the scene currently being fild, the boss of Bullet Town, after being blinded by Furiosa, is wildly firing two guns while spouting off dramatic lines.
The first two lines are full of epic grandeur and elegance: "I am the scale of justice, the conductor of the death choir."
The final line, literally, is: "Roar, Koch Brothers!"
The "Koch Brothers" are clearly his affectionate nickna for the two guns.
So who exactly are the Koch Brothers? They are two contemporary Arican billionaires, David Koch and Charles Koch, known for their active involvent in politics, conservatism, and hawkish stances. They are fervent supporters of the Republican Party.
As it happens, it’s currently an election year in the United States. For the upcoming Republican campaign, the Koch Brothers have pledged $500 million in funding. Many people believe they have the power to influence the Republican nominee selection.
They are also considered by the Arican left to be war maniacs, with policies they support believed to lead the world toward nuclear war.
Hollywood has never been far from politics. Duke had only written the frawork of the script, but so of the screenwriters clearly injected their personal political views into the writing—sothing the director had initially overlooked.
Once Duke realized this, he imdiately cut those parts out. He had no need to mock political figures in his film.
As Christmas approached, shooting couldn’t always go smoothly, and so factors were beyond Duke’s control—such as the weather.
New xico has a typical desert climate—warm and dry, plenty of sunshine, and low humidity. While so parts may receive up to 1,000 milliters of annual rainfall, the area of the Gypsum Desert where they were filming was definitely not one of them.
However, just a few days before Christmas, unexpected rain ca down in a steady drizzle, totally out of place for a dry, rain-starved wasteland world. Duke simply suspended filming. Fortunately, the on-location progress was slightly ahead of schedule, so the delay wouldn’t cause much trouble.
With so free ti, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Tis, Sarah, ca to request an exclusive interview about the film.
For the sake of promotion, Duke didn’t refuse. In the gentle rain, they set up several large sun umbrellas and talked about the film while enjoying the rare desert rain.
The fine raindrops pattered softly on the umbrellas. It was slightly chilly, and Sarah tightened her coat and turned on the recorder.
"You didn’t hold any auditions for the lead roles..." she opened the conversation. "Why did you choose Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron?"
"I like looking for those sparks those monts of perfect resonance."
Duke paused for a mont to better organize his thoughts. "It’s that shiver you feel when soone walks into the room—sothing you sense on instinct. It’s like eting a person who sohow matches the ideal image you’ve always had in your mind. Casting is a similar process."
"Everyone knows you discovered Charlize Theron," Sarah shifted focus to the female lead. "She always delivers sothing unbelievable in your productions. Her most outstanding roles have all been in your films. Why is that?"
"I still rember my first eting with Sally."
For the sake of promotion, Duke never minded making things up. "We just t and chatted a bit. My first impression was that she was very smart, incredibly quick-witted, and carried a certain restless energy. Sally is energetic, unpredictable, and fun. She always reminds of working with children—you never know what that little one is going to do next. It’s amazing."
Sarah was sharp enough not to press further. Instead, she asked, "What do you fear most during filming?"
"Disaster. Unpredictable disasters."
Duke pointed to the raindrops falling outside the umbrella and said, "Like climate changes. Rain. We had everything ready. We rehearsed. The roads were repaired. Everything was good to go and then it rained."
"We’ve known each other a long ti. I’ve seen all your films and have visited most of your sets or premieres," Sarah said, holding the hot tea on the table. "Except for Chicago, all your films fall under the action genre. Do you have a special affection for action films? And how do you handle the action scenes in Fury Road and your other films?"
"To , action films are a unique, elevated form of cinematic art."
Every genre has its strengths. Duke paused briefly and continued, "When shooting action scenes, you can’t just think, ’Oh, let’s just blow everything up.’ You can’t approach it that way. You have to try and create a very clear syntax, not just chaotic collisions."
Compared to the vague earlier comnts, what Duke said here reflected his genuine thoughts. "We’re living in a fast-developing era. Filming technology is evolving rapidly. In the past, everything had to be shot live. We couldn’t manipulate images like we can today."
"I still rember shooting Speed and The Rock we tried to shoot everything on location. Nowadays, we can shoot many different elents and easily composite them using CGI. Also, if you look at footage and action films from a decade or more ago, you’ll notice the pacing is much slower. Our entire society is speeding up, and I have to speed up the rhythm of Fury Road as well."
The rain not only temporarily halted production but also drove away many reporters. After finishing the exclusive interview with Duke, Sarah and the other journalists left New xico.
But the rain only lasted just over a day. When the sun reappeared, its intense rays quickly dried the already-arid ground, allowing Duke to resu shooting.
Perhaps because the crew had stored up enough energy during the break, the filming went very smoothly after restarting. Even so, Duke made sure to emphasize a few key points especially to his production designer, Hannah.
He mainly stressed two things: first, to use as much rich color as possible, to distinguish the film from the dim and desaturated tones typical of other post-apocalyptic works; second, to strive for beauty in art direction, as he believed survivors in a resource-scarce wasteland would seek out anything that offered a sense of beauty.
Like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Fury Road gave Hannah a great opportunity to shine. She seamlessly integrated the sets into the grand, majestic environnt, creating a more unified visual world. The endless yellow sands and vast blue skies the interplay of blue and yellow beca the foundational tones of the film’s design.
This stark contrast of primary colors, echoed and alternated, presented a deep-blue filtered sky above undulating sand dunes, the oppressive earthen-toned rock-wall fortress, black ghosts staggering under the blue night-sky curtain of a dead oasis, and blood-tinged yellow sandstorms. These scenes were like splashes from paint buckets, massive color block compositions that continuously hinted at the desolation of a wasteland world...
According to Duke’s belief, as long as the film’s quality was guaranteed, if after release Hanna didn’t win an Academy award in the art direction category, it would only an the Academy had thrown away even the bare minimum of fairness. Their view of sci-fi and action films was nothing but blatant, undisguised discrimination.
Of course, from Duke’s perspective, he wouldn’t be surprised at all if that happened.
With filming nearly halfway through, already a third of the modified vehicles had been blown to pieces by Jos Williams’ pyrotechnics team. Shooting in the desert and wasteland was undeniably grueling. Crew mbers had been staring at each other for dozens of days, and when the wind picked up, the sand blowing everywhere was enough to drive people insane.
Then there were the various desert animals. Even though the crew had hired professional snake handlers, there were still tis they couldn’t cover everything.
Sohow, a lizard had snuck into Anna Prinz’s trailer. Fortunately, it was a non-venomous kind, but even so, she refused to stay alone anymore and simply moved into Tina Fey’s trailer.
As for the nuisance caused by mosquito bites, that could only be considered a minor problem.
After all, this was the desert not the fully-equipped Warner Bros. Studios. All Duke could do was try to complete filming as quickly as possible and get out of this hellish desert.
Frankly speaking, he didn’t like this kind of climate either.
When he shot Independence Day and Transforrs, Duke had been to the White Sands Missile Range in New xico, but back then, shooting had lasted no more than a week. Plus, with military logistical support, it was far more comfortable than the current situation.
During the upcoming shoot, another accident occurred. Duke and John Schwartzman once again mounted the IMAX cara on a vehicle’s front end to enhance visual impact. However, the desert environnt was just too unpredictable. The vehicle with the cara had a braking incident and crashed into Furiosa’s war rig.
Since both modified cars had been specially reinforced and were moving at low speed, neither the vehicles nor the actors were hard. But the delicate and bulky IMAX cara was completely wrecked.
The IMAX company’s representative stationed with the crew nearly went insane. There were fewer than ten IMAX caras in total their value could be imagined.
The production team certainly had to pay for damages. This was an unexpected expense. Moreover, under Duke’s orders, two IMAX caras had to be used in alternating shots. They could only wait for IMAX to deliver another unit to the New xico set as soon as possible.
Filming was once again put on hold. Since Christmas was near, Duke simply gave the whole crew a holiday break. By the ti the Christmas holiday ended, the new IMAX cara had arrived, and the crew regrouped once more in New xico.
...
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