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3,000 Years of Longing Trailer Shows George Miller's Wild Fury Road Follow-Up
The official Three Thousand Years of Longing trailer has dropped teasing an epic fantasy love story from Mad Max creator George Miller. Based on A.S. Byatt's short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eyes," the film stars Idris Elba as a Djinn who is released by a scholar seemingly content with her life, though is offered three wishes in exchange for his freedom. Alongside Elba, the cast for Three Thousand Years of Longing includes Tilda Swinton, Aamito Lagum, Burco Gölgedar and Matteo Bocelli.
Though only first announced in 2018, Miller has spent over 20 years developing Three Thousand Years of Longing, having fallen in love with Byatt's short story and optioning the rights to it shortly after its 1994 publication. Miller initially wanted to reunite with Lorenzo's Oil co-writer Nick Enright to adapt the short story, his plans would change when the Oscar nominee passed in 2003, instead choosing to work with his daughter Augusta Gore on Enright's suggestion. With his time in the Mad Max franchise put on hold for a period due to a salary dispute with Warner Bros., Miller finally put Three Thousand Years of Longing together and the film is gearing up for its summer release.
On the heels of releasing the first footage and poster for the film, MGM has released the official Three Thousand Years of Longing trailer. The video offers a deeper look at Miller's sprawling fantasy epic in which a djinn develops a bond with a scholar over the course of a deep and thought-provoking conversation in an Istanbul hotel room. Check out the trailer below:
Unlike the brief snippet of footage shown earlier this week, the official Three Thousand Years of Longing trailer depicts a much different film than some audiences may be expecting. The new trailer features a much lighter tone than the earlier teaser showed for the film, including some fish out of water elements for Idris Elba's millennia-spanning djinn as he finds himself in the present day with Tilda Swinton's mild-mannered scholar. Even the flashbacks to Elba's stints in the past, namely those seemingly set during the Islamic Golden Age, have a humorous feel to them as they depict political figures consumed by their desires.
One of the more fascinating elements of the Three Thousand Years of Longing trailer is sure to be the film's mind-bending visual effects, especially in regards to Idris Elba's djinn and his powers. While George Miller may be best known for his practical effect work on the Mad Max franchise, he has explored the CGI field with the Happy Feet movies, the first of which he won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Only time will tell what wild visuals Miller delivers with his Mad Max: Fury Road follow-up when Three Thousand Years of Longing hits theaters this summer.
