The shooting of Three Thousand Years Of Longing by George Miller, announced two years ago and delayed for six months as a result of the pandemic, got underway on the 16th November 2020. It is based in Australia, observing on-set Covid safety protocols. The fantasy-romance-drama, which George Miller describes as an “anti-Mad Max”, with plenty of interiors and dialogue, is to be shot in 13 weeks over the course of 4 months. It stars Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk about Kevin, Snowpiercer, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Narnia, Doctor Strange, etc.) and Idris Elba (Prometheus, Pacific Rim, Gunman, Star Trek: Beyond, Hobbs and Shaw, etc.). Worldwide release is planned for the second half of 2022.
This $57 million blockbuster is produced by Doug Mitchell, George Miller’s long-time producing partner. The pandemic proved the biggest hurdle to production. “To save the film, the initial plan had been to film certain scenes in Istanbul and London, but the entire shoot will now take place in Australia.” explains Christophe Vidal, Deputy CEO of Coficiné. MGM boarded domestic rights to the film and will distribute via its United Artists Releasing label.
Coficiné alone provides the credit financing* with the support of its parent company, Natixis. This is Coficiné’s biggest funding operation to date. The other partners and backers are Elevate Production Finance, CAA Media Finance, FilmNation (the most recognized independent sales agent, also a client of Coficiné for their productions) MGM, the French distributor Metropolitan Filmexport and the Australian public funding bodies Screen Australia and Create NSW.
This transaction reflects Coficiné’s ability to fund large-scale international productions, which today represent 35% of its business and have seen consistent development over the past 10 years.
*Coficiné provides treasury during the film’s production, in relay of the payment of the financiers which mainly occurs at delivery.
