George Miller (filmmaker)
George Miller | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | George Miliotis 3 March 1945 Brisbane, Australia |
| Other names | Dr. George Miller |
| Occupation(s) | Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter and Physician |
| Years active | 1970 – Present |
George Miller (born 3 March 1945) is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is most well known for his work on the Mad Max movies, but has been involved in a wide range of projects, including the Oscar-winning Happy Feet and "Babe" family films.
Miller is the older brother of producer Bill Miller.
He is also co-founder of the production houses Dr. D Studios and Kennedy-Miller Mitchell Films formerly known as Kennedy-Miller Productions.
Biography
Miller was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents: Dimitri (Jim) Castrisios Miliotis and Angela Balson. Dimitri Miliotis was from the Greek island of Kythira and he anglicised his surname to Miller when he emigrated to Australia; the Balson family were Greek refugees from Anatolia.[1] The couple married and settled in Chinchilla and had four sons. The first two were the non-identical twins George and John, and later, Chris and Bill Miller arrived.
George attended Ipswich Grammar School and later Sydney Boys High School, then studied medicine at the University of New South Wales with his twin brother John. While in his final year at medical school (1971), George and his younger brother Chris made a one minute short film that won them first prize in a student competition.[2] In 1971, George attended a Film Workshop at Melbourne University where he met fellow student, Byron Kennedy, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. In 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, spending his time-off crewing on short experimental films. The pair subsequently collaborated on numerous works.
Millers background in medicine is reflected in the main character in his Mad Max movies, Max Rockatansky. This is a reference to Baron Carl von Rokitansky, who developed the most common procedure used to remove the internal organs at autopsy, still called the "Rokitansky procedure".[3]
Miller wrote and directed the Mad Max movies starring Mel Gibson (Mad Max, Mad Max 2 (known in the United States as The Road Warrior), and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome); co-wrote Babe and wrote and directed its sequel; and co-wrote (with Nick Enright) and directed Lorenzo's Oil. He also directed The Witches of Eastwick, starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Miller co-produced and co-directed many acclaimed miniseries for Australian television including The Dismissal (1983) and The Cowra Breakout (1984).
...ask Dr. George Miller today and he’ll say that all of his movies are one and the same, whether they focus on human society or the animal kingdom, and whether they unfold against the sands of the Australian outback, the suburbs of Washington, D.C., or the ice shelves of the Antarctic. “I honestly see no difference between the essential elemental story of, let’s say, The Road Warrior, Lorenzo’s Oil and Babe,” Miller told me earlier this month during a visit to L.A. to promote his latest film, the animated musical Happy Feet.
— L.A. Weekly, (2006)
Miller's role as producer of Flirting, Dead Calm and the TV mini-series Bangkok Hilton and Vietnam, all starring Nicole Kidman, was instrumental in the early development of her career.
Miller was also the creator of Happy Feet, a musical epic about the life of penguins in Antarctica.[5] The Warner Bros. produced film was released in November 2006. As well as being a runaway box office success, Happy Feet has also brought Miller his third Academy Award nomination, and his first win in the category of Best Animated Feature.
Miller is the Patron of the Australian Film Institute and the BIFF (the Brisbane International Film Festival) and a co-patron of the Sydney Film Festival.
He is currently working as director for the upcoming film Happy Feet 2. On 24 October 2009, Miller also confirmed that his next project will be the highly-anticipated fourth Mad Max sequel, currently titled Mad Max: Fury Road.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Mad Max | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1980 | The Chain Reaction | Director (car chase sequences), Associate Producer |
| 1981 | Mad Max 2 | Director, Writer, Producer, Additional Editor |
| 1983 | Nightmare At 20,000 Feet | Co-Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1983 | The Dismissal (TV) | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1985 | Anzacs (TV series) | Director |
| 1985 | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1987 | The Witches of Eastwick | Director, Writer, Executive Producer |
| 1987 | The Year My Voice Broke | Producer |
| 1988 | Goodbye, Miss 4th of July | Director |
| 1989 | Dead Calm | Producer |
| 1991 | Flirting | Producer |
| 1992 | Lorenzo's Oil | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1994 | Andre | Director |
| 1995 | Babe | Writer, Producer |
| 1997 | 40,000 Years of Dreaming | Director, Writer, Presenter |
| 1998 | Babe: Pig In the City | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 2006 | Happy Feet | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 2011 | Happy Feet Two | Director, Producer, Writer |
Awards and recognition
- 1982: Won Australian Film Institute Award for Mad Max 2, Best Director and Best Film Editing (shared with others)
- 1987: Won Australian Film Institute Award for The Year My Voice Broke, Best Picture (as producer), shared with Doug Mitchell and Terry Hayes
- 1990: Won Australian Film Institute Award for Flirting, Best Picture (as producer), shared with Doug Mitchell and Terry Hayes
- 1993: Academy Award nomination for Lorenzo's Oil, Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, shared with co-writer Nick Enright
- 1996: Two Academy Award nominations for Babe, Best Picture (as producer) and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published, shared with co-writer Chris Noonan
- 1999: Received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New South Wales[2]
- 2007: Won Academy Award for Happy Feet, Best Animated Feature
- 2007: Won BAFTA Award for Happy Feet, Best Animated Feature
- 2007: Received The Queensland – United States Personal Achievement Award at the Queensland Expatriate Awards at the Rainbow Room in New York
- 2007: Received the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
- 2007 (April): Awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the Australian Film Television and Radio School.[6]
- 2007: Received the AFI Global Achievement Award[7]
- 2008: Awarded an honorary Doctorate from the Griffith University.
- 2009: Awarded the French Order of the Arts and Letters.[8]
- 2010: First non-US Filmmaker to be awarded "honorary member" status among the VES.[9]
Kennedy-Miller Mitchell
Kennedy-Miller Mitchell Films is an Australian film production company founded in 1973 by George Miller and producer Byron Kennedy, as Kennedy-Miller Films. While the production company has been Miller's main imprint since his earliest films, beginning Mad Max and Mad Max 2, it wasn't until 1998, during the release of Babe: Pig in the City, when it formally adopted the moniker of Kennedy-Miller Productions. In 2009, George Miller and Doug Mitchell renamed the company Kennedy-Miller Mitchell.
Dr. D Studios
Dr. D Studios is a new state-of-the-art production company founded by George Miller and Doug Mitchell. Dr.D Studios is located in Sydney and is currently working projects like Happy Feet 2 in 3D and Mad Max: Fury Road with Village Roadshow Pictures.
Further reading
- L.A. Weekly (2006) 'International Man of Myths' by Scott Foundus in L.A. Weekly, 23 November 2006.
References
- ^ "for the world-wide Kytherian community: George Miller". Kythera-Family.net. 22 May 2004. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ^ a b UNSWorld (2007) p. 15
- ^ http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/61289/biber_new.pdf
- ^ Scott Foundas. "International Man of Myths". LA Weekly.
- ^ "The penguin suite". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 December 2006.
- ^ Gadd, Michael (17 April 2007). "George Miller gets Masters". AAP.
- ^ "2007 Winners". http://www.afi.org.au/ Australian Film Insititute. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ Alyssa Braithwaite. "Director George Miller to be awarded Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at Sydney's French Film Festival". Telegraph.
- ^ "Miller receives VES award - Inside Film: Film and Television Industry News and Issues for Australian Content Creators". If.com.au. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
External links
- Use dmy dates from November 2011
- 1945 births
- Living people
- Australian film directors
- Australian film producers
- Australian screenwriters
- Australian television producers
- Australian medical doctors
- BAFTA winners (people)
- Australian people of Greek descent
- People from Queensland
- People from Sydney
- University of New South Wales alumni
- People educated at Sydney Boys High School