'Furiosa' speeds into the Cannes Film Festival

CANNES, France (AP) — Start your engines. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” rolls into the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, returning George Miller's dystopia-on-wheels to the Croisette promenade and launching one of the most anticipated movies of the summer.

The latest “Mad Max” film, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as a young Furiosa, is premiering in Cannes almost exactly nine years after “Mad Max: Fury Road” debuted at the French festival. Miller, who has served on the jury in Cannes several times, also premiered his “Three Thousand Years of Longing” in 2022 here.

“To show it in that cinema with about 2,000 people with impeccable sound and screening is a big thing. It’s kind of optimal cinema, really,” Miller said in advance of the premiere. “The moment that they said, ‘OK, we’re happy to show this film here,’ I jumped at it.”

For Taylor-Joy, “Furiosa” in Cannes is a full circle moment. The first time she came to the festival was to receive a Chopard trophy as an emerging actor in 2017. It was presented by the original Furiosa, Charlize Theron, the star of “Fury Road.”