“My name is Alithea. My story is true.”
That’s the first thing we hear in the wild new trailer for Three Thousand Years of Longing, Mad Max filmmaker George Miller’s fantasy romantic drama that was 20 years in the making. Check out the clip above and the key art below.
Written by Miller and Augusta Gore based on an A.S. Byatt short story, the two-hander centers on Dr. Alithea Binnie (Swinton), a scholar, loner and creature of reason with no family but is content with life. After buying a memento in Istanbul that she’s sure “has an interesting story,” Alithea finds herself in an hotel room with a djinn (Elba), who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. Their meeting leads to an aftermath nether had planned.
This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real, and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.
As Alithea notes, “There is no story about wishing that is not a cautionary tale.” Judging from the trailer’s wild colors, CGI, music and imagery, looks like that streak will continue. Or will it?
Hailing from FilmNation Entertainment, Elevate Production Finance and Sunac, the pic — which Miller perfectly describes as an “anti-Mad Max” — premieres tonight at the Cannes Film Festival. MGM and United Artists Releasing will open Three Thousand Years of Longing on August 31 in North American theaters.
