George Miller on “mystical” ‘Furiosa’ star Anya Taylor-Joy; CinemaCon Day 1 round-up

George Miller paid tribute to his Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga star Anya Taylor-Joy and reminisced about ditching a career in medicine for cinema at CinemaCon’s International Day Lunch and awards ceremony on Monday.

Miller, the recipient of the International Career Achievement in Filmmaking award, recalled in a fireside chat how Edgar Wright had encouraged him to cast Taylor-Joy after the British director screened a preview of Last Night In Soho.

The Australian filmmaker followed the advice and reflected, “There’s something mystical about her.” Furiosa premieres out of competition in Cannes on May 15 and opens on May 22 internationally and May 24 in the US. Miller said he completed the mix two days ago.

After studying medicine Miller realised he had chosen the wrong path and embarked on his filmmaking career. “The idea was to make films where, as Hitchcock said, they didn’t have to read the subtitles in Japan.”

The adage proved true. Miller, who along with friends funded production on the 1979 post-apocalyptic action title Mad Max that made a star out of Mel Gibson, said the cast’s Antipodean accents were a bar to success in the US.

However the film took off in places like Japan, Spain and Scandinavia. “It touched archetypes,” Miller told Warner Bros president of international distribution Andrew Cripps. ”In Japan it was samurai culture. The French called it a western on wheels. In Scandinavia it was vikings. That taught me we’re all hard-wired to hear stories.”

• In a talk ‘You Are What You Watch: Cinemas As A Cutting Edge Technology’, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Walt Hickey explored some of the lesser known impacts of cinema on our lives and bodies and argued the information can be used to support the success of cinema around the world.

Hickey explained how the release of films like the Harry Potter franchise, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and The Beach increased tourism in the UK, New Zealand, and Thailand, respectively. Gladiator increased the incidence of babies named Maximus from 34 in the United States between 1990-99 to 9,916 since the film’s release in 2000.

Tests on audience emotional and physiological responses while watching films also showed dramatic spikes in scenes of heightened drama and action.

“We’re only beginning to understand what cinema can do for us,” said the data journalist and author.

• Monday’s International Day award ceremony saw president of distribution at Universal Pictures International Veronika Kwan Vandenberg collect the Comscore International Boxoffice Achievement Award on behalf of the studio; CJ CGV chief of business innovation officer Dong Hyun Lee collect the Global Achievement in Exhibition Award; Searchlight Pictures EVP/head of business operations and international Rebecca Kearey receive the CinemaCon Passepartout Award; and Miller receive the International Career Achievement In Filmmaking Award.
• Comscore has signed a multi-year, exclusive agreement with B&B Theatres to provide its theatre and circuit management systems to North America’s fifth largest circuit in real-time. B&B operates 550 screens at 57 locations in 15 US states. 
• In other stories, a CinemaCon panel discussed closer collaboration to support lower budget films; Universal’s Kwan Vandenberg gave the International Day keynote; and experts talked about piracy, local-language success, and FOMO.

• Panellists talk windows and piracy, local-language success, FOMO at CinemaCon