Over a year after it hit theaters, “Mad Max: Fury Road” has kept its grip on the hearts and minds of moviegoers everywhere. It grabbed a half-dozen Oscars, a Best Picture nomination, $378 million at the worldwide box office, and countless “Witness Me!” and “Mediocre!” internet memes. Now the long-awaited “Black-and-Chrome” director’s cut that director George Miller has been promising for months will finally arrive on Blu-ray.
Film blog Refocused Media discovered a page on Amazon Germany for a soon-to-be released box set called “Mad Max: The High Octane Collection.” The six-disc set contains all four “Mad Max” films, along with documentaries about the making of each one. But the big inclusion is the “Black-and-Chrome” cut of “Fury Road,” which Miller believes is the best version of his work.
In a Slashfilm Q&A with fellow director Edgar Wright, Miller said that during post-production for “The Road Warrior,” a black-and-white copy called a “
Instead, Miller worked with colorist Eric Whipp to create the film’s intense, over-saturated colors to make “Fury Road” stand out from the de-saturated color style that many modern post-apocalyptic films use. In a January interview with The Los Angeles Times, Miller said that he asked Warner Bros. to include the B&W version on the Blu-ray release. He was told that there was no room on the disc but that it could be included on the later release.
This “Mad Max” box set could be the release Miller was hinting at, but so far it has only been announced for sale in Germany. “Mad Max: The High Octane Collection” will be released on September 29.
UPDATE 2:37 PM: Warner Bros. intends to release a similar version of the box set in the U.S., one individual with knowledge of the film told TheWrap, though release dates and specs are not yet known.
For a brief history of alternate cuts from Charlie Chaplin to “Batman v Superman,” check out this gallery: