Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: furiosa, furiosa: a mad max saga, george miller, Tom Burke

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: Tom Burke's "Noble," "Heroic" Praetorian Jack

Tom Burke shares some details about Praetorian Jack, his surprisingly "noble" and "heroic" character in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

When talking about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, people have been focusing on Furiosa herself [duh], played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and Chris Hemsworth playing the villainous Dementus because these movies have a flaming electric guitar player stuck on a car like a hood ornament and subtly went out of style a full apocalypse ago. However, there is another man in this film who hasn't been getting a lot of coverage in the trailers or teasers, and that is Praetorian Jack, played by Tom Burke.

The film has been doing a decent job of keeping details about him to a minimum. However, a new Entertainment Weekly interview has spilled some new information, including that he's the one who is presently driving the War Rig "and is considered a Fury Road legend in the Citadel, and to a young Furiosa." The little footage we have seen of Jack has also had him looking shockingly normal for a Mad Max movie, and no one was more surprised about that than Burke. He was surprised when the notes on the role had the words "noble" and "heroic" attached because the last round of people he'd been playing were "lousy people," and seeing those words "almost moved [him] to tears."

"I'd convinced myself that I'd be playing somebody probably fairly grotesque and covered in boils … maybe you wouldn't even see most of me; I'd be sort of inside an old, rusted-up, converted, pimped-up washing machine or something," he says. "I just thought, 'Oh, here we go.' I mean, obviously, I was excited, but I was really happy that it was [not that]."

Those who know your history will recognize the word "Praetorian." For those unfamiliar, they were an elite group of guards who were escorts and bodyguards for high-ranking officials like senators and procurators in the Roman Republic. It's not uncommon for post-apocalypse movies to look back at the time of Rome as the peak of humanity and the themes explored everywhere in media. Burke and director George Miller worked closely together to figure out Jack's story and how it works in the world of Furiosa, both in the script and in what is alluded to as subtle character moments.

"George's idea, which is alluded to in the script, is that Jack is very much from a military family and that they perhaps knew Immortan Joe before he was the Immortan Joe, and that there was a journey to the Citadel and a certain idea of what that life might be that was very different from what it turned out to be, and sort of charting how that happened," Burke explains.

The Cannes premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is right around the corner, and the hype from that could define the kind of opening weekend that the movie ends up having later this month. The diehard fans will likely go, but good word of mouth between the premiere and the release could convince people on the fence about this movie to take a chance on it. And if it does well, maybe we can get another movie someday. I feel like Oliver Twist standing in front of George Miller, saying, "Please, sir, may I have some more?"

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth star in Academy Award-winning mastermind George Miller's Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the much-anticipated return to the iconic dystopian world he created more than 30 years ago with the seminal "Mad Max" films. Miller now turns the page again with an all-new original, standalone action adventure that will reveal the origins of the powerhouse character from the multiple Oscar-winning global smash Mad Max: Fury Road. The new feature from Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures is produced by Miller and his longtime partner, Oscar-nominated producer Doug Mitchell (Mad Max: Fury Road, Babe), under their Australian-based Kennedy Miller Mitchell banner.

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home. Taylor-Joy stars in the title role, and along with Hemsworth, the film also stars Alyla Browne and Tom Burke.

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents, in Association with Village Roadshow Pictures, A Kennedy Miller Mitchell Production, A George Miller Film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theaters only nationwide on May 24, 2024, and internationally beginning on 22 May, 2024.

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