Blood, Sweat & Chrome

The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road

By: Kyle Buchanan

Narrated by: Fred Berman, Aspen Vincent, Dan Bittner, Derek Perkins, Eva Kaminsky, Fiona Hardingham, Gary Furlong, George Newbern, Ione Butler, Jason Culp, Jeff Gurner, Katherine Littrell, Leon Nixon, Lisa Flanagan, Malk Williams

A full-speed-ahead oral history of the nearly two-decade making of the cultural phenomenon Mad Max: Fury Road—with more than 130 new interviews with key members of the cast and crew, including Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and director George Miller, from the pop culture reporter for The New York Times, Kyle Buchanan.

It won six Oscars and has been hailed as the greatest action film ever, but it is a miracle Mad Max: Fury Road ever made it to the screen… or that anybody survived the production. The story of this modern classic spanned nearly two decades of wild obstacles as visionary director George Miller tried to mount one of the most difficult shoots in Hollywood history.

Production stalled several times, stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron clashed repeatedly in the brutal Namib Desert, and Miller’s crew engineered death-defying action scenes that were among the most dangerous ever committed to film. Even accomplished Hollywood figures are flummoxed by the accomplishment: As the director Steven Soderbergh has said, “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film, and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.”

Kyle Buchanan takes readers through every step of that moviemaking experience in vivid detail, from Fury Road’s unexpected origins through its outlandish casting process to the big-studio battles that nearly mutilated a masterpiece. But he takes the deepest dive in reporting the astonishing facts behind a shoot so unconventional that the film’s fantasy world began to bleed into the real lives of its cast and crew. As they fought and endured in a wasteland of their own, the only way forward was to have faith in their director’s mad vision. But how could Miller persevere when almost everything seemed to be stacked against him?

With hundreds of exclusive interviews and details about the making of Fury Road, readers will be left with one undeniable conclusion: There has never been a movie so drenched in sweat, so forged by fire, and so epic in scope.

Read by Fred Berman, Aspen Vincent, Dan Bittner, Derek Perkins, Eva Kaminsky, Fiona Hardingham, Gary Furlong, George Newbern, Ione Butler, Jason Culp, Jeff Gurner, Katherine Littrell, Leon Nixon, Lisa Flanagan, Malk Williams, Michael Crouch, Polly Lee, Ralph Lister, Robin Miles, Samuel Roukin, and Will M. Watt

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Fantastic behind the scenes wonderfully told

This is my first behind the scenes book about a movie, and it was such a great experience l! I adored all the voice actors and acting, and all the detail given. There were such colorful personalities well represented and brought to life, and though I honestly haven’t even seen this movie I definitely want to now! Great storytelling that really drew me in, and I loved it!

Excellent!

Just like the movie this read was amazing, get it! You will not be sorry.

Have to watch movie again

Loved all the background for a movie I thought was fantastic. But now will enjoy even more someday soon realizing there is so much more going on in Fury Road move.

Mad Buchanan

Honestly the way this book was assembled was incredibly genius. Much like Fury Road itself, it’s impressive that it came together. Buchanan really made something wholly original in a making of an incredibly original movie. Great job!

A fun and insightful experience.

The well written words came to life with insight to another story behind Fury Road.