George Miller Biography
Summary
"Dr George (Miliotis) Miller" (born 3 March 1945) is an Academy-Award winning Australian film and television screenwriter, director and producer. He is probably most well known for his work on the Mad Max movies, but has been involved in a wide range of projects, including the Oscar-winning "Happy Feet".
Miller is the older brother of producer Bill Miller. He should not be confused with the Scottish-Australian director George T. Miller (who directed "The Man From Snowy River", among many other feature films.)
Biography
George Miliotis was born in Chinchilla, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents: Dimitri (Jim) Castrisios Miliotis, from Kythera, and Evangelia (Angela) Balloyoulo. The Balloyoulo family were Greek refugees from Asia Minor, while Dimitri was from the Greek island of Kythera and he anglicised his surname to Miller when he emigrated to Australia. The couple married and settled in Chinchilla and had four sons. The first two, non-identical twins were George and John, and later, Chris and Bill (Vassilli).
George served as an altar boy at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George, Rose Bay, New South Wales. He attended Sydney Boys High School, then studied medicine at the University of New South Wales with his twin brother John. While in his final year at med school (1971), George and his younger brother Chris made a one minute short film, that won them first prize in a student competition. In 1971, George attended a Film Workshop at Melbourne University where he met fellow student, Byron Kennedy. In 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, spending his time-off crewing on short experimental films. Miller formed an irrepressible bond with fellow film fanatic Byron Kennedy. The pair collaborated on numerous works after that.
Miller wrote and directed the "Mad Max" movies starring Mel Gibson ("Mad Max", "The Road Warrior", and "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome"); co-wrote "Babe" and wrote and directed its sequel; and co-wrote (with Nick Enright) and directed "Lorenzo's Oil". He also directed "The Witches of Eastwick", starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer.
With Phillip Noyce, Miller co-produced and co-directed two acclaimed miniseries for Australian television: "The Dismissal" (1983) and "The Cowra Breakout" (1984).
Miller's role as producer of "Flirting", "Dead Calm" and the TV mini-series "Bangkok Hilton" and "Vietnam", all starring Nicole Kidman, was instrumental in the early development of her career.
He spent 18 months in Sydney directing the computer-animated film "Happy Feet", a musical epic about the life of penguins in Antarctica. The Warner Brothers-produced film was released in November 2006, and is Australia's largest animated film project, with a crew of over 300 artists and technicians at the visual effects house Animal Logic. As well as being a runaway box office success, "Happy Feet" has also brought Miller his fourth Academy Award nomination, and his first win in the category of Best Animated Feature.
Miller has recently been confirmed by Warner Bros. as the director of "Justice League Mortal", a large-scale superhero epic featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and a host of others. The film will reportedly showcase an elaborate blending of live-action, motion-capture, and CGI animation. But according to Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov, DC and Warner Bros. will be concentrating on solo films rather then a team up. He has also confirmed he will direct the fourth Mad Max film, known only as "Fury Road".
Awards and recognition
1999: Received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New South Wales
2007: Received The Queensland - United States Personal Achievement Award at the Queensland Expatriate Awards at the Rainbow Room in New York
2007 (April): Awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the Australian Film Television and Radio School. .
2007: Received the AFI "Global Achievement Award"
Miller's films are frequently seen on 'Best of' lists, ranging from 'Happy Feet' on AFI's top 50 animated films to 'The Road Warrior's' staple-presence in 'Best Films of All Time' lists - however rarely is he found on 'Best Director' lists. Some have found this to be because of his sparse filmography.
References and Further reading
Turner, Brock (2007) (Cover page) 'George Miller Film's $1 billion man' (page 27) - 'Curious George' in "The Australian Financial Review Magazine", May 2007 issue (Wealth Issue). pp.26-38
UNSWorld (2007) 'Bring on the dancing penguins' in "UNSWorld", Issue 6, May 2007, pp.14-15)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about George Miller.
