Tilda Swinton

Actors Tilda Swinton, left, and Idris Elba with director George Miller, center, on the set of his film “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” (Elise Lockwood / ...

Didn’t Sheba go to Solomon?” And he says, “No, he came to her.” And she says, “But it’s in all the holy books.” And he says, “No, Madam, I was there.” So we basically alerted ourselves that this was the Djinn’s interpretation of the story on the one hand. It’s something I haven’t really given much thought to, except to say I’m driven by the story itself, whether the story comes to mind and kind of germinates over time or whether it’s something like “Lorenzo’s Oil,” which I first read as a newspaper article and saw something in the story. And most of all you could harness all your stuntmen, you could harness your actors — when Tom Hardy hangs upside down between the wheels of a vehicle, that was Tom Hardy as safe as possible because he had harnesses and cables, and you could erase them. Is it going to be one of the ones that’s hard for people to recognize as a George Miller movie? You get the notion of a character who is mortal, like the rest of us, and someone who is ostensibly immortal, to live indefinitely. And that’s the way I would explain the way we dealt with cultures. So, yes, it’s really interesting to be trying to make a film which is about the telling of stories as much as anything else. [“Furiosa”] is the first one which had to allude to a previous film, to ”Fury Road” in its design, in its characters, in its world, because it was a prequel. If we were just to go back and I’m doing a remake of that film, we’d be fools.” So it had to be different. The third film, the same, and that was “Thunderdome.” They had to be different. So it makes sense that he should adapt a story such as “Three Thousand Years,” which has the art and meaning of storytelling as its very core. And for me, personally, it was on the condition that I was able to overcome all the mistakes that I thought I learned from the first film.

Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton shine in Three Thousand Years of Longing, George Miller's first film since 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road.

If anything, Three Thousand Years of Longing shows that maybe after making one of the loudest, most colossal, and brilliant action films of all time with Fury Road, maybe Miller should fully embrace the stillness a bit more. With the Djinn’s backstory completed, Miller crams the film’s true purpose into the final third, the true lessons that he wants to explore, and the film is better because of it. In this segment, Miller explores how we find feelings in stories, how love helps us cut through the noise of life, how love is a way of sharing our stories, and how love can help us see the world clearer through our own eyes than ever before. As Alithea states, she’s perfectly content being alone, since she has her stories, so it is logical that she wouldn’t share as much of her own story and would rather hear the story of the Djinn and his thousands of years of life. The majority of Three Thousand Years of Longing—written by Miller and Augusta Gore, and based on a short story by A. But as fascinating as the Djinn’s story is, it is even more compelling to watch Swinton and Elba sitting around a hotel room, draped in bathrobes, discussing stories, history, love, and anything else that crosses their minds.

Three Thousand Years of Longing stars Idris Elba (in his second movie to hit theaters this month) and Tilda Swinton in the adaptation of the short story "The ...

So in the meantime, take a look at our [2022 Movie Release Schedule](https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2569630/2022-new-movie-release-dates-full-schedule-of-all-the-upcoming-movies) to start planning your next trip to the theater. [movies Idris Elba has in the works](https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2557427/upcoming-idris-elba-movies-the-suicide-squad-and-more), but it will be a while before we see George Miller’s next project. We’ll start, of course, with [CinemaBlend’s review of Three Thousand Years of Longing](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/three-thousand-years-of-longing-review-george-millers-grown-up-fairytale-is-exciting-but-doesnt-go-nearly-weird-enough), in which Mike Reyes rates the film 3 out of 5 stars. The critic says Three Thousand Years of Longing highlights the power of storytelling, but it’s Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba who hold the movie together: Three Thousand Years of Longing stars Idris Elba (in his second movie to hit theaters this month) and Tilda Swinton in the adaptation of the short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" by A.S. [mind-blowing trailer promises fans the excesses of sex, death, revenge and more](https://www.cinemablend.com/trailers/the-three-thousand-years-of-longing-trailer-has-arrived-to-blow-your-mind), so let’s see what the critics are saying.

Miller's mastery makes the movie eye-popping; his freedom and audacity make it surprising and unsettling.

[Babe: Pig in the City](/reviews/babe-pig-in-the-city-1998)” and “Happy Feet,” it shouldn’t be unanticipated. And I believe that the compassion and imaginative energy he brings to the project (this hardly looks like the work of a director who’s almost 80) justifies his choices, if indeed any justification were really necessary. This episode is staged and shot with Fellini-esque relish by Miller—it’s a bit of an elaboration on the wet nurse scene in “Fury Road.” He was a consort, or so he claims, and teacher to the famed Queen of Sheba (“She was not beautiful. One would-be ruler, a very slow and heavy fellow, is confined to a sable-lined room by his mother, where he is supplied with a steady stream of women of unusual size, whom he drools over. And yes, she unleashes a genie, or djinn, and a giant one at that—the sight of his enormous foot opening her bathroom door is something unusual to be sure—who, upon learning some English, proffers Alithea the standard three wishes.

In "Three Thousand Years of Longing Review," Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton may be the stars, but director George Miller is the mad genius who mixes an ...

The enigmatic Tilda Swinton has a storied career, appearing in everything from small art-house films, like the ambitious Orlando, to Hollywood blockbusters ...

Their time is disrupted by the arrival of Harry (Ralph Fiennes), a music producer and a former love of Marianne's, and his daughter, Pen (Dakota Johnson). That is until a Mirando representative shows up to declare that Okja is the best of the 26 and is taken to New York City. The inhabitants of the land are divided into two groups: those that follow the evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton), the ruler who has placed Narnia under an eternal winter; and Aslan (Liam Neeson), a mighty lion who promises salvation. He is asked to bring Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), one of the attorneys, under control after a breakdown in the middle of a deposition in a multi-billion-dollar six-year class action suit against agricultural product company U-North. She is accepted and is soon at the top of the class. Susie (Dakota Johnson) is a young American ballerina who auditions for the Helena Markos Dance Academy, and its legendary choreographer Madame Blanc (Swinton) shortly after the disappearance of one of the students. Amy (Amy Schumer) is a writer for S'nuff and is tasked by Dianna to write a profile on Dr. Swinton relishes the opportunity to play the villainous Mason, stealing the scenes she is in with a twisted, black sense of humor. Flashbacks tell the story of her son Kevin (Ezra Miller) and their relationship from his birth up to the immediate aftermath of the massacre. It's a role where Swinton effortlessly conveys the anxiousness, fear, and hopelessness of Margaret as she desperately tries to keep her son from being falsely incarcerated. Orlando (Swinton), a 16th-century nobleman is blessed with eternal life by Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp), which allows him to go on a long philosophical journey across centuries. The haunting film about the mother of a school shooter flips between scenes in the present day and flashbacks to the time up to and including the shooting event itself.

Do you really, really like stories? It's probably a requirement for enjoying "Three Thousand Years of Longing," in which a key character is a narratologist ...

This is probably the place to say I loved "Three Thousand Years," even as I remained aware I'm destined to be part of a small group. Although Alithea is the character put to the test in "Three Thousand Years," the larger role is the djinn. In fact, those conferences — where smart people gather to discuss literature — seem like the ideal place for "Three Thousand Years," in which a professor insists that "stories were once the only way to make sense of our bewildering existence." Swinton is funny as the sort of acerbic, self-assured person she often plays but Elba has never done anything like this. She wonders if she has really lived her life and, because Elba is standing in front of her in a bathrobe, she begins to fall in love. It's nothing like his "Mad Max" movies except that it has a confidence that we will follow it into whatever crazy corners its stories-within-fables-within-tales wish to take us.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are starring in a fantasy drama called, "Three Thousand Years of Longing." Swinton plays a noted scholar ...

Elba says it's actually a love story and it's about the agreement to separate. "I think George Miller was certainly the best pilot for this flight," Elba said. Swinton plays a noted scholar in the world of mythology who buys what she thinks is a trinket at a shop in Turkey.

Magical being Idris Elba offers Tilda Swinton three wishes in "Mad Max" director George Miller's "Three Thousand Years of Longing."

Miller asks the audience to level up its existential exploration, posing questions about the purpose of storytelling and, perhaps, about the lack of magic in our technological, science-driven world. In hearing the Djinn’s story, Alithea comes to understand her purpose, which is to love him. For a film about narrative, it meanders, and loses focus. While giving a talk about the continuing purpose of myth in our modern, science-based world, she is spooked by a djinn in the audience and faints. Miller’s vision is an earnest and high-minded one, with more insights about humanity and storytelling packed into a tossed-off moment than most entire films contain. The pair, clad in white hotel robes, sit for a chat, and the Djinn tells his story, of the three times he’s been “incarcerated” in his bottle, and the danger of wishes unfulfilled, which rob him of his purpose. [Idris Elba](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-08-18/beast-review-idris-elba-lion)), explodes into her hotel room, requesting that she make three wishes. The film’s script is so densely packed with mythological insight that some scenes almost gloss over interesting concepts like the one Alithea discusses in her talk, which questions the function of gods, monsters and creation myths in everyday life when we have science to tell us where we came from. The Djinn ( Whether they can harmoniously coexist in the modern world, full of so many busy frequencies and electromagnetic fields, is another question altogether. [COVID-19 pandemic](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fcoronavirus-everything-to-know-right-now&data=04%7C01%7Ckevin.crust%40latimes.com%7C52633c0a516544dd252a08d9e81168f0%7Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%7C0%7C0%7C637795983749169191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=EARyZgH1vGMtlQdur%2F61n5fLiwKXExOWtv3guJOFSn8%3D&reserved=0). Byatt, adapted by Miller and Augusta Gore,

We review the latest from director George Miller, Three Thousand Years of Longing featuring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba.

At times, The Djinn’s past felt a bit slow moving, even with the occasional bouts of adventure they offer. In many ways, Three Thousand Years of Longing reminded me of the Neil Jordan horror show The Company of Wolves. The look of the film is more than impressive. The stories include several instances of how he came into his dire and lonely position. His conversation with Alithea becomes the role of the storyteller as he reveals his past. While that’s not to say the entire film is two people chatting, it is a large portion of the film.

Its versatility makes it excellent from deeply emotional dramas to bawdy comedies. His distinctive, androgynous look and haunting eyes play to his benefit, ...

Ella’s character carries a variety of feelings, from passive and docile to a deep sense of guilt, a joyful sense of liberation, and the painful meanness of dropping her once more. Flashbacks of his son Kevin (Ezra Miller) and their relationship from beginning to the quick aftermath of the bloodbath. His distinctive, androgynous look and haunting eyes play to his benefit, giving his characters a depth to the guts of the function that goes past what’s written.

Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton are excited for viewers to see Three Thousand Years of Longing, the latest film from MGM and director George Miller.

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Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba explained how they worked to ensure their roles in "Three Thousand Years of Longing" didn't rely on character stereotypes.

"It would be quite easy to work a stereotype with Alithea just as it would be easy to work with a stereotype with Djinn," she said during the press conference. Seeing as the actress has played various supernatural roles over the years (like the White Witch in "The Chronicles of Narnia" films), she inserted these otherworldly characteristics to put her own spin on the otherwise average character. Between crafting his original character and creating the made-up accent viewers will soon see in the film, Elba admitted he wishes he could have been able to portray such a magical being even sooner. Elba and co-star Tilda Swinton wanted to make sure their characters were fresh and exciting for fans of the short story. "Because this character's journey is only really believable to the audience if we feel like we have never seen anything like this before." However, the mystical Djinn ( [Idris Elba](https://www.thelist.com/766591/idris-elbas-hilarious-super-bowl-commercial-doesnt-disappoint/)) must grant her three wishes in order to free himself — but Dr.

Tilda Swinton plays a literary scholar who has an encounter with a wish-granting genie, played by Idris Elba, in this flashy and ornate new fantasy film.

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George Miller elevated the art of the action movie with Mad Max: Fury Road, and now the 77-year-old Australian director is doing the same for love scenes in ...

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In 'Three Thousand Years of Longing,' Tilda Swinton frees Idris Elba from the bottle, beginning a sweeping tale that spans centuries of lost loves and ...

If the film is moving, it’s because of the impulses that spur Alithea to bring Djinn home and the double-edged facts of Djinn’s nature that prevent him from thriving there. And the frustrations of a woman named Zefir — the 19th-century heroine of Djinn’s best story — whose genius is bound to be suppressed by the strictures of marriage until a chance encounter with Djinn helps her find her power. The shimmering beauty of Sheba’s skin, as Djinn describes it, and the swift cruelties of her betrayal are worthy of the enduring pain Djinn seems to feel toward her. When it’s working, Three Thousand Years is an old curiosity shop of a movie, a cache of curios and strange conceits, many of which, when the movie isn’t working, are submerged into the bland uniformity of Miller’s stylistic approach to large stretches of this film. The grand proportions of each story are there, but the most scintillating details are sometimes abandoned to the constant onrush of more details, more stories. Three Thousand Years is a movie star affair, too, and a tale about miracles of every variety, from science to love to the human mind. Miller may be best known for his Mad Max movies, but his career has traversed genre, and in some ways, Three Thousand Years feels like a consummation of certain strands in his career. Byatt’s 1994 short story](https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/1722/the-djinn-in-the-nightingales-eye-a-s-byatt) “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye,” is instead a story about stories themselves: about the power of narrative, the feats of imagination that sustain and connect us. The usual trappings of a genie story are here: the three wishes, the genie’s desperation for his own freedom, the godlike magic acts that make his own eternal captivity, in a palm-sized bottle no less, so ironic. At times, Three Thousand Years becomes that awkward thing: a movie about itself, about the tall tales that make movies worth watching and stories worth telling, that in fact fails to feel worth it. Three Thousand Years is largely an omnibus of the tales that Djinn, as the genie is called, tells about himself, at Alithea’s insistence — she being a student of such tales, after all. The next, a giant [Idris Elba](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/idris-elba/), speaking another language and flowing with colorful undercurrents of fire and electricity beneath his skin, has set up shop in the bedroom.

I suddenly thought, "Oh my god, they have the vividness and the qualities of these characters."

Luckily, everything seems to have lined up for "Three Thousand Years of Longing" to produce exactly what Miller set out to make. When I actually got to talk to them and had conversations, recreational conversations, I suddenly thought, 'Oh my god, they have the vividness and the qualities of these characters.' The Venn diagrams of the characters and the actors overlap for me. "Three Thousand Years of Longing," based on a short story titled "The Djinn In The Nightingale's Eye" by A.S. Inevitably, the conversation turned towards the impressive work by the entire cast and crew, especially by Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. "Three Thousand Years of Longing" first captured Miller's imagination back in the 1990s, and it took no time at all for Miller to be convinced that Elba and Swinton were the best actors for the job. After all, just imagine meeting the enormous task of having to fill Mel Gibson's shoes for the character of Max Rockatansky (to say nothing of casting Gibson in the first place with the original "Mad Max") and deciding to take a leap of faith on, at the time, an up-and-coming Tom Hardy.

Three Thousand Years of Longing starring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba is George Miller's strangely passionless passion project and the film never feels as ...

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