Mad Max director unleashes Idris Elba's Djinn in Three Thousand Years of Longing trailer

Nick Romano
·2 min read

Earlier this week, MGM released a 19-second teaser for the trailer to Three Thousand Years of Longing, George Miller's first movie since directing Mad Max: Fury Road. And already it was in contention for the best, most exciting trailer of the year. Now, we get the whole thing.

The film's full-length trailer is a fantastical odyssey fueled by psychedelic magic. Tilda Swinton a scholar named Dr. Alithea Binnie, who, upon traveling to Istanbul for a speaking engagement, inadvertently unleashes a Djinn (Idris Elba).

The elf-eared spirit offers three wishes to the academic in exchange for his freedom, but Alithea, for one, isn't fully convinced that he's real. Plus, even if he is — and that's still an if as far as she's concerned — she knows all the cautionary stories from myth about wishes gone wrong. So, the Djinn starts regaling her with tales from his past in an effort to persuade her.

"I do have a question: what does one do with three wishes?" Alithea asks, to which the Djinn replies, "You'll see."

Based on A.S. Byatt's 1994 short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, the film promises to take viewers down a fury road that spans the ages. Colorful lands and kingdoms wiz by as the footage takes us to see the Queen of Sheba and reality-defying creatures.

"We all have desires, even if they remain hidden from us," the Djinn muses. "But it is your story, and I cannot wait to see where it goes."

"Or how it might end," Alithea adds.

Three Thousand Years of Longing has been in the works for quite some times. Twenty years to be precise. It was supposed to go into production in March 2020. Everyone can probably figure out why that didn't happen by that time frame alone. Filming finally kicked off in December later that year, and now here we are with Three Thousand Years of Longing premiering today at the Cannes Film Festival — hence the trailer reveal.

The movie will be released in theaters this Aug. 31.

Watch the trailer above.

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