"We spent a lot of time in DI (digital intermediate), and we had a very fine colorist, Eric Whipp. One thing I’ve noticed is that the default position for everyone is to de-saturate post-apocalyptic movies. There’s only two ways to go, make them black and white — the best version of this movie is black and white, but people reserve that for art movies now. The other version is to really go all-out on the color. The usual teal and orange thing? That’s all the colors we had to work with. The desert’s orange and the sky is teal, and we either could de-saturate it, or crank it up, to differentiate the movie. Plus, it can get really tiring watching this dull, de-saturated color, unless you go all the way out and make it black and white."
The "Black & Chrome" edition of the film will have its theatrical premiere at SpectreFest 2016 in Los Angeles on Monday 11/1 at 7:30pm.
If it were up to Miller the "Black & Chrome" edition would have been the only version released, but one does have to wonder about the actual colored version, the one that got released last year, and the eye-popping colors and landscapes that were perfectly captured by cinematographer John Seale. It will be hard to top that pop masterpiece. It is almost inconceivable to think of "Mad Max: Fury Road" as anything but a colored film. Its Western vibe fits perfectly with its sandy colors. To take a away color from such an eye-popping experience might to the film a major disservice.
Yes, maybe George Miller did intend for a "Black & Chrome" version at first, but it was such a perfect cinematic display that I wonder if he is actually hurting the original film instead of just letting it be and age like fine wine over time.