George Miller tried desperately to cast Tilda Swinton in Furiosa

George Miller tried to cast Tilda Swinton in 'Furiosa'.

The 77-year-old filmmaker worked with the actress on his latest movie 'Three Thousand Years of Longing' and was desperate to find her a part in his prequel to 'Mad Max: Fury Road', although he had no joy in the end.

George told The Hollywood Reporter: "She really is something. She's an artist and one of the wisest people I've ever known. It was the first thing I thought about.

"In 'Suspiria', she played three roles, one of which is an old man, so I thought, well, she could play one of the men (in 'Furiosa'). But unfortunately, there was no role that she would fit. If you force a character into a film, it's usually the first one to end up on the cutting room floor.

"I would never do that to her, but I definitely wanted to make it happen."

The director also hailed Tilda's 'Three Thousand Years of Longing' co-star Idris Elba and was impressed by the two stars working together on the project.

George said: "I must say, he's wonderful. Watching them work together was such a delight for me. It's one thing to have the characters on the page and in your head, but it's another to see the actors manifest the characters."

Miller previously confirmed that 'Furiosa' would be a "saga" set over the course of 15 years, with the movie seeing Anya Taylor-Joy taking on the part that was played by Charlize Theron in 'Fury Road'.

He said: "All I can say about my excitement about doing it is that it's definitely exciting, because even though it's certainly out of that world of 'Fury Road', it's also got a lot of the differences we've been talking about.

"Again, it's uniquely familiar. And probably the biggest difference is the timespan. 'Fury Road' happened over three days and two nights and this one happens over 15 years. So, it's a saga."