Think you’re the most excited person to see the new Mad Max? Think again, because Guillermo del Toro probably has you beat. A member of the Cannes Film Festival jury, the Pan’s Labyrinth director is heading to bed early every night, waking up every day for 8:30 a.m. movies, and ignoring the press all he wants — a luxury for filmmakers here. But he’s determined to brave the red carpet for tonight’s premiere of Mad Max. “I want to see it with a crowd. George Miller, he’s a god for me,” del Toro told me at the fest’s swanky opening dinner, where he was fast making a case for himself as the most delightful member of this year’s jury (which also includes the Coen brothers, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sienna Miller, and the fabulous Spanish actress Rossy de Palma). “Road Warrior, man,” del Toro went on. “Emotionally, without thinking about [Luis] Buñel and Renoir and Jean Pignol, if you told me, ‘The world is ending! Grab a movie!’ I would grab Road Warrior. All the other knowledge aside. I love it, man. I was the right age at the right time. That weekend I saw Blade Runner and Road Warrior in the same weekend. My mind was fucked forever.”
