Director George Miller’s long awaited re-visitation with his iconic Mad Max franchise – Mad Mad: Fury Road and Mad Max: Furiosa; to be shot concurrently – has been gestating at a very high level for what seems like forever. Mel Gibson was once lined up to reprise his role as the post-apocalyptic badass, with shooting to take place in the Middle East. Then, I don’t know, some stuff happened over there I guess? I don’t really read the global news. Not to mention some stuff happened with Gibson as well, I think? Something with Jews, maybe? But Miller is not a man to be deterred, and eventually the project came back with every guy’s current mancrush, Tom Hardy, with plans to return Max to his old cruisin’ grounds – Australia.
Well, cosmic forces seem to be against the project, because a couple months ago, just as Miller was apparently getting ready to start shooting, rain hit his location (ending a decade-long drought). As Miller told the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, “The week we were to start, it rained the heaviest it had in 10 years. I’ll never forget the first day — we were holed up in a big sort of shed watching the rain. We couldn’t shoot. If you want the rain to come, just send a film crew there.”
Now Max’s signature desert landscape was covered in pretty flowers. Uncool. Even less cool was when the rain didn’t stop, pulverizing the antipodeans with devastating floods. At least Tom Hardy didn’t punch his babymama in the face or anything.
Apparently the project was much farther along than I had realized. According to Miller, “We’ve built the vehicles. We’ve designed the movie. The principal cast is locked in. The film is funded. It’s all ready to go. We just wait.” Adding, “All the contracts are signed. It’s a locked-in film. It has been for 18 months now. We will restart pre-production later this year and begin early next year — weather permitting.”
Of those people presumably “locked in” to the project along with Hardy (who needs to attend to his Bane duties this year as well) are Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, and Teresa Palmer, who have all previously been attached to the films.
6 comments
I don’t see how this will possibly be successful – like it or not Gibson is the Mad max franchise.
Yeah, becuase 32 year old franchises, whose last film was 26 years ago, never change the titular actor and succeed.
If I remember correctly, there was a review here recently of the original. I was rather fond of that film, and review as well. Oh yeah, here it is: /37794/blu-ray-review-mad-max/
I can’t say I have high hopes for these new films either, but I think saying Gibson is the MM franchise is a bit like saying Clint Eastwood was the Man With No Name franchise. He is the face and an integral part, but like Leone, Miller was the engine and creative force. In other words, I can be a lot more optimistic about Miller making more Max films sans Gibson, than I ever could about Gibson starring in more Max films sans Miller. But at this rate these reboots seem doomed.
I’m not really hyping up another Mad Max, but it would be awesome to see Tom Hardy in such a role. So when it happens, it happens.
Let it go, George. Let it go.
Considering the fact that most average moviegoers these days have never even heard of the films or the character, I severely doubt that Gibson’s absence will be noticed, We’re not talking about Indiana Jones or Die Hard here. We are talking about a cult film franchise.
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