Mel Gibson Producing Mad Max:Fury Road?

[Boomstick]

This began in the Tom Hardy May Be Mad Max! thread on the Star Trek forum, but I figured I'd bring the discussion and general updates over to the General Movies forum.

Here's the only real hard data there is about the film right now, a news piece from Australia's ABC News. ABC News posted this clip to You Tube on October 23, 2009.

From YouTube SF-Fandom not responsible for video content

SF-Fandom reserves the right to remove inappropriate video content from its discussions.

You may notice that one of the cars looks like the V8 Interceptor from the first and second films. Since the car is destroyed in the second film, one wonders if this new film will be set between Mad Max and The Road Warrior. However, if that's the case, the script must have changed since 2003, because back then Mel Gibson was supposed to star, and obviously would have been too old to fit into that continuity.

Still, the original car was said to be cobbled together from parts of others, so there's no reason that it couldn't be done again. I don't think anyone's going to be complaining about it one way or another.

[Boomstick]

An interesting piece I dug up from Newsweek, posted March 12, 2008.

The article is regarding George Miller collaborating with video game maker Cory Barlog on creating a Mad Max game. I tried to find out of this is still on or not,but I can't find anything. A searched turned up Barlog's blog, but it hasn't had a new entry for months.

If you're interested, follow links at the end of that article for an expanded interview with George Miller.

[Boomstick]

Found a little more on that game, Eurogamer quotes MTV in a piece posted on March 9, 2009. In it, George Miller claims the game is a few years off.

However, it seems that at that point he may not have been planning to do another live action film, as the end of the article mentions an animated Mad Max film that would have been released at the same time as the video game.

I'd heard the rumor about the animated film before. I wouldn't be surprised if it was being considered at some point, seeing that they were sitting on the script for a live action film they never made. Now that the live action film is back on, I wonder if it'll impact the game?

[Boomstick]

The Daily Express in the United Kingdom is reporting on Sunday the 8th of November that "Tom Hardy is stepping into the shoes of Mel Gibson after being hired to play the lead in Mad Max: Fury Road." They cite no sources.

The Australian reported The Daily Express story, but was slightly more responsible, saying "British actor Tom Hardy is expected to step into Mel Gibson's lead role in the new Mad Max film."

Expected being the key word in that sentence.

I'd expect, and hope, that some official word will come this week, if only to finally put to rest the incessant baseless reports.

[Boomstick]

The Australian has a nice article posted today which summarizes everything so far very neatly. Something new to consider, they suggest that the lead character in the new film may be Max's son. It doesn't say exactly, but this seems to be something they're gathering from back in 2003 when the project first got underway.

Also, they say Miller has hinted that the lead may be an Australian actor, which seems more likely to me than a British one. Australian fans would no doubt be irritated if the character suddenly sounded British or, worse yet, had a bad fake Aussie accent.

[Michael]

I thought his family was killed.

[august]

They were...but he could have had another son.... or 7 or 8 in the ensuing
25+ years.

Like Mel!

[Michael]

So, lemme get this straight.

Max's family is killed. All the cops are killed. He goes after the guys who killed his family and the cops he worked with, kills them off, and civilization collapses.

So Max runs around the landscape in the last of the V-8 Interceptors, siphoning off gas from the cars and motorcycles of the pseudo-barbarians who are burning up all the gas in the post-Apocalyptic landscape, takes time out to help a group of survivors defeat a barbarian horde composed of former bikers and cops (who apparently were NOT all killed off) so most of the survivors can flee to the coast to some long-forgotten resort, and then Max just heads off into the desert to breed again.

But after that brief liaison he hooks up with a wagon and some horses, merges the wagon with the last of the V-8 Interceptors (I think), and finds BarterTown, which is not quite civilization reborn, and stops long enough to destroy Auntie-whatshername's attempt to build a commercial empire in the middle of a desert, only to lead another group of survivors on a long train ride to the big city on the coast (Sydney? Melbourne?) where they REALLY restart civilization (with, presumably, the help of a huge herd of pigs).

And maybe it's THEN that he heads off into the desert to breed again.

And somewhere down the line, a generation later, comes a car/wagon/mule roaring out of the desert to find that the sons of former cops and bikers have grown up to terrorize the city on the coast, threatening civilization.

And the herd of pigs has probably grown larger.

And it's Max's son that saves the day.

That's what you're thinking?

[Boomstick]

That's a possible scenario, for sure. It's pretty much wide open. As I mentioned earlier, there's really not that much continuity between the films, and Max's world, as presented in the three films, is pretty varied and flexible.

There's a tendency to assume that there's no petrol left by the time we get around to Thunderdome, because Bartertown, and presumably their vehicles, are powered by methane. But obviously the pilot is finding fuel for his plane somewhere.

They could just establish another refinery somewhere like they had in Road Warrior, or go with some kind of alternative fuel--which would be pretty apropos for viewers in our time.

The pigs remained in Bartertown, however. So if Master planned on rebuilding Sydney by way of piggy power, they'd have to find some new ones.

[august]

Yep, or a simpler scenario:

Max's family is killed....and civilization collapses. Max has various adventures, and sometime in between age 25 and ....well, over the next, say, 40+ years, he meets a person of the opposite gender, possibly even marries her, and they have a child.

Then the child grows up, has various adventures, and saves the day.

[Michael]

Or maybe they'll just come up with a whole new character in the same world, maybe.

BTW -- I'm sure pigs would probably survive in more than one region if they survived at all.

[Boomstick]

Originally Posted by Michael

Or maybe they'll just come up with a whole new character in the same world, maybe.

BTW -- I'm sure pigs would probably survive in more than one region if they survived at all.

Agreed on both counts.

Nothing new on the casting front, by the way. The rumors have run their course, and no official announcements have come out.

[Boomstick]

From MTV, November 23, 2009:

Tom Hardy:
"I didn't expect to get "Mad Max." I really didn't. I didn't ever expect to get the lead in a Hollywood movie, for Chris Nolan off the bat to offer me ["Inception"] without an audition and then to go sit with [director] George Miller [on "Mad Max"] and work with him and not really audition in the orthodox way of auditioning — this year's been crazy. I've been working as an actor for a long time now, and I've been waiting for an independent film to come along because it was very hard to get cast as a character actor, as a lead — being credible but bankable. It's very hard to break in when there are plenty of people who can be cast, who can green-light, who can put bums in the seats. So this whole year has been staggering."

Still, an infuriating lack of specifics. His mention of a "lead" role seems to be tied to the Chris Nolan film "Inception," rather than Mad Max, so who knows. And he doesn't specify what his role in the Max film is, either.

[Luweewu]

Originally Posted by Boomstick

You may notice that one of the cars looks like the V8 Interceptor

Boomstick
[is that a choked BooMstick. they kick like mules]

I only comment cause i had a 351 worked Falcon coupe.
And also a 350 GMH Premier [misty blue with while leather int... ooooooh]

I think a Pzkfwagen 6e got better milage. lol

Louis

[Boomstick]

Originally Posted by Luweewu

I only comment cause i had a 351 worked Falcon coupe.
And also a 350 GMH Premier [misty blue with while leather int... ooooooh]

Was that an American Falcon you had, or the Australian one? I'm not sure, as they were before my time, but I think they were completely different cars.

But in either case, a classic, and very cool!

[Luweewu]

This but not Moffat worthy.. .. no bells or whistles.
Didnt like.. too unweildy.
http://img28.imagevenue.com/img.php?..._122_567lo.jpg

This with 350 chev
http://img260.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_144lo.jpg
Better but.

Basically i dumped the lot for an SD Ducati ..Sniker..
I could go faster and turn better. And only .9 of a litre

Louis

[Boomstick]

Various sources are reporting that Mel Gibson's production company, Icon Entertainment, will be producing or at least co-producing Fury Road. The origin of the report seems to be a small blurb on a blog at Moviehole:

"Clint's Bits" blog at Moviehole:
Mel Gibson may be involved in "Mad Max 4 : Fury Road", after all. Gibson's Icon Entertainment has announced it'll be co-producing the new film. Still, that doesn't mean Gibson will appear (or even narrate - now there's an idea!?) in the new film.

I looked at Icon's website (http://www.iconmovies.com), but couldn't find anything in the way of a press release, or news, so as of now I'd still chalk this up as a rumor.

[august]

So here's the latest, from SciFi Wire:

Creator/director George Miller has recently started the new Mad Max follow-up, to star Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy....
.......

While Gibson doesn't exactly say that he'll come back, he doesn't say he won't. In fact, he emphasizes his enthusiasm for Miller's new idea, rather than a previous proposed fourth Mad Max that would have centered on the original Max.

"I know he's been trying to do this for years, the fourth installment," Gibson continued. "At one point I was involved, and it felt a bit [wrong], and then this and that, so now it's probably gone through a lot of changes. I can't wait to see it, because everything he does I think is magic, I think is a touch of genius, more than a touch of genius about George.....

Gibson still has more than half a year to decide whether to do a cameo: Variety reports that Mad Max IV is slated to begin shooting in Australia in August.

[Boomstick]

Huh, you know, I really expected them to go with Sam Worthington. The lack of confirmation on Hardy, and the fact that Worthington is hot now thanks to "Avatar," and apparently had said he'd have liked the role.

By those comments it sounds like whomever is the lead, they won't be playing Max. Can't wait to see what Miller's come up with for this one.

[august]

Well Worthing might have ended up being too hot, due to his suddden high profile; possibly his schedule became too booked up to make rom for this, or his price went up, beyond the notoriously low-budget, no "name" actors Max movies. (And no, not counting Bruce Spence, Virginia Hey or Tina Turner as "name" actors. )