Mel Gibson’s (Edge of Darkness) career skyrocketed following his appearance as the titular character in 1979’s Mad Max; a film about one of the last lawmen in a post-apocalyptic Australia, who turns into Judge, Jury, and executioner, after his best friend, wife, and baby, are all brutally murdered, and is a film that set the current standard for just about all revenge movies, and their anti-hero leads; but despite the years of rumours and hope, he will not be returning from Beyond the Thunderdome for another sequel.
The Road Warrior (Mad Max the character) will however be returning, in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road, which has been described by it’s star (British actor Tom Hardy, who’s been officially confirmed as the new Max, and is best known for playing the lead in the prison biopic Bronson) as not only “a relaunch and revisit to the world” but “an entire restructuring” that will “pick up the Mad Max you know, and deposit him in the same world, but bring him up to date by 30 years.”
There’s no official filming schedule been given as yet, but Tom Hardy has already begun training; he has been told to lose 30 pounds (over two stone) for the role, and will be stunt/fight training for two months in Australia, ahead of the projected nine month shoot; in order to end up looking like “a cat in the bath; you grab a cat by the throat and stuff it under the fucking water, that’s what I’m going to look like, but like a puma, imagine a hungry wolf; very hungry and very dangerous.”
Hardy’s also promised to try and deliver “the same amount of grit and rawness and authenticity” that the original had, and has confirmed (to the joy of most film fans) that it will not be a CGI picture; “big rigs, big explosions, big car crashes, and big violence, these things are really going to be there.”
Charlize Theron (The Road) is due to co-star in Fury Road, alongside Nicholas Hoult (Clash of the Titans), Zoë Kravitz (The Brave One), and Adelaide Clemens (Wasted on the Young), and will be directed by none other than George Miller; the same man who wrote, produced, and directed the previous three Mad Max movies, and the man that according to recent rumours is also due to film a fifth Mad Max alongside Fury Road.
The rumours only recently surfaced (but have now been confirmed by several sources) and state that the fifth film (or second in the relaunched series) will be titled Mad Max: Furiosa, and put both Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron back in front of the camera, and will be filmed back-to-back with Fury Road, in order for a rapid rapid release.
As little has been confirmed about the plot of Fury Road, the story behind Furiosa is anybody’s guess; although the title does suggest that Hardy’s Max may pass the torch to Theron’s character (as furiosa simply means furious woman in a couple of different languages); as is the release date, but as Fury Road is due out sometime in 2012 (just like almost every other major movie in production at the moment), it stands to reason that it could be expected in possibly the same year, or more likely 2013.
