Last Updated on August 5, 2021
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“If it’s all the same to you… I’ll drive that tanker.” – Mad Max
Hey all! I needed some down, dirty and gritty inspiration recently, so I re-watched ROAD WARRIOR (1981). I clocked it, loved it to death (READ MY OLD REVIEW OF IT HERE) and got hooked on good whole Mad Max once again. So after that I tapped the orignal MAD MAX (1979) and its last sequel MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985). Once the end credits rolled on the latter, I was a tad bummed. I mean, I was still on a Mad Max kick but there was only 3 movies in the series to dig into! The ride was done and that blew!
Man, myth, Max!
So that had me thinking of the announced and forever delayed fourth installment in the series: MAD MAX FURY ROAD. More Mad Max = fun times for me, but how will our hero fare in today’s P(for pussy)C social climate? So my one brain cell started pulsating and here’s what I came up with: WHAT I WANT FROM THE NEXT MAD MAX FLICK. But before I crash into that, here’s what we know about the project thus far:
-Mad Max Fury Road was originally gonna star Mel Gibson and was to shoot in 2003. The production got the axe (11 weeks before it was to start shooting) due to the shenanigans in the Middle East (the good old Gulf War) which resulted in the increase of the Australian dollar. Bummer, Mad Max 4 starring Mel Gibson would have OWNED ME!
Es tu Max Rockatansky? Better not be! He can be the new hero, but there’s only one Max Rockatansky – Mel f*cking Gibson!
-Tom Hardy will now play Mad Max and hottie Charlize Theron will be his costar. Her character will be missing half of her left arm (Will she be a villain?)
-Mad Max Fury Road will be directed by George Miller who of course did all of the other Mad Max movies. So that’s starting on the right stab right there!
– Hugh Keays-Byrne who played the leader of the pack Toe-Cutter in the original Mad Max will return! I wonder if he’ll be playing the same character… hard to believe Toe-Cutter survived that big kiss he shared with the front of a truck
-The flick will cost over 100 Million clams to make. Miller on the budget: “This is a bigger budget. People have speculated around $200 million. I’d neither deny nor confirm that. It’s a massive film.” And why so much dough? And I quote Miller: “It’s got just a huge number of stunts, and we’re trying to do stuff that I believe people haven’t done before” Sounds good to me!
Yes the Interceptor will be back to wreck havok in Fury Road!
-Lots of the pre-production has already been done on the picture. That’s what happens when your shoot is delayed constantly.
-The movie was to start shooting in September of 2010 and then 2011 in Australia. Rain made flowers bloom at the Australian locations (Broken Hill and Silverton); which of course didn’t work for what Miller was going for (post apocalyptic vibe). Last I heard (on February 22 2012) was that they were now gonna shoot in Anibia, Africa. Then the news track got cold. So they gonna FINALLY start shooting or what??? Time will tell.
-Mad Max 5: Furiosa is supposed to be shot back to back with Mad Max 4: Fury Road. Miller had this to say about the other Mad Max films: “We started with Fury Road, but we then started to do a second story and a third story. We’ve written the script for the second and almost finished the third. We never intended to, they were part of the exploration of the characters.”
Actual vehicles from Fury Road! I want one!
-Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy met for lunch (at the request of Hardy). Mel had this to say about their encounter:“He’s a firecracker and a very interesting actor who reminds me of one of my sons”. When asked by Hardy if he minded that he took over the role, Gibson replied: “Sure. It’s fine. Knock yourself out. I’ve got better things to do.” NOTE: Much respect to Hardy for meeting up with Gibson and asking for his okay. He didn’t have to do that, but he did, very classy!
So, here are the things that I want, nay NEED from this fourth chapter in the MAD MAX franchise. Floor the gas and rock on!
Don’t make it a full-on reboot!
If I go by what I’m hearing; FURY ROAD is the same script they had when Mel Gibson was gonna reprise his role of Mad Max for a fourth time. It will take place not too long after the events that transpired in THUNDERDOME, the only difference between then and now is that they’re swapping Mel Gibson’s Mad Max for Tom Hardy’s version and I think that’s a mistake. Granted the new generation won’t give a fudge. Most haven’t seen the original films and will lap up this reboot like Jenna Jameson sucking rod for another gig, but hey I don’t speak from their perspective, I speak from mine. And in my world Mel Gibson is Mad Max.
Don’t get me wrong, I have ZERO qualms with Tom Hardy taking over the franchise (although if it was up to me, Mel would play an old Max and whoop that ass as-is) but I would prefer they have Hardy play another character (maybe a relative or something) than the one and only Max Rockatansky. There’s only one Max Rockatansky and it’s Mel Gibson. This new take is happening in large part cause of him, he helped that franchise hit the big time. So I say show him and the hardcore fans (who waited 27 years for a new Mad Max flick) some f-ing respect and have Hardy play a different road warrior than THE Mad Max. Which brings me to…
Have a Mel Gibson cameo!
I love Mel Gibson and I give a shit about his off color drunken remarks, his mental state (he’s a manic depressive) and his battle with the bottle. Judge not yet ye be judged. I got my own problems and demons to deal with to waste time pointing my finger at somebody else who sadly, has to have his struggles played out in front of a worldwide audience. Mel is an astounding actor and an even better director (IMO of course) and I think it would be a damn shame if he didn’t get a cameo in the next flick to a franchise that made him famous. In my ideal world he’d play an old Max, one who’s dying, that then passes on the torch to Hardy’s character. Or he can play some asshole in the background with a mohawk and a sawed off shotgun…I don’t fully care, but Mel needs to be in this. Mel had this say about a cameo: “Nope. I’ve got nothing to do with it. George, he’s filming in Namibia or something. But don’t take that to mean a little pop-up spot couldn’t be squeezed in if all the players came to an agreement.” And “It would be fun to fly to Namibia and be a snake in the background or something,” Gibson said. “I think it’s going to be great. George is a genius.” Make it happen Miller! COME ON!
Go practical not CGI!
Watching Mad Max and Road Warrior today; one thing that stood out was how freaking amazing the car chases and stunts were. And you know why? Cause they were done with flair and for real . Now with today’s technology, I can see the temptation to take the CGI route with the vehicular mayhem. Save a couple of bucks, get your eye popping action sequences anyways, roll credits. F*CK THAT! I would rather have smaller and REAL than bigger and fake (that goes for my taste in boobs too btw). So I really hope that director George Miller sticks to what worked and what he did SO DAMN WELL in terms of making the MAD MAX TRILOGY superior to the norm. Come on Miller teach the new Gen what real car chases, crashes, jumps etc. are all all about! There is no substitute!
Have strong villains!
The OG had Toe-Cutter played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, ROAD WARRIOR had Vernon Wells as SNM Wez and muscle bound Kjell Nilsson as The Humungus whileThunderdome had Tina Turner (who didn’t make for a threatening enough bad girl in my book). Don’t make the same mistake you did in the latter Mr. Miller. Mad Max is such a strong and iconic character that you need a bad guy (or bad girl) that can measure up to him… a la Bane versus Batman kind of spiel. A strong, imposing, over the top and scary as f*ck baddie! Somebody that DESERVES to go toe to toe with Max. Anything less than that will hurt the flick in my opinion.
Don’t go PC and keep it for adults i.e. R Rated!
I hope Mr. Miller learned from his mistakes with Thunderdome. If you take an ADULT series and water it down for the kiddie masses; don’t expect to pack the same impact. Mad Max is about some dude living in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by greed, violence and the most primal of human instincts (yes that includes cussing). Now I know the thought of selling Tom Hardy Max figurines and an Interceptor Matchbox is tempting (just ask The Expendables 2 people); but how about some damn integrity for a damn change? MAD MAX is at heart an R rated franchise. They skipped a beat with Thunderdome and looked what happened: Peter Pan with a a fight in cage in the middle and a chase scene at the end. Don’t make that stumble again Mr. Miller. FURY ROAD should be an hard R so it stays true to what it is – a film for grown ups, a film with balls.
So there ya have it! That’s all I want. No so much to ask… is it? When the original Mad Max reached North American shores in 1979, it was a huge hit and it refueled the action genre. I want the same thing to happen with Fury Road for today’s genre films. God knows it needs it!
He’s looking at you George Miller… don’t muck it up! Long live Max!
BONUS! DID YA KNOW MAD MAX INSPIRED SAW?!
In the original MAD MAX, Max handcuffs a bad guy’s ankle to a wrecked car that is leaking gas. Max then sets up a time-delay fuse with a lighter and throws the bad guy a hacksaw telling him that he has two choices: saw through the handcuffs (which will take ten minutes) or saw through his ankle (which will take five minutes). That scene was the inspiration for SAW (by Australians James Wan and Leigh Whannell). Whannell is a huge Mad Max fan…
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