And so the road runs full circle. In May 2015, the fourth Mad Max film debuted at the Cannes Film Fesival just like the progenitor of the series did 37 years before. This will be no apocalypse lite but a return to full civilisational collapse in pulp-SF style. But, despite setting its social breakdown in the backwaters of Australia, like the more realistic THE ROVER, it wasnt actually filmed there. Aborting a planned return to the Broken Hill, New South Wales region where Mel Gibson last wandered into the desert, weather conditions forced a change of location to Namibia. Nor does it feature Gibson; though a little long in the tooth, Mad Mels monolithic features might have weathered well as Max Rocktansky. But a full 25 years of development hell (beginning only five years after BEYOND THUNDERDOME) removed him from the project many moons ago. In his place is all-purpose Brit tough guy actor Tom Hardy. With a script co-written by Miller and Brit comics luminary Brendan McCarthy (veteran of seminal titles 2000 AD and Crisis), MAD MAX: FURY ROAD has been previewed by a trailer that places the modern action movie en extremis on a wagnerian scale. I ask Jay Slater if he has any pre-emptive word: Someone we both know had to see it for work, he responds, and said he doesnt like MAD MAX; but if you do youll probably like this. But for some reason, every major effect even though Miller says it was done old-school style has been padded with CGI. So I expect to be disappointed. Ill have to watch it anyway, but I suspect it will not beat MAD MAX 2. Indeed, some aspects of the trailer are abrim with CGI effects. The great advantage of CGI is that it makes anything look possible; the drawback is that if anythings possible then nothing looks really dangerous certainly not at the bone-breakingly risky level of THE ROAD WARRIOR. I ask how Hardys performance reportedly measures up to Mel Gibson in the part. Tom Hardy is said to be very strong, Slater confirms, but the character is a completely different portrayal of Max Rocktansky. Where in the second film hes a broken man, very quiet, a loner, hes almost like the Man with No Name, the Clint Eastwood character. Whereas his character in the fourth movie is very much more charismatic, engaging. But from what Ive been told, it carries on from Part Two. Part Three never happened. Continuing from the oil wars of MAD MAX 2, FURY ROAD features (topically, given concerns about the world climate) gangs doing battle over depleted water supplies. According to Hardy, hes been signed up for a further three Mad Max films. The road rage goes ever on...
Writer/editor/ghost-writer transfixed by crime, cinema and the serrated edges of popular culture. Those similarly afflicted are invited to make contact.
