10 Movies That Ripped Up The Rule Book

30 years after the initial series ended with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, none but the most die-hard devotees of director George Miller's post-apocalyptic action series were really holding their breath for a fourth instalment.

Not only had the director just hit 70, he hadn't made an action film since the Mad Max trilogy, and conventional wisdom dictated that any revival of a franchise after such a gap could only be a disappointment: yes, Indiana Jones, we're looking in your direction.

Of course, Mad Max Fury Road totally subverted expectation and proved to be the best film in its series, and the director's crowning achievement at an age when filmmakers tend to be slowing down. Yet even so, it was not for these reasons that the film ripped up the rule book.

The real rule-breaking move was that the massive $150 million budgeted film was initially based not on a screenplay, but on storyboards. Due to the emphasis on non-stop action, Miller worked first with artist Brendan McCarthy (credited as co-writer with Miller and Nico Lathouris) to draw out the entire movie in essentially a comic book form.

While a more conventional script was ultimately hammered out before production began, these storyboards remained the primary blueprint for the end product.