There's many flattering words I've used to describe the greatness of 32 year old Brit actor
Tom Hardy over the years, but for a guy who has played a
Star Trek villain in a major motion picture, British lunatic criminal Charles Bronson, and for someone who is a supporting player in
the biggest movie of this year - sadly, well-known is not one of them. I'm betting that this will change soon enough though. Hardy is on the cusp of breaking through that difficult leading man glass ceiling in a Gerard Butler/Christian Bale kind of way, and I suspect this will be the role where it all comes off for him. And he deserves it, his filmography of roles is excellent. Last year,
George Miller chose Hardy out from a bunch of talented actors (including Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner, and the current big thing Sam Worthington) and passed him the baton of Mel Gibson's
Mad Max, for 20th Century Fox's forthcoming, continuation of the series that is both a sequel AND a re-imagining of the post-apocalyptic universe that ended 25 years ago with
Mad Max 3: Beyond the Thunderdome. The new movie,
titled
Mad Max: Fury Road, we think will be The Incredible Hulk to Ang Lee's Hulk and
Hardy's words told Collider further support our theory;
Its a relaunch and revisit to the world. An entire restructuring. Thats not to say that its not picking up or leaving off from the Mad Max you know already, but its a nice re-take on the entire world using the same character, depositing him in the same world but bringing him up to date by 30 years.
In a pretty decent interview, Hardy talked about his take on the character, and reading this, you can now begin to see why he is so good on screen. He is articulate about the character, and has clearly spent many nights thinking about who he will be portraying...
Imagine a hungry wolf. Or like when you put a cat in the bath. You grab a cat by the throat and stuff it under the fucking water. You know what it looks like? Thats what Im going to look like. But like a puma. Very hungry and very dangerous. Its imperative. This is the kind of guy whos not well. So I have to create that reality.
Filming is set to begin later this year (although no dates are given, Hardy kind of hints towards September) for a nine month stint in the same geographical location in Australia as Miller shot his original three films.
Charlize Theron was initially set to play the inevitable female part (because you can't have a movie these days without a love interest!!), and then we heard Aussie actress
Teresa Palmer (a Miller favourite, who he previously cast in his unrealised
JLA) had replaced her but now reports suggest that neither will be in the film. So who knows, at this point?
Nicholas Hoult (the kid from About a Boy who is now grown-up, and you've probably seen him in Skins and A Single Man since) and then two names who have us scratching our heads (
Zoe Kravitz and
Adelaide Clemens) are also on board for what is mostly a pretty low-key cast. We get the feeling that all of Miller's limited budget will be used on the shooting, and not the casting, and we support this approach. Otherwise... it would be another Sam Worthington mess of a summer tentpole. This one is aiming to be something much more interesting. We are pretty psyched about Miller's return to the franchise that made his name, but then again we were pretty excited about George Lucas making a new
Star Wars film and Steven Spielberg re-visiting
Indiana Jones after over a decade absence, so we have only have ourselves to blame if we get burnt. And a nine month shoot for Hardy? That sure is interesting, because it would likely leave him free just about in time for when his Inception director
Christopher Nolan starts to ramp up filming on
Batman 3. Riddle me this, riddle me that...