News

George Miller Confirms Two Mad Max Sequels On The Way

Mad Max: Fury Road was a very long time coming. I like the first three movies, and for over a decade we’ve been hearing about a fourth film, on and off. The project fell apart several times, and took so long to get going, that the role Mel Gibson made famous had to pass on to Tom Hardy.

This year we finally had a chance to see what director George Miller, who isn't directing Man of Steel 2, had been cooking up for all those years (plus long production and post-production periods), and it still stands as the best film I’ve seen all year. It was a critical and commercial success, which means Warner Bros. is keen on making another film.

Fortunately, all of those delays that caused Fury Road to be pushed back so many times became a bit of a blessing when it comes to sequels as Miller explained to Top Gear:

"This film [Fury Road] was green lit three times and fell over three times over a decade. We went to shoot with Mel Gibson back in 2001, but then 9/11 happened, and the American dollar collapsed against the Australian dollar close to 30 per cent, so we lost that amount of budget overnight.

"We were then rained out of Australia.The desert rained for the first time in 15 years, and we ended up in South West Africa, Namibia. But in this process, we had dug down deep into the backstory, not only of the characters, but of every vehicle. How the steering wheels became religious artefacts and things like that.

"So we ended up with two scripts, without really trying. We’re talking to the studio [Warner Bros] about it as we speak, but which one of the two stories will happen next, I’m not so sure."

But if you were hoping for a new Mad Max film in the next two years, be warned that Miller isn’t working on a follow up next:

"I want to do a small film without special effects before I do any of that, just to do it quickly. We shot Fury Road for eight months… that’s a lot. Every day in the heat and the dust, doing these stunts, it’s very wearing. We’ve got two more planned, but at some point in the future."

You really can’t blame him, he went through hell to get this project off the ground and in front of the cameras so a small film is probably needed. That still leaves a question of what the next film will be about and whether Charlize Theron will return as Furiosa.

The films tend to be more stand alone and with Miller unsure which of the two scripts to do next, it sounds like it will remain that way. With development pretty much already out of the way, it does mean that he can move directly into pre-production which could mean that after he finishes his small film he can dive right into Mad Max 5.

Image: Warner Bros.