Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Mad Max 4: Fury Road

8/5/11 - George Miller’s Mad Max franchise, Fury Road, is looking for alternative shooting locations just two months before pre-production is due to start, after the decision was made to move filming from the Australian outback near Broken Hill, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Miller told local paper the Sydney Morning Herald that the desert there remains too green for filming what’s supposed to be a post-apocalyptic landscape, after extended rain which forced the shoot to be postponed for 12 months last year.  "The Mad Max landscape looked like Wales," Miller told the paper. "There was a carpet of flowers on the location we were shooting on. There's no way it's going to brown off. Not only that, we wanted to shoot some of the shots on Lake Eyre but now it's full of pelicans.''  Pre-production on the film is scheduled for October and other international locations are being considered including Morocco, Chile and China the SMH says, while other Australian locations are still being considered. Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Hugh Keays-Byrne are set to star.  On a brighter note for fans, however Miller said that Fury Road will be the first part of a new Mad Max trilogy, with scripts being written for fifth and sixth movies. Mad Max Furiosa has been tipped as the title for the fifth film.

3/8/11 - Filming on Mad Max: Fury Road is ready to roll in early 2012, in and around the outback New South Wales town of Broken Hill after it was announced Tuesday that production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell has signed a two-year lease for the use of the new Broken Hill Film Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  The fourth installment in the Mad Max franchise was slated to shoot in late 2010, but unseasonal rains caused the desert, critical to the films post-apocalyptic setting, to erupt with wildflowers. January and February saw floods hit the area.  Miller told News Limited newspapers last week that he was looking to an early 2012 start date for shooting.  British actor Tom Hardy will take the lead role in the movie, which will also star Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer.

8/10/10 - Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, is in talks to nab a role in Mad Max 4, Fury Road.  George Miller is back in the writer-director seat. He's also producing with Doug Mitchell, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  The movie's plot is being kept secret, but things take place a short while after the story detailed in 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the third in the series.  That keeps Mad Max, who was portrayed in the original movie by Mel Gibson in his breakout role, relatively young and allows him to be played by Tom Hardy.  Keough will play one of the "Five Wives," a group of women that Hardy must protect from the bad guys. Zoe Kravitz, Teresa Palmer and Adelaide Clemens are three of other wives.  Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult round out the cast.  The movie is eyeing a start date for early next year.

1/28/10 - Nicholas Hoult is walking Fury Road, the new Mad Max movie from series writer-director George Miller, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Zoe Kravitz, Teresa Palmer and Adelaide Clemens also are in various states of negotiations to join the film.  The movie is set a short while after the story detailed in 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, which keeps Mad Max, the character originated by Mel Gibson, relatively young.  Details are being kept quiet, but it is known that Hoult's character is named Nux. Kravitz, whose character's name is Five Wives, Palmer and Clemens are in a convoy being chased by bad guys.  Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are starring in the pic. The movie will shoot in Australia this summer; Warner Bros. will distribute.

10/30/09 - Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are in negotiations to star in Fury Road, this century's installment of the "Mad Max" movie series from writer-director George Miller, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Despite his long association with the fourth movie, Mel Gibson is not reprising his iconic role of Max Rockatansky, the hardened ex-cop in a future beset by gas shortages and marauding gangs.  That job goes to Hardy, the British-born actor who stole scenes as Handsome Bob in Guy Ritchie's "RocknRolla."  Theron is playing the female lead.  Story details are being kept under wraps; what's known is that the movie takes place a short while after the story detailed in 1985's "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," which would keep Mad Max relatively young.  The filmmakers are eyeing a summer 2010 shoot in Australia. The movie will be an Australian production that Warner Bros. will distribute.

10/23/09 - E! News reported a rumor that Charlize Theron will star in the fourth installment of the Mad Max franchise.  When he announced that he would begin work on the sequel back in 2007, director George Miller admitted Gibson was too old for the antihero role of "Mad" Max Rockatansky, and said, "I don't think he would be interested in being involved at all."  Miller is also considering British actor Tom Hardy to co-star, opposite Theron.  Miller is keeping everything a secret and no formal offers have been made.

10/30/07 - The film, reportedly subtitled Fury Road, is supposedly auditioning animation effects houses.  It's not expected that Mel Gibson will reprise one of his most iconic roles, but rather that a newer, younger actor will be cast.

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