Mad Max

For other uses, see Mad Max (disambiguation)

The Mad Max franchise refers to a series of futuristic films, taking place in the "Mad Max Universe", that tell a story of breakdown of society, murder, and vengeance. The first Mad Max was an Australian action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and Byron Kennedy, released in 1979. It produced two sequels, Mad Max 2, also known as "The Road Warrior", in 1981 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985. The series has had a lasting influence on apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction ever since.

An animated feature film sequel and video game tie-in are both currently in pre-production, with a predicted release date of 2011 or 2012. In May 2009, it was reported that location scouting was underway for a new live action filming of Mad Max 4: Fury Road.

Films

Mad Max

Main article: Mad Max

Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and Byron Kennedy. It tells a story of breakdown of society, murder and vengeance. The film, starring the then-little-known Mel Gibson, was released internationally in 1980. It became a top-grossing Australian film and has been credited for further opening the global market to Australian New Wave films.

Mad Max 2

Main article: Mad Max 2

Mad Max 2 (also known as The Road Warrior in the U.S., and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior) is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller. This sequel to Miller's 1979 film Mad Max was a worldwide box office success that further launched the career of lead actor Mel Gibson. The film's tale of a community of settlers moved to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders follows an archetypal "Western" frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man who rediscovers his humanity.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Main article: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is a Golden Globe-nominated 1985 film, the third installment in the action movie Mad Max franchise. The film was directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie, and starred Mel Gibson and Tina Turner. The original music score was composed by Maurice Jarre. George Miller, director of the first two Mad Max movies, lost interest in the project after his friend and producer Byron Kennedy was tragically killed in a helicopter crash while location scouting. Miller later agreed to direct the action sequences.

Cast and crew

Recurring cast

• Mel Gibson starred as Max Rockatansky in all three films.
• Bruce Spence appeared as different characters in the latter two films (As The "Gyro Captain" in The Road Warrior: Mad Max II and as "Jedediah the Pilot" in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome).
• Max Fairchild appeared as two different characters in the first two films (As "Benno" in Mad Max and as "Broken Victim" in The Road Warrior: Mad Max II).

Crew

Film	Year	Director	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Music	Cinematography	Editing
Mad Max	1979	George Miller	George Miller Byron Kennedy James McCausland	Byron Kennedy Bill Miller	Brian May	David Eggby	Cliff Hayes Tony Paterson
Mad Max 2	1981	George Miller	Terry Hayes George Miller Brian Hannant	Byron Kennedy	Brian May	Dean Semler	David Stiven Michael Balson Tim Wellburn
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome	1985	George Miller George Ogilvie	Terry Hayes George Miller	Terry Hayes George Miller Doug Mitchell	Maurice Jarre (score) Lyle/Britten/Knight (songs)	Dean Semler	Richard Francis-Bruce

Sequel

Film

Plans for the fourth film of the Mad Max series, tentatively known as Mad Max 4: Fury Road, or simply Mad Max 4, hit financial difficulties early on, and was in development hell for around 25 years. George Miller announced in 2003 that a script had been written for a fourth film, and that pre-production was in the early stages. Although the project was given the green light for a $100 million USD budget to begin shooting in Australia in May 2003, Mad Max 4 almost immediately entered hiatus due to security concerns related to trying to film in Namibia, because the United States and many other countries have tightened travel and shipping restrictions. With the outbreak of the Second Gulf War, Mad Max 4 was (at that time) abandoned as what was a potentially politically sensitive film.

In November 2006, George Miller had stated that he still had full intentions to make Fury Road, telling the press that he was considering doing the film without Mel Gibson, saying, “There's a real hope. The last thing I wanted to do is another Mad Max, but this script came along, and I'm completely carried away with it." The film's screenplay was co-written with cult British comic creator Brendan McCarthy, who also designed many of the new characters and vehicles.

Miller again confirmed his desire to make another Mad Max at the 2007 Aurora film maker initiative. However, he did say he thought Mel Gibson would not be interested in the film because he is too old. Miller has stated that a live-action sequel is still a possibility, and it was announced on 18 May 2009 that location scouting for a potential live-action Mad Max sequel had begun. Australian press releases of 18 May 2009 said:

• "MAD Max is revving up for a long-awaited return to the big screen, almost 25 years after Tina Turner ran Mel Gibson out of Bartertown. Director George Miller is gearing up to shoot the fourth film in the ground-breaking Aussie road warrior franchise, industry sources say. Scouting for locations is under way for the movie, which many thought would never get off the ground. It could go into production later this year."

and

• "According to industry sources, the fourth film in the groundbreaking Australian franchise, which many people thought would never get off the ground, might well go into production as early as the later part of this year. Scouting for locations is already happening and specialised technicians have been approached. It's extremely unlikely, however, that Gibson will be asked to take his leathers out of mothballs to reprise the role that made him an international star."

It was announced by George Miller on 24 October 2009, that filming of Fury Road would commence at Broken Hill in New South Wales in early 2011, ending years of speculation. This announcement attracted widespread media attention in Australia, with the popular speculation at that time on whether Mel Gibson would return as Max, even though this had previously been considered unlikely.

On 29 October 2009, it was announced that British actor Tom Hardy was in negotiations to take the lead role of Max, and Charlize Theron will also play the lead role. The plot will be set shortly after the events of Beyond Thunderdome.

It was confirmed that Miller would film two Mad Max films back to back. The second of the two films will be called Mad Max: Furiosa. The article also states that Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz and Adelaide Clemens have joined the cast.

Animation

On 5 March 2009, it was announced that an R-rated 3D animation feature film was now in pre-production taking much of the plot from Fury Road (Mad Max co-creator and director George Miller has already done an animated feature film in the acclaimed 2006 children's computer animated Happy Feet), although Mel Gibson will not feature as a voice talent and Miller is looking for a "different route", a "renaissance" of the franchise. Miller cites the famous 1988 Japanese anime sci-fi post-apocalyptic feature film Akira as an inspiration for what he wants to do with the franchise, although he would adapt it more for Western audiences. Ironically, Akira has many similarities to Mad Max, although the latter came before the former. George Miller is also developing an action-adventure tie-in video game based on the fourth film, along with God of War II video game designer Cory Barlog. Both projects are expected to take two years to two and a half years, according to Miller, with a predicted release date of 2011 or 2012.

On 5 March 2009, it was announced that the franchise would be revived with a "3-D animation feature film". George Miller was considering resurrecting the idea as an R-rated, stereoscopic anime film for theatrical release. On 18 May 2009, however, it was reported that location scouting was underway for a new live action filming of "Mad Max 4".

Regardless of that decision, during a film conference held on 8 June 2009 Miller has confirmed that an anime film produced by North Star Productions (famous for their Hokuto No Ken animated films, which are inspired by the Mad Max films) is most likely to happen.

The upcoming Fury Road film should be produced at Dr.D Studios, a digital art studios founded in 2008 by George Miller and Doug Mitchell.

Merchandising

A wide range of Mad Max items have been produced over the years, including books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, board and video games, action figures, car models, and also souvenir magazines, t-shirts, and stickers.

CD

Main article: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (soundtrack)

DVD

DVDs of all of the movies are available.

Video game

Main article: Mad Max (video game)

Mad Max is a 1990 NES game that is based on the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. The object is to survive life after the end of the world by battling survivalists and collecting valuable food, water, gasoline, and money. The game is similar to Outlander released in 1992 for Sega Genesis and SNES.

References

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