The trades are getting in on the “Mad Max 4” action that’s been buzzing around the Internets, but they’re not delivering much of what can’t already be found.
Earlier this week E! Online reported that Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy (“Bronson,” Nolan’s “Inception”) were two of ‘Mad Max’ trilogy director George Miller’s favored choices to play Max (now not a role for Mel Gibson who’s apparently too old) and a female protagonist.
This ran contrary to reports a few months ago that said “The Hurt Locker” star Jeremy Renner was in talks with Miller about appearing in the film, but then again, whether he was ever tapped for the lead role was only speculation.
So “Mad Max: Fury Road” as it was once called. Back on track?
According to the Brisbane Times that has an interview with Miller, the film is set to begin production in Australia next year and the director tried to ward off the casting news flying around the web.
“I’m still in the middle of casting, despite all the stuff we see on the net and so on. I don’t even know who the final cast will be,” he told reporters at a press conference in Sydney on Saturday.
Note the words though, that’s not a full-on denial of Hardy or Theron, but more of an honest statement that he hasn’t decided who his principal leads are. This probably means he is considering the two, but perhaps is still thinking about Jeremy Renner as well (and probably other names), who isn’t a huge name, but compared to Hardy, is still rather a larger star at this point (though yes, that’s very relative too).
The report says the ‘Fury Road’ script is done but presumably very revised since the version that was set to go into production in 2003, but was canned because of the impending Iraq war (the film was going to shoot in the Middle East), because the Times says the story will “modernize the franchise and take it in a new direction.”
An ABC Australia report mentions Aussie actor Sam Worthington and that he’s rumored to star (then again, with Worthington being hot in the action world these days, they’ll mention him in connection with almost any project out there).
Apparently some of the shoot will take place in New South Wales. “The Mad Max films are iconic and the latest instalment Fury Road will be made right here in NSW,” State premier Nathan Rees told Australian branch of ABC noting the film will become an important boost for the local economy and film industry. “In the hands of director George Miller, we will see one of the largest and most ambitious live action films ever made in Australia.”
Does that mean Rees knows anything about the film’s scope? Or have Miller and his producers presumably just approached his office? Probably the latter, but you’d think in this economy, a ‘Mad Max 4’ without Mel Gibson would still be a somewhat scaled-back affair. Then again, if they did nab Worthington, he did basically star in “Terminator Salvation” and that thing wasn’t cheap.
