A few months back, “The Hurt Locker” star Jeremy Renner told an interviewer that he was up for a part in a new “Mad Max” film, to be directed by the series’ original helmer George Miller, leading to wide speculation that the actor would be taking over the central role from Mel Gibson, who’s now deemed “too old” by the director. There’s been no movement on this for a little while, but it now sounds like the project’s getting closer to fruition, after at least 10 years of planning, and that another surprising actor may be in the running.
The casting process for the movie seems unusual — apparently actors are being handed a letter of the alphabet to identify their character, and E! Online is reporting, from “multiple sources,” that actor Tom Hardy (“Bronson”) is now Miller’s favored choice to take on the Max mantle, and that Charlize Theron may play the female lead (hopefully not just in slightly pointless flashbacks, like her other recent post-apocalyptic role…)
Hardy’s a tremendous actor — we still haven’t done a full review for “Bronson,” but it’s one of the year’s best movies, and certainly one of the best performances, and it’s already led to a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s eagerly awaited “Inception.” This would be a big step up for the actor, and we’re not fully convinced that the studio would back him (E! makes a point of saying that “the studio have yet to sign off on Miller’s choices”), but we hope they do, he’s a great choice. Theron is reliably brilliant, one of the relatively few recent Oscar winners who’ve managed to convert their award into consistently excellent performances (Adrien Brody, we’re looking at you…) so we hope the script gives her more to do than stand around in the background. The movie’s not been greenlit yet, and these sources aren’t rock solid, but, with actors of this caliber, the new “Mad Max” should be closer to the first two installments than “Beyond Thunderdome,” which is one of the least favorites in the series, but actually has a lot of value aside from Tina Turner’s scowling.