It’s been a while since we’ve seen any news come out regarding a new ‘Mad Max’ film, previously it had been announced that the title for the new film is ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and that Tom Hardy is set to take over from Mel Gibson in the lead role for the franchise.
Tom Hardy appeared in ‘Inception’, as well as the more recent film ‘The Warrior’, and will be seen as the villain Bane in 2012’s Batman film, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.
The most recent Mad Max film was released in 1985, ‘Beyond Thunderdome’ featured Mel Gibson in the lead role and with Tina Turner also appearing in both the film and on the soundtrack. With ‘Fury Road’ currently rumoured to be scheduled for filming during mid-2012, it’s likely to be a gap of almost thirty years between instalments in the franchise.
George Miller appears to be attached to the project as director, so from this perspective there will be a consistency throughout the franchise. Miller has also been reported to comment that this new film is likely to be the first part in a new trilogy of ‘Mad Max’ films.
But in the current era of remakes, and reboots what can we expect from a new Max film? Given the length of time that has passed since ‘Beyond Thunderdome’, ‘Fury Road’ if not a reboot, will most certainly be a new beginning/jumping on point for new fans, perhaps with the previous films as a general back-story that isn’t absolutely necessary for viewers to know.
What about the budget? The original film was made with a production budget of approximately $200,000. The first sequel had a production budget of approximately $2 million and ‘Beyond Thunderdome’ was made with approximately $10 million.
Generally modest film budgets given the period in which they were produced, ‘Thunderdome’ obviously had stronger financial support so with the possibility of a new trilogy on the way it’s likely we’ll see an even larger budget allocated resulting in the best production values the franchise has ever seen.
In terms of setting up a franchise however, with possible sequels and further cash flow to be derived from the series where will things go creatively? Revisiting the existing ‘Mad Max’ films will reveal a gritty hardened nature to them which simply isn’t common in the modern mainstream film industry.
Looking at the original ‘Conan’ film and the recent ‘Conan’ film illustrates a philosophical shift in film making away from violence and tragedy toward themes and sequences more palatable to wider mainstream audiences in essence a lighter tone with less sacrifice and loss. Creatively Max might be destined to follow this lead?
With little else other than a schedule date for filming, it’s hard to know what to expect, we’ll keep an eye on details as they are revealed as we move closer to the release of ‘Fury Road’.
