Mad Max 4 confirmed

Last week The Daily Telegraph broke the news that George Miller’s classic Mad Max franchise will spawn a belated sequel, Mad Max: Fury Road. In a major coup for the NSW film industry – following the sobering recent announcement that Green Hornet will not (as originally planned) be shot in Sydney – Premier Nathan Rees has secured production of the fourth Mad Max outing. Miller and Rees, presumably both as happy as pigs in plop, indulged in a round of back patting:

Rees: “The Mad Max films are iconic. In the hands of director George Miller, we will see one of the largest and most ambitious live action films ever made in Australia.”

Miller: “The production agreements have been a long time in the making and Premier Rees and his team have worked like Trojans to ensure this substantial investment comes into this country.”

Sam Worthington and Charlize Theron have been tipped to snag lead parts but the big question is whether Mel Gibson will return to the role that shot him to stardom three decades ago. Miller is tight-lipped and probably unsure himself. He said to journalists last week: “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.”

Creating new instalments to old film franchises is always risky business. The Star Wars prequels were widely mocked, as was Harrison Ford’s “not as easy as it used to be” Indy shtick in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Terminator 3 was a stinker and Terminator: Salvation not much better. However, recent years have heralded some success stories:  ol’ Sly Stallone kept the reputation of not one but two action franchises intact with the respectable Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, while Bruce Willis managed to reaffirm the status of his noggin as the golden egg of action cinema in the enjoyable Die Hard 4.0.

The most recent Mad Max movie – Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – was made in 1985. Here’s hoping George Miller’s still got it. Mad Max: Fury Road will begin production next year.