Tom Hardy on (Hopefully) Becoming Mad Max

You have to have a wait-and-see approach to Mad Max 4. It's a cool story, even though the third movie is mostly stinky, but enough time has passed that it might be due for another chapter. Of course, with the apocalypse more popular than ever, Mad Max: Fury Road might sink into the background as just another sub-genre movie. Director George Miller is returning to the scene of the crime, and it's a gamble to put so much of the burden of this film on the shoulders of Tom Hardy, likely to be the new Max Rockatansky. Yes, the first film did the same thing with a young Mel Gibson, and look how that worked out for the franchise and its star. However, Mad Max is a brand name now, so there are expectations. I'm not saying Hardy's a bad fit, but I am saying convincing people might be a bit of a process. Hardy tells MTV that he hasn't had the official offer yet, but that it's probably just a matter of time, and that he won't go in trying to mimic Gibson. "He is Mad Max. I have to bring something entirely different and new to the stage," said Hardy, whose work in Bronson put him in line for this moment. "If I get offered it and George really wants to go with me, then George will tell me exactly what he wants to do and we'll work together on the floor to create what it is that he wants to achieve. And I hope I can get that done for him." It's looking like this film will arrive in 2011, meaning that Miller doesn't have a whole lot of time to consider the casting if he doesn't choose Hardy. Why there's been so much secrecy and delay about a project that's been in the pipeline for years and really accelerated in the past three months is beyond me. A money issue, maybe?