New 'Mad Max 4' Cast and Story Details

In a simple casting announcement about Mad Max: Fury Road, we finally got a crumb of what the hell the movie's about. It's not a prequel, which I think a lot of people assumed, and it's not a distant sequel, meaning that the film won't take place decades after we last saw Max Rockatansky. Instead, writes Heat Vision Blog, director George Miller is picking the story up not far after the events of Thunderdome, meaning that Tom Hardy is roughly the same age the character was (and Mel Gibson, too, for that matter) in his last chapter. It also automatically dispels the need for Gibson to appear in the film, as he'd be 25 years too old for the story. The casting news involves the previously rumored Teresa Palmer, Zoe Kravitz, Adelaide Clemens, and Nicholas Hoult, best remembered in About a Boy. There are some names and brief character descriptions, too, but with zero context as to how they fit into the film, I hardly think that matters. But it appears that the other cast members - Hardy and Charlize Theron - are sticking, so some of that speculation should die down. We've also learned that the film will in fact shoot this summer in Australia, another one of those things we'd heard about Fury Road but had no concrete evidence to back it up. That would almost certainly mean a summer 2011 opening, although depending on how it tests and everything, it may not wind up in the big prize fight, with Warners opting instead for the March-April undercard. I can't imagine it would be pushed any further in the future than that, unless there are some post-production issues. The one thing that strikes me in all of this is that Theron is the biggest name. She's not a very bankable star, though, and it's tough to sell Tom Hardy to American audiences, because his movies haven't been household names, either. So those things may force the studio's hand a bit in terms of a release date. You and I both know great films and successful films don't need big wattage, but it's still a fairly common notion to the studios.

Comments

[The Observer]

I can't wait....

[movie lover]

Why didn't you look at australians George - aren't they good enough for you now - for the max role?

[Alexander]

Let's hope George Miller casts some interesting local Australian suporting talent as he did for the earlier movies.

Who could forget the very interesting performances of Angry Anderson as Ironbar (Thunderdome) or Steve Bissel as the Goose (Mad Max 1) or George Spence (Mad Max 2 and 3) or Frank Thring (Thunderdome) or Mike Preston (Mad Max 2)

[a uk fan]

a new mad max movie without gibson dont bother weve waited years for mad max 4 only to pretend its really mel a definite no no stick it just wont be the same