While George Miller has been trying to make Mad Max 4: Fury Road for years (he once almost got to the point of filming before having the plug pulled and to keep costs down it nearly became an animated movie), it seem he’s now got things back on track and will be shooting the movie in Australia next year.
The news was reported by Australia’s Daily Telegraph, which said that the film will be made in Sydney, with location work done in the Outback of New South Wales (however their claim of 30 weeks of filming at Broken Hill seems a bit ambitious).
Miller also appeared on Aussie ABC TV to show off the cars he’s having built for the film (take a look below to see the Youtube clip in which Miller talks about his ambitious plans for the movie), and said that so far nobody has officially been cast in the film, although The Daily Telegraph reported that intense speculation now surrounds Sam Worthington taking over the main role, with Charlize Theron as the female lead.
However the one thing missing from all this, is news on where the money is coming from. No studio backing has been announced for the film, and as it’s believed it will cost $100 million to make, that’s a lot of money for what will essentially be an independent project. As it was funding that scuppered previous attempts to make Fury Road, let’s hope it all comes together this time. It probably will, as the film has the full backing of the Aussie government and film industry, which is still reeling from losing the Green Lantern, after Warner decided to make the superhero movie in America rather than Australia.
So while the rumours have swirled around this project and intensified in recent months, it seems that its now official – we are getting another Mad Max, with the director of the first three behind the camera. Exepct official casting news soon.