Mad Max 4 is dead and...you can blame George Lucas? (1 Viewer)

[Gary->dee]

From IMDB:

Prospects of Mel Gibson returning to the screen in his Mad Max persona faded today (Tuesday) when Daily Variety reported that the actor is in talks with Warner Bros. to star in Under and Alone, about an ATF undercover agent who infiltrated a motorcycle gang. Gibson had originally intended to shoot Mad Max: Fury Road in the southern Africa country of Namibia in May but halted preproduction citing security concerns following the outbreak of war with Iraq. Production offices in Swakopmund were shut down, dozens of contracts and leases for homes, apartments, car rentals, and caterers were canceled, and sets built for the $100-million movie were warehoused. Gibson later plunged into post-production of his biblical film The Passion, seemingly snuffing out the fire on the back burner, where the Mad Max feature had been placed. It had been reported earlier that Gibson decided to shoot the film in Namibia because George Lucas had booked all available studio space at Fox Studios in Australia to shoot Star Wars: Episode 3. Lucas completed principal production there last week.


Yep, blame it on Lucas! :p) I love the Mad Max movies but I wasn't terribly excited about the prospect of a 4th movie. Then again I haven't read the script so who knows, it might have been good. To me a 4th Mad Max movie is like a 4th Indiana Jones movie- are they really necessary?

 

[Larry Sutliff]

To me a 4th Mad Max movie is like a 4th Indiana Jones movie- are they really necessary?

I'm looking forward to INDY 4; I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Spielberg, Lucas and Spielberg will be able to pull it off.

MAD MAX 4? I would definitely see it, but I wasn't too crazy about BEYOND THUNDERDOME, so it's no big deal to me if it's ever made or not.
I love the title of this thread, by the way. I'm looking forward to seeing some posts that take the title seriously and rant on and on about Luca$.

 

[BobSmith]

I would love to see another Mad Max. Maybe they can film it sometime soon since they are done with the little star wars flick. Long live MAD MAX IV: FURY ROAD!!

 

[Nick T Robot]

Well, There are studios in other parts of the world. Lucas didn't book the whole country of Australia, just the New Fox Studios there.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Mad Max 4 is dead and...you can blame George Lucas?

Why not? We blame him for everything else.:p)

 

[Max Leung]

As long as nobody blames Canada!

 

[Malcolm R]

That's a shame. I'd be more interested in another "Mad Max" film than another "Star Wars" film.

 

[Elbert Lee]

IMO, it's hard to imagine any compelling storyline for a fourth MM flick. Other than some painful looking stunts, MM 4 would probably make for a better Motion Simulation ride at Universal Studios.
I's definitely want to see what kind of creativity Spielberg can come up with for IJ4. especially with an "over the hill" action hero.

 

[Gary->dee]

The interesting thing about the Mad Max and Indy movies is that they are essentially unresolved stories, chronicles if you will, that can continue beyond 3 movies. So in that sense they're very much alike. Max can still be wandering around the wasteland getting into new adventures, maybe even finding love. The issue for me is that if you make Max this wandering underdog hero you turn him into Bruce Banner from the Hulk TV series in that he's this guy who goes around solving people's problems. I wouldn't really want to see that unless they possibly evolve Max into something beyond what we saw in Thunderdome.

One of the interesting things about the 3 Mad Max movies is that we saw how he drastically changed from this loving family man in the first movie to a cold, reclusive, wandering "shell of a man"(love that line) after not only his own personal tragedy but the rotting of society because of war. Like I said I unfortunately haven't read the Fury Road script but I would hope it's not just a replay of Road Warrior or Thunderdome.

Don't get me wrong, I would definitely see Fury Road and of course Indy 4 in the theater but I'm just not clammoring for these movies to get made. I'm satisfied with the franchises as they are now. If they somehow, someday make Fury Road I hope it beats the living crap out of anything else in theaters. I want it to be to even greater than what we've already seen of the Mad Max movies and that could be a difficult thing to accomplish.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Max can still be wandering around the wasteland getting into new adventures

If I might paraphrase QT..."You know, like Kane from Kung-Fu"

 

[Gary->dee]

Exactly and that's another good example, Seth. I don't want Max to be like Kane or Bruce Banner wandering around solving other people's problems. That's part of the impression you come away with in Road Warrior and Thunderdome. I would hope the 4th movie could be a bit of a departure. Unfortunately we may never know, or at least not for a long time.

 

[Jason Borchers]

.

 

[JeremySt]

Any chance of Mad Max 4 getting revived as a project?

 

[Shawn_KE]

I hope it stays dead.

I love Mad Max and the Road Warrior. 2 of my favorite movies of all time. Loved them for the violence, the trick custom muscle cars, the bleak decay of society, the anti-hero that didn't care about anything but himself in all it raw un-pc like glory. Great performances by Gibson and everyone else. All on a cheap budget.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome had none of that. A happy PC type watered down PG Mad Max. I couldn't buy Tina Turner as the wasteland survivor and bartertown leader. The silly dune buggies were lame and the ending was a rehash of Road Warrior.

I think a lot of that had to do with Byron Kennedy passing away. He was the car nut and action visionist. I don't want to see another Mad Max film made without him.

 

[Jordan_E]

For me, THE ROAD WARRIOR is the beginning, middle, and end of Mad Max. It doesn't get much better. Leave it alone.

 

[Chris]

Hmm. They could do a musical, with most of the cast of Pricilla, Queen of the Desert set in the time frame of Mad Max..

 

[David_Blackwell]

I want to see if MM4 would be good or not. Indy 4 has it's problems as no one could settle on a script for a long time and the George delayed it even further (even though Steven liked the script) and it opened the door for WAR OF THE WORLDS.

 

[todd stone]

was he still planning on doing it with heath ledger?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

At this point I have to suspect that a good 50% of a new Mad Max movie would be torture. I finally have something to thank GL for.

 

[Grant H]

I don't know if Gibson could pull off MM again anyway. He barely pulled off Riggs in Lethal Weapon 4, and he wasn't THAT old. Seems to me then he was the same age Harrison Ford was in TOD.
Ever since Gibson quit smoking, he's looked flabby.

Regarding the studios: wouldn't the nature of Mad Max mean most of the movie would be location shooting anyway? Or did they want to build their own highways like Matrix Reloaded?