#Mad max full movie 1979 driver#

Cars were flipped, stuntmen were thrown, trucks were exploded in massive orange fireballs.īecause the movie is basically a two-hour chase scene, the script began as a storyboard, created in part by the comic-book artist Brendan McCarthy. That meant going old-school, to use Miller’s term, performing all the stunts, practically, out there in the Namib Desert. In his quest for realism, the director also vowed to use as little CGI and green screen as possible. I don’t think it would be the same movie without. The heat gets to you, but that kind of sinks into the movie. “The dust gets in your eyes and every crevice. “It’s very tough being out there so long,” Miller explains. The cast and crew, numbering as many as 1,700, wouldn’t leave until some five months later. The production scouted the world for a new location and settled on the African country of Namibia, home to a 1,200-mile desert that’s virtually uninhabited. Director George Miller on not casting Mel Gibson Not only had Mel hit all the turbulence in his life, but this is not a ‘Mad Max’ in which he’s an old warrior. One small problem - the once arid desert had been flooded by rain for the first time in years and was now a lush garden. With the cast in place by 2010, Miller planned to return to the Australian Outback, the filming location for the previous trilogy. Hardy, who is now 37 and was just 6 weeks old when the original “Mad Max” started shooting, got the part instead. Heath Ledger was reportedly considered for the lead before he died from abuse of prescribed medications in 2008. I guess in the same way that James Bond had been played by various people, it was time to hand over the mantle.” “He’s meant to be that same contemporary warrior. “By the time we got there, not only had Mel hit all the turbulence in his life, but this is not a ‘Mad Max’ in which he’s an old warrior,” the director says. But then he was busted for drunken driving, called a police officer “sugar tits,” was embroiled in an ugly battle with his girlfriend, made anti-Semitic comments and was secretly recorded ranting insanely at a screenwriter. “Fury Road” was also going to star the original Max, Mel Gibson, now 59. (Yes, “Happy Feet,” as in the animated movie about dancing penguins.) “I had to move on to ‘Happy Feet,’ because there was a small window when that was ready.” “The American dollar collapsed against the Australian dollar, and our budget ballooned,” Miller says. The movie was all set to shoot way back in 2001, and then 9/11 happened. Max and Furiosa flee across the irradiated Wasteland in an attempt to outrun Joe and his army of white-painted “War Boys” (including Nicholas Hoult) and bands of other local psychos.

#Mad max full movie 1979 driver#

Lone warrior Max (Tom Hardy) reluctantly teams with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a badass truck driver who has rescued five slave wives from the hands of a brutal warlord, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Through all the twists and turns over the years, one thing that’s remained surprisingly unchanged is the story. It brings with it sky-high expectations fueled by the decades-long wait and one of the greatest trailers in recent memory. The movie’s epic journey from Miller’s head to the screen took 17 years and was beset by a long list of hardships - including biblical downpours, a continental location change, an actor’s untimely death and one-time-star Mel Gibson’s well-publicized meltdowns.īut next Friday, “Mad Max: Fury Road” finally roars into theaters. He might have wished he’d just slept on that flight instead. Miller conceived of a story where violent marauders were fighting, not for oil or for material goods, but for human beings. “I kept pushing the idea aside, but it kept growing,” Miller recalls to The Post.Ībout a year later, high above the Pacific on an LA-to-Australia flight, the idea coalesced. He’d already made three movies set in that universe - 1979’s “Mad Max,” 1981’s “The Road Warrior” and 1985’s “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” - and Miller thought he’d said all he had to say about the dust-choked, post-apocalyptic wasteland where leather-clad gangs battled for gasoline. And by the time he reached the other side, he swore to himself he’d abandon it. It may have been the most fortuitous street-crossing since The Beatles’ “Abbey Road.”īack in 1998, director George Miller was walking across a Los Angeles intersection when an idea for a new “Mad Max” film struck him.īy the time he’d reached the middle of the street, he had a kernel of a story.