Mel Gibson Returning As Mad Max In 'Fury Road'

MTV.com ^ | 12/10/02

[Brett66]

Mel Gibson Returning As Mad Max In 'Fury Road'

When Mel Gibson returns to Australia in May, he'll find the post-apocalyptic wasteland he remembers from the '70s and '80s. That's because he'll be shooting "Fury Road," the fourth installment of the "Mad Max" franchise he hasn't visited since 1985's "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."

Before the big Hollywood gloss of "Signs," "What Women Want" and the string of "Lethal Weapon" movies, there was the gritty "Mad Max." Set in a not-too-distant future ravaged by major turmoil and populated by bandits roaming the wastelands in search of precious gasoline, the cult 1979 flick became a favorite of punk rockers and fantasy film fans alike. It also went a long to way establish Gibson, who played reluctant antihero "Mad" Max Rockatansky.

But it was with the 1981 sequel "The Road Warrior" that Gibson really started to shine. Gibson battled mohawked and hockey-masked bad guys with an even more striking combination of machismo and pathos in his second turn as the forlorn title character, a man doomed to wander the barren outback of the future.

In 1985, just two years before the first "Lethal Weapon" movie, Gibson returned to the "Mad Max" series for the bigger, louder and shinier "Beyond Thunderdome," this time starring opposite Tina Turner. The movie was received with mixed reactions from hardcore fans, but the public at large embraced it with open arms. It also spawned the Turner hit "We Don't Need Another Hero."

"Mad Max" creator George Miller, who directed and co-wrote the first three films, will also tackle "Fury Road." Twentieth Century Fox is putting more than $100 million into the project, close to $25 million of which will reportedly go into Gibson's pocket.

[RogueIsland]

Cool. I hope it's better than Beyond Thunderdome. I loved the first two.

[guitfiddlist]

Maybe we can hope for a scene where he mows down 100 idiots at Hollywood and Vine signing a letter protesting post-apocalypse violence.

[LibWhacker]

Me too. But note that's when the Aussies were handling it. Thunderdome was nowhere close in it's production values, imo.

[Republic of Texas]

"I thought 'e was dead?"

[Centurion2000]

Kewl .... this should be the movie where he runs into the Great Northern Tribe mentioned in Road Warrior.

[livius]

'oo?

Mel Gibson is alive and well, and as for Mad Max, everybody knows that series characters never die. There's always the prequel, when all else fails....

[LibWhacker]

He can't!

The juice, the precious juice, was hidden in the vehicles. As for me, I grew to manhood. In the fullness of time, I became the leader, the chief of the Great Northern Tribe. And the Road Warrior? That was the last we ever saw of him. He lives now only in my memories.

[Centurion2000]

Damn .. that's right .... so who's day is he going to ruin ? Or is it going to be a prequel to Mad Max showing modern day footage of the ME geting nuked out of existence?

[Brett66]

He'll just show up after the boy made that statement. That's easy to write around.

[Long Cut]

COOL! I hope the great cars from the first one make a comeback. Mad Max was a gearhead's dream...

[Tribune7]

He was alive at the end of Thunderdome.

[LibWhacker]

Then he'll have to show up as a very old codger. :-)

Remember, The Road Warrior was a narrative with the "boy" -- whose life was fading and vision dimming -- telling the story.

[Cicero]

Thunderdome was lousy. But I'm ready for the next one if it's anything like the first two.

[Tennessee_Bob]

You just made my day - awesome, absolutely awesome.

[Paul Atreides]

One of Thunderdome's many problems was trying to be Spielberg-esque by putting all of the kids in the movie. A lot of it degenerated into slapstick that didn't come off well. Another problem was putting a rock star in as a lead. It didn't have the same feel as the prior two movies. It was all too cutesy.

[El Gato]

Before the big Hollywood gloss of "Signs," "What Women Want" and the string of "Lethal Weapon" movies, there was the gritty "Mad Max."

Notice how they don't even mention "Braveheart", "The Patriot", or "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young". Wouldn't be politically correct I guess. Typical of MTV.

[Billthedrill]

In '81 the Road Warrior cast would have been arrested in any major city just for standing there. In '02 I've seen high school classes looking nastier...heck, junior high...and we're talking the girls here...

[Mr. Thorne]

Last of the V8 Interceptors!