Mad Max: Fury Road

 is a 2015 post-apocalyptic action film directed and produced by George Miller, and written by Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. The fourth installment in the Mad Max franchise, the film is set in a future desert wasteland where gasoline and water are scarce commodities. It follows Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), who joins forces with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) to flee from cult leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and his army in an armored tanker truck, which leads to a lengthy road battle.

Cast

 * Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky/Mad Max
 * Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa
 * Nicholas Hoult as Nux
 * Zoë Kravitz as Toast
 * Abbey Lee as The Dag
 * Riley Keough as Capable
 * Courtney Eaton as Fragile
 * Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe
 * Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus
 * Josh Helman as Slit
 * Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Splendid
 * Jennifer Hagan as Miss Giddy
 * Angus Sampson as the Organic Mechanic
 * Richard Carter as the Bullet Farmer
 * Iota as Coma-Doof Warrior

Development
Plans for the fourth film of the Mad Max series hit financial difficulties and the project spent around 25 years in "development hell". George Miller announced in 2003 that a script had been written for a fourth film, and that pre-production was in the early stages.[2] Although the project was given the green light for a $100 million USD budget to begin filming in Australia in May 2003, Mad Max 4 entered hiatus due to security concerns related to trying to film in Namibia because the United States and many other countries had tightened travel and shipping restrictions. With the outbreak of the Iraq War, Mad Max 4 was abandoned as it was considered a potentially politically sensitive film. Mel Gibson was interested in returning for the film, but lost interest after 2000.[citation needed]

In November 2006, George Miller stated that he had intended to make Fury Road, and considered doing the film without Mel Gibson, saying, “There's a real hope. The last thing I wanted to do is another Mad Max, but this script came along, and I'm completely carried away with it."[3][4] The film's screenplay was co-written with cult British comic creator Brendan McCarthy, who also designed many of the new characters and vehicles.

Miller again confirmed his intention to make another Mad Max at the 2007 Aurora film maker initiative. However, he did say he thought Mel Gibson would not be interested in the film because of his age.[5][6]

On March 5, 2009, it was announced that an R-rated 3D animated feature film was in pre-production taking much of the plot from Fury Road,[7] although Mel Gibson would not feature as a voice talent and Miller was looking for a "different route", a "renaissance" of the franchise. Miller cited the film Akira as an inspiration for what he wanted to do with the franchise. George Miller was also developing an action-adventure tie-in video game based on the fourth film, along with God of War II video game designer Cory Barlog. Both projects were expected to take 2 to 2½ years, according to Miller, with a release date in either 2011 or 2012. The upcoming Fury Road film was going to be produced at Dr.D Studios, a digital art studios founded in 2008 by George Miller and Doug Mitchell.

On May 18, 2009, however, it was reported that location scouting was underway for a new live action filming of Mad Max 4. After exploring the possibility of an animated 3D-film, George Miller decided instead to shoot a 3D live action film, at which point plans to make the film animated were immediately dropped, and by May 2009, location scouting for the Mad Max sequel had begun. Australian press said in May 2009: "MAD [sic] Max is revving up for a long-awaited return to the big screen, almost 25 years after Tina Turner ran Mel Gibson out of Bartertown. Director George Miller is gearing up to shoot the fourth film in the ground-breaking Aussie road warrior franchise, industry sources say. Scouting for locations is under way for the movie, which many thought would never get off the ground. It could go into production later this year."[8]

In October 2009, Miller announced that that filming of Fury Road would commence at Broken Hill, New South Wales in early 2011,[9] ending years of speculation. This announcement attracted widespread media attention in Australia, with the popular speculation at that time on whether Mel Gibson would return as Max,[10] even though this had previously been considered unlikely. That same month, British actor Tom Hardy was in negotiations to take the lead role of Max, and Charlize Theron will also play a major role. The plot will be set shortly after the events of Beyond Thunderdome.[11] In June 2010, Hardy announced on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that he would play the title role in a new version of Mad Max.[12] Miller would shoot two Mad Max films back-to-back, Mad Max: Fury Road and Mad Max: Furiosa.[13]

In November 2011, filming was moved from Broken Hill to Namibia, after unexpected heavy rains turned the desert there into a lush landscape of wildflowers, inappropriate for the look of the movie.[14] Mel Gibson will make a cameo appearance as a character called "Drifter".[15]

Production
Filming finally began in July 2012 in Namibia, more than eighteen months late. The filming wrapped on December 17, over-budget and with studio Warner Bros having sent out an executive to put things back on track. Miller announced that they would be returning to Namibia for pick-ups in early 2013 and the rest of the year would be taken up by CGI work and the conversion to 3D before a Christmas or New Year release.

In February 2013, the Namibian Coast Conservation and Management group accused the producers of damaging parts of the Namib Desert, endangering a number of plant and animal species. [16][17]