Miller confirms restart next year

[biolumen]

Also says he's written a huge backstory that will be filled out by anime, games and whatnot.

Maxed out on bad weather

Sacha Molitorisz and Garry Maddox
March 2, 2011

The black leather, the V8 Interceptor, the dog. Movie fans will know that can only mean Mad Max. While rain in the outback continues to delay filming on the fourth instalment at Broken Hill, plans are under way for Mad Max 3.5. The Oscar-winning director George Miller is taking advantage of the postponement by putting Max into Japanese-style short films and videogames. ''Because we've been working on Mad Max so long, we've written lots and lots of back stories,'' Miller tells The Diary. ''Some of those will be applied to games, others to anime and so on.'' All the rain in rural NSW in recent months - great for farmers but bad news for a filmmaker wanting a post-apocalyptic landscape - delayed plans to shoot Fury Road around Broken Hill last year. It now looks like pre-production will get under way late this year at the earliest, with filming early next year. ''If we can't get our locations, we're going to have to go elsewhere but there's still a year to go,'' Miller says. Despite the delays, the director says the movie is a definite goer, with backing from Warner Bros and Tom Hardy from Inception as Max. The same Hollywood studio is also backing Miller's Happy Feet 2, currently in production in Sydney, and Baz Luhrmann'sThe Great Gatsby, which will bring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan here soon. Says Miller: ''Had we started shooting - it did actually flood in Broken Hill around the time we would have been shooting - it would have been a real disaster for the movie.''

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nationa ... 1beve.html

[biolumen]

Here's another article. It appears Hardy is still locked for Max.

Fury Road is on a slow simmer

Vicky Roach From: The Daily Telegraph March 03, 2011 12:00AM

Not even a flood of biblical proportions is enough to halt Mad Max's relentless quest for vengeance.

Director George Miller said that Fury Road, the fourth instalment in his groundbreaking Australian franchise, had not been jeopardised by extended delays caused by extreme weather patterns.

"We've built the vehicles. We've designed the movie. The principal cast is locked in. The film is funded. It's all ready to go. We just wait," Miller said yesterday in Sydney, where he is currently in production on Happy Feet 2.

The filmmaker was to have started filming Mad Max: Fury Road in Broken Hill in January -- until heavy rain broke a decade-long drought, turning the apocalyptic landscape into a flower garden.

Since then, the weather conditions have become even less film friendly.

"Ironically, had we been shooting in Broken Hill in January and February -- when we were meant to -- we would have been flooded out," Miller said.

There has been plenty of industry and online speculation that the continuing delays might eventually cripple the big-budget production, especially in light of the strong Australian dollar, which has already killed off Australia as a location for some other major US-financed productions such as The Green Lantern.

An earlier attempt at a fourth Mad Max film -- which was to have been shot overseas -- also fell over at the 11th hour.

But while the man who will play Mad Max -- British actor Tom Hardy -- has signed up for the new Batman film in the interim, his production schedule still leaves room for a trip to Australia next year.

Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer are also attached to the project.

"All the contracts are signed. It's a locked-in film. It has been for 18 months now," Miller said.

The NSW filmmaker said he and Warner Bros, the studio with which he is also working on Happy Feet 2, had agreed to a 12-month delay.

"We will restart pre-production later this year and begin early next year -- weather permitting," he said.

"It also gives me a chance to get Happy Feet really going well -- so there were a lot of factors in the decision. But the big one was that we really had nowhere to shoot."

Miller said a similarly unexpected deluge interrupted production on the second Mad Max film -- the first to be shot in Broken Hill.

"The week we were to start, it rained the heaviest it had in 10 years. I'll never forget the first day -- we were holed up in a big sort of shed watching the rain. We couldn't shoot. If you want the rain to come, just send a film crew there."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/fury-r ... 6014922147

[biolumen]

This Financial Review article hints that pre-production restarts in October. Can't read the article, though. Subscribers only.

http://afr.com/p/national/road_warrior_ ... FDsKDmOoBJ

[Stef-Man]

Also says he's written a huge backstory that will be filled out by anime, games and whatnot.

Maxed out on bad weather

Sacha Molitorisz and Garry Maddox
March 2, 2011

The black leather, the V8 Interceptor, the dog. Movie fans will know that can only mean Mad Max. While rain in the outback continues to delay filming on the fourth instalment at Broken Hill, plans are under way for Mad Max 3.5. The Oscar-winning director George Miller is taking advantage of the postponement by putting Max into Japanese-style short films and videogames. ''Because we've been working on Mad Max so long, we've written lots and lots of back stories,'' Miller tells The Diary. ''Some of those will be applied to games, others to anime and so on.'' All the rain in rural NSW in recent months - great for farmers but bad news for a filmmaker wanting a post-apocalyptic landscape - delayed plans to shoot Fury Road around Broken Hill last year. It now looks like pre-production will get under way late this year at the earliest, with filming early next year. ''If we can't get our locations, we're going to have to go elsewhere but there's still a year to go,'' Miller says. Despite the delays, the director says the movie is a definite goer, with backing from Warner Bros and Tom Hardy from Inception as Max. The same Hollywood studio is also backing Miller's Happy Feet 2, currently in production in Sydney, and Baz Luhrmann'sThe Great Gatsby, which will bring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan here soon. Says Miller: ''Had we started shooting - it did actually flood in Broken Hill around the time we would have been shooting - it would have been a real disaster for the movie.''

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nationa ... 1beve.html

This is great news! I want more than a single movie. I'm OK with the idea of a Mad Max 3.5 (or 2.5) universe. Matrix did it with the prequel animes before Reloaded. I hope George Miller is currently writting some Animad Max as short movies...

[biolumen]

More than 800 people will be employed during production and filming of the new Mad Max.

Pre-production will begin next month followed by 17 weeks of filming in early 2012 and 30 weeks of postproduction.

http://www.bdtruth.com.au/index.php?news&article=1624

Pre-prod starts next month? Hard to believe.

Also, 17 weeks of filming is a lot less than the 9 months Hardy told us last year. Are we back to one film now?

[Morrisminor]

From if.com.au...

Mad Max Fury Road production signs lease at new Broken Hill studios
[Tue 08/03/2011 10:59:02]

By Brendan Swift

Kennedy Miller Mitchell has signed a two-year lease with the new Broken Hill Film Studio, where the bulk of production on Mad Max: Fury Road will be completed.
Broken Hill mayor Wincen Cuy said the deal would help build a sustainable future for the Broken Hill region and the Australian film industry.

“It is envisaged that once fully developed, the combined film studio and precinct will generate over 10 years an estimated $167 million in indirect benefits to Broken Hill with an average of 161 fulltime time equivalent jobs per annum,” Mayor Cuy said.

“This is in addition to the $700,000 a year that is already spent by film and media production companies in Broken Hill. During the past five years, a new film and media production has opened in Broken Hill around every three weeks and since 1982, well over 300 new film and media productions have been shot in and around Broken Hill."

Mad Max: Fury Road was first officially announced in October 2009 but production has been delayed several times, reportedly due to unseasonal weather in the region. Other sources have said Warner Bros delayed the production because the studio preferred director George Miller to complete Happy Feet 2, which is scheduled for release this December.

The NSW Government has spent an undisclosed portion of $25 million in production incentives on the Mad Max: Fury Road production. The film was originally expected to employ 540 cast and crew in NSW, with filming stretching over 30 weeks in Broken Hill.

The two-year lease agreement includes an extension clause for further tenancy by Kennedy Miller Mitchell if required.

Mayor Cuy also said that there were a number of ongoing negotiations with production houses and education providers about future use of the film studio precinct.

http://if.com.au/2011/03/08/article/Mad ... APEDE.html

[biolumen]

The if.com article has been updated with the following.

The $10 million studio complex, built on a former Central Power Station Site, was ready for the production in November last year, when Fury Road was originally slated to be filmed in the mining town. Filming is now expected to begin around August after several delays, according to Broken Hill mayor Wincen Cuy.

"We're happy to know we've got a long term tenant there ... and we're looking forward to the production coming to town later this year," he said.

The two-year lease agreement includes an extension clause for a third year if the production company requires it.

I assume the mayor meant that pre-production will begin around August, since Miller just said last week that filming will commence early next year, 'weather permitting'. As for the third year extension clause, I'm guessing that's in the event the weather does not cooperate next year and there's yet another delay.

[Stef-Man]

Also says he's written a huge backstory that will be filled out by anime, games and whatnot.

Maxed out on bad weather

Sacha Molitorisz and Garry Maddox
March 2, 2011

The black leather, the V8 Interceptor, the dog. Movie fans will know that can only mean Mad Max. While rain in the outback continues to delay filming on the fourth instalment at Broken Hill, plans are under way for Mad Max 3.5. The Oscar-winning director George Miller is taking advantage of the postponement by putting Max into Japanese-style short films and videogames. ''Because we've been working on Mad Max so long, we've written lots and lots of back stories,'' Miller tells The Diary. ''Some of those will be applied to games, others to anime and so on.''

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nationa ... 1beve.html

One example to come in my mind is the Dead Space videogame franchise... It will be cool if this huge backstory from Fury Road follows the same model: with dtv movies and/or short films, prequel videogame maybe and, why not?, another game to bridge Fury Road and Mad Max 5 Avalanche, the sweden studio, is currently working on the Fury Road game. I imagine that the new KMM videogame studio currently establishing in Sydney will work on those furthers games set in this post-apo universe. It'll be really great to be a Mad Max fan in those entertaining next years!

[biolumen]

It looks certain that Fury Road will be released in 2013 given that the accompanying game being developed by Avalanche Studios is set for release in 2013. At least that's how I interpret the following.

Avalanche Studios working on two big retail games for 2013 release
Posted Mar 30th 2011 6:00PM by John Callaham

Avalanche Studios may have just announced a new downloadable only action game, Renegade Ops, but that doesn't mean that the Sweden-based game developer has abandoned making big AAA retail game titles. Speaking to Eurogamer, Avalanche's founder Christofer Sundberg states, "We are not finished with traditional boxed retail games by far. We have two huge licenses that we work on to be released in 2013."

The report speculates that one of those games could be an adaptation of the upcoming fourth film in the Mad Max series but Sundberg would not confirm that.

http://news.bigdownload.com/2011/03/30/ ... 013-relea/

Source

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... st-cause-3

[biolumen]

http://blogs.abc.net.au/files/afd-mille ... r-blog.mp3