Mad Max: Fury Road Reveals New Photos And Unusual Production Details
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George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, his return to the post-apocalyptic wastes he first explored in 1979, doesn’t open for another ten months—seriously, you could have a baby between now and when the movie finally opens on May 15, 2015—but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start getting stoked. Initial filming wrapped up multiple years ago, after numerous delays, including flooding that basically wiped a location completely off the map. But ahead of San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, Warner Bros. is pumping their film for all it’s worth, including two grim new photos.
Coming from a recent issue of EW, these two stills paint a grim looking picture, which, considering the world of the previous three films—Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Beyond Thunderdome—that’s exactly what you expect, and exactly what we want out of this movie.
This first photo gives you a good look at both Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and her badass post-apocalyptic rig. If you’re out on a cross country jaunt after the collapse of civilization, pursued across the desolate, arid wastelands by a bunch of bad men, you’re going to want a big, rough and tumble ride, and this certainly fits the bill. You could run through walls behind the wheel of this thing, and they will probably have to break through some kind of barricade, or many, over the course of the movie. They might damage some of the human skulls stuck to the front, but when it comes to survival, that’s a small price to pay.
We’ve seen close ups of her before, but this reinforces just how awesome Theron looks in this role. With a shaved head and a mechanical arm, this is obviously not someone to be trifled with. You can tell just by looking at her that Furiosa is a person who has been through some shit and made it out the other side with stories to tell. I can’t wait to see people cosplaying her at cons.
Fury Road tells the story of a “world of blood and fire,” and the adventures of two rebels Furiosa and Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy taking over the role that made Mel Gibson a global superstar), a man of few words after the death of his wife and child. Together they lead a band across the desert because she believes that if they can just make it back to her childhood homeland, everything will be okay and they’ll be able to survive. But first they have to get there in one piece.
From what we’ve heard, the entire movie is essentially one long chase scene full of practical effects where they wreck up hundreds of actual cars. That sounds perfect, but if this second picture is any indication, this is not going be an easy trek. You wouldn’t expect anything to be that quick and simple, would you? When your hero winds up beaten and strapped to the front of a vehicle blasting across the sun-scorched desert, wearing some sort of improvised Hannibal Lecter mask, being abused by some crazy-looking psychopath, you’re in for rough time.
Some new details also came to light, like how the exhausting shoot in the Namibian desert, which lasted for 116 long days, filmed everything in order. This isn’t something that happens all that often anymore, and probably added to the already extensive budget. Also, there wasn’t a detailed script during filming. While that sounds risky, we’re talking about an action heavy story and a protagonist who is a functional mute, so it isn’t that outlandish. Miller and company also had a collection of incredibly detailed, comprehensive storyboards which he used in lieu of a traditional screenplay.
The more we see from Mad Max: Fury Road, the more excited we get. And we’re on the lookout, too, because Warner has some big reveals planned for Comic-Con this weekend, planning to screen new footage.
