Tales from Development Hell: Mad Max Fury Road
- cepmurphywrites
- 5 hours ago
- 8 min read
By Ryan Fleming.
Mad Max: Fury Road was released in May 2015. It was the fourth film in the Mad Max series, and the first without original leading man Mel Gibson.
Though it saw disappointing returns as far as the studio was concerned, it received critical acclaim, received ten nominations at the Academy Awards and won six of them, was critically acclaimed, making multiple top ten films that year, and later becoming reckoned as not only one of the best films of the 2010s, but also one of the best action films ever.
It was also released more than a decade late from when it originally entered production. The reason for its delay was far beyond the control of any Hollywood filmmaker.
Even at the time Fury Road entered pre-production, the Mad Max series had already been dormant for fifteen years. The interim had seen both star Mel Gibson and director George Miller go on to far bigger successes in Hollywood. The reason for the original interregnum was simply because Miller had already done three in the space of six years and wanted to move on to other things. He would go on to direct the commercially successful The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and the critically successful Lorenzo’s Oil (1992). He would also co-write and co-produce the commercially and critically successful Babe (1995), later directing the sequel Babe: Pig in the City (1998). Mad Max was never far from his mind, however, by his own admission he just kept pushing it from his mind.
The actual inception of Fury Road would come to him whilst crossing a street in Los Angeles, a situation always likely to bring to mind automotive carnage and destruction. The notion was a Mad Max film that was just one long chase and a conflict over a MacGuffin that was human as opposed to inanimate. So much was the emphasis on the action of the idea that Miller did not even bother starting with a screenplay, instead mapping out the film with storyboards to put the visuals of it first.
Gibson, for his part, found superstardom in Hollywood playing loose-cannon cop Martin Riggs in the buddy cop film Lethal Weapon (1987). It would be followed by three sequels, all of which saw Gibson return. He also began to step behind the camera, directing and starring in films starting with The Man Without a Face (1993). In 1995, he would star in, direct, and produce Braveheart (1995), which would go on to secure him both Best Picture and Best Director at the 68th Academy Awards. Babe would also be nominated for both those awards, so Gibson had actually won Best Picture the same year Miller was first nominated in that category. Seemingly there were no hard feelings, with no consideration given to recasting the role that originally made Gibson famous. Around that same time, he had played himself in the “Beyond Blunderdome” episode of The Simpsons, which ended with he and Simpson patriarch Homer taking a vehicle from Mad Max 2 (1981) (called The Road Warrior in the US) out of a museum and engaging in a car chase with Hollywood producers.
By the time Fury Road entered pre-production in the early 2000s, Mel Gibson would be starring and had even suggested the casting of the film’s female lead to a receptive Miller. Sigourney Weaver was apparently the front runner for the role, with Gibson recommending her to Miller, having worked with Weaver years before in the romantic drama The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Other actors were under consideration for the role that would become Imperator Furiosa in the 2015 film, with producer Doug Mitchell recalling Uma Thurman as one and Miller himself stating that Charlize Theron, who would go on to play the role, was talked about even back then. A screenplay had been completed by Nico Lathouris and comic artist Brendan McCarthy. The latter also contributed many character and vehicle designs for the film, being involved with the production at Miller’s request since the late 1990s. Location scouting was being done in Namibia, the first time that the series would have been filmed outside of its native Australia, and where the 2015 film would eventually be produced.
Pre-production was moving ahead, a star was secured, other offers being made, a script ready, a director ready. Mad Max: Fury Road was totally on track for its intended release.
Then, 9/11 happened.
Two explanations have been given as to why the plug was pulled, both as a direct result of 9/11. Surprisingly, given the themes and violence of the series, the content was not a factor in the decision. Since 2015, Miller has claimed the major factor was the collapse of US dollars against the Australian dollar, which caused their budget to inflate massively. Earlier reports would indicate that it was security concerns over filming in Namibia. The explanations are not mutually exclusive, so it could have easily been both – especially when production designer Colin Gibson recalls being present in Namibia in 2003, on the eve of the Iraq War, when he received both a phone call to stop spending money and an email from Robyn Moore (Mel Gibson’s then-wife) asking how many Muslims there were in the country.
It is around this same time that Miller recalls Heath Ledger being planned for the film, though whether as Max himself or as a supporting role is unknown. Both Miller and Gibson would soon move onto other films. Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ (2004) and Apocalypto (2006). 2006 also saw Gibson claim that Fury Road was not going to happen at all due to his advancing age. Miller, despite agreeing that Gibson was too long in the tooth for the role, still intended to make the fourth Mad Max film. He had also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet (2006), whilst Gibson’s films during the era only netted technical nominations and no wins.
Miller had to leave Fury Road behind to make Happy Feet, as the former was still in limbo whilst they had the digital space ready for the latter. His first foray into animation actually led to a brief off-piste idea for Fury Road, where it would be made as an R-rated animated feature inspired by Japanese anime. This was intended to be produced side-by-side with an action video game tie-in, with both being released in 2011 or 2012. This would be an even more radical change of pace for the series than recasting Mel Gibson, but certainly an interesting one to consider as a counterfactual. However, this idea was fleeting, since a mere few months after these reports it was being reported that location scouting was underway for a live-action production, returning to Australia.
Both the animated idea and the Australian location scouting were in 2009, with filming to begin in 2010. The same year, British actor Tom Hardy announced he would be playing Max, whilst Charlize Theron had been confirmed for another leading role. Miller was at this time saying that there would be two films done back-to-back: the long-awaited Fury Road, and Mad Max: Furiosa. The production suffered yet another setback when unusually heavy rains caused the desert locations scouted in New South Wales to become dotted with wildflowers. The earlier Namibian scouting wound up not going to waste, as production moved there in 2011, where, after a decade in limbo, it finally began filming. That production is just as interesting as its development, if not more so, but could not be done justice in this article. Kyle Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road chronicles the Namibian production.
Fury Road was finally released in 2015, to critical acclaim for its action, characters, and themes of survival, feminism and redemption. Miller’s proposed Furiosa film would eventually see life too, eventually released as Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), but despite its positive reception it would become a box office bomb.
It is maybe miraculous that Fury Road managed to be as well-received, commercially successful, and great given its tumultuous production. How would it have fared if it had been made earlier?
Before considering how Fury Road might have fared if released earlier, it’s worth remembering that there are at least three distinct versions of the film that could have been made. There’s the original live-action production in Namibia which would have featured Mel Gibson reprising the role, possibly opposite Sigourney Weaver in the role that would become Furiosa. There’s the anime inspired change in direction for the series proposed in 2009. Then there’s the version we did get in 2015 being filmed as expected in Australia about a year earlier. Each of these might have fared very differently from the 2015 film, and indeed from each other.
However, another item to consider is how much consistency there was between the films in terms of content. Brendan McCarthy, who was brought onto the project in the 1990s, and Nico Lathouris, who would turn in the original script with McCarthy, are the only screenwriters credited for the film along with Miller. This is not like some of the other films covered in these articles, like Indiana Jones 4, The Dark Tower, and Dune, that went through script after script after script. It is perhaps the constant presence of Miller and the lack of studio interference that created this consistency. So, whilst it might look incredibly different to the 2015 film, it would still have at its core the same themes and ideas that informed the version we got.
2015 was also the year the legacy sequel or “legacyquel” become a major trend, with Jurassic World, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Terminator Genisys released. The Force Awakens was the highest grossing film of the year; Jurassic World the second. What separates Fury Road from the rest is that it did not start out as an attempt to resurrect or cash-in on a dormant IP: it started out life as a film, pure and simple. That might have played a part in it finding an audience so receptive compared to the others, even if that did not translate to the commercial success of the top two films of the year. Would it have had the same reception if released in 2003 with Mel Gibson, 2011 as an animated film, or just a year or two earlier if filmed in Australia?
It is difficult to imagine the original vision being made due to the geopolitical situation that caused it to be put on hold. Maybe if it had already begun filming, but that is also possibly a nightmare scenario with an unhappy Gibson in Namibia as USD plummets against AUD. Imagining 9/11 does not happen, and leaving aside all the far more important questions about such a scenario, one can imagine Fury Road nonetheless having this weird feeling of an end of an era for the 80s action movie. This is Martin Riggs of Lethal Weapon and Ellen Ripley of Aliens teaming up in 2002. It could be seen as a well-made throwback, or a concept past its shelf life, or simply forgotten amongst The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Spider-Man and Star Wars prequels. It might quickly become a tinge uncomfortable if Mel Gibson’s film and personal lives follow the same trajectory. The animated version might struggle by virtue of being animated in the first place, and maybe audiences would see it as a spin-off rather than a sequel. The Australian filmed version with Hardy and Theron might still be well-received, but it might stand out less, not seen as one of the greatest action films ever made.
As intriguing as they might be, any version of Fury Road released other than the one we received might be a lesser version. Not through any fault of their own, but just not being the right film at the exact right time. Ironically, a crowded field may have helped Fury Road stand out through sheer quality. Whilst The Force Awakens and Jurassic World offered nothing but nostalgia for films audiences used to like, whilst Terminator Genisys rushed production in order to squeeze two films in before the rights were lost in 2015, Fury Road started out as a high concept idea that just happened to be a sequel and never lost that during all its years in hibernation.
There’s a bittersweet element to our enjoyment of Fury Road, it represents a way of making films that was already a thing of the past when it was released. With it, George Miller showed us what we could have won.
Ryan Fleming is the author of SLP's Reid in Braid and various short stories for the anthologies, as well as editing The Scottish Anthology.