On the Road Again: Mad Max 4 hits the Highways

In recent weeks some mixed news has come my way, some that I feel deserves my attention.

And that is the recent announcement of Mad Max 4: Fury Road which is now to be made in Broken Hill, NSW ironically enough where 1981’s Mad Max 2 was shot, so having this series to do its principal photography in its native land is fantastic news.

But what is not so fantastic are the rumored casting choices of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, as an Australian who loves this series (well, the first two in the series anyway and to give you a sense of how much, the only thing stopping them from reaching the top of my favorites list is the Star Wars Trilogy) I feel very strongly that it should be headlined by Australian actors, Hardy was born in England and Theron in South Africa, now I have nothing against them at all but to me this wreaks of the possibly similar decision to cast Tina Turner in the previous film, which I’m sure was made to “appeal the series to international viewers.”

WTF, seriously, this series needs no such appeal nor in my eyes does it need to be made to please them before us, WE’RE the ones that gave them this series and it shouldn’t be dumbed down once more in favor of international box office, the first two Mad Max movies didn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars, shit they didn’t even have tens of millions of dollars but what they had were raw, savage, kinetic guts and an all Australian cast but guess what, they made shit loads of money regardless and made a star of Mel Gibson, as well as his director George Miller.

But look, I could be wrong and it could be a good film despite those obstacles and I’m certain to go check it out when it hits cinemas but so far it’s not off to a good start and as someone who loves MM 1 and 2 so much, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.