With more than 130 signature (i.e. crazy) vehicles built and some minor sequences already shot, things were looking good for the planned 2011 shoot of the long-awaited "Mad Max: Fury Road" until it became "Mad Max: Wet & Soggy Road" with the arrival of rain in the Broken Hill Region of New South Wales, Australia.
The serious rainstorms turned the production's specially chosen barren wasteland into a Garden of Eden bursting with flowers –not exactly an appropriate setting for leather-clad S&M motorcycle mutants who murder for gasoline.
We thought this might spell the end for Max's return to nitro-fueled mayhem, but according to director/creator/mad genius Dr. George Miller (via The Daily Telegraph) the plan to restart the ready-to-go production (weather permitting) is still a "go" at Warner Bros., who have agreed to pick up on pre-production later this year for a Jan. 2012 shoot.
Not one to twiddle his thumbs, Mel Gibson-replacement Tom Hardy is biding his time playing a Bane to Batman in "The Dark Knight Rises," while Charlize Theron tries not to get acid-blood on her during Ridley Scott's "Alien" revisit "Prometheus." Both of them are still reportedly locked-in to lead the charge down Miller's "Fury Road," but the lovely Teresa Palmer from this week's "Take Me Home Tonight" (check out our exclusive chat!) has unfortunately had to bow out of the chance to shoot in her native Australia.
In comments to The Playlist, Palmer said, "I was in negotiations for that movie for a while but then I had 'I Am Number Four' come up and then 'Mad Max' went on hiatus so no I’m not involved in it at the moment."
Other stars such as Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz and Adelaide Clemens have yet to confirm or deny if they're still attached to the fourth installment in the hyperviolent post-apocalyptic series, which had previously geared-up in 2002 with a pre-disgrace Gibson and pre-non-disgrace Robert Downey Jr. before it was also scrapped.
