Twenty-four years on, Mel Gibson is to be paid $25 million to reprise the role of the post-apocalyptic road warrior that first made him famous.
In the 1979 film Mad Max he played a crazed ex-cop tearing through a post-nuclear wasteland seeking revenge for the murder of his family. The 46-year-old actor was almost unknown until the high-octane thriller exploded onto our screens, with some of cinema's most memorable car chases. Two sequels followed and Mel was confirmed as a major Hollywood star.
The new film, to be called Fury Road, has been written by George Miller who was also behind the first three instalments. While the plot is still a closely-guarded secret, it will no doubt involve Max Rockatansky speeding though the Australian outback dispensing his own vicious form of justice to anyone who gets in his way.
While the earlier films had a huge cult following, they performed less than spectacularly at the box office. It is expected that the latest instalment, to be co-produced by 20th Century Fox and Mel's own company Icon Productions, will be a slicker, more populist affair, however.
With the final Star Wars prequel due for release in 2003, Fox is hoping the return of "Mad Max" will fill the void left in its production schedule for another big-budget blockbuster.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
