Mel Gibson to Return as ‘Mad Max,’ Report Says
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Mel Gibson will earn almost $25 million to return to the “Mad Max” franchise for a fourth time, Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety said in its Tuesday edition.
The $104 million project, called “Fury Road,” will start shooting in Australia next May. The project is set up at Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment Group Inc.
George Miller, who directed and co-wrote the first three films, will direct “Fury Road” from a script he has been crafting for the past three years, the paper said.
It did not reveal plot details other than to note that “Mad” Max Rockatansky will once again roam the lawless, post-apocalyptic Australian outback.
The “Mad Max” franchise kicked off in 1979, and was followed in 1981 by “Mad Max: The Road Warrior” and 1985 by “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.” Daily Variety noted that for all their iconic value, the trilogy grossed only $69 million at the U.S. box office.
Gibson, 46, whose films include the “Lethal Weapon” franchise, the Oscar-winning “Braveheart” and the comedy “What Women Want,” scored a big hit this year with the supernatural thriller “Signs.”
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