Mad Max: Fury Road released this week into a heated climate of anticipation as fans, new and old alike, swarmed to theatres to soak up the resurrection of the cult hit. The minimalistic storytelling gave way to harrowing scenes, starkly beautiful, dystopian environments and emphasised the expertly crafted cinematography present throughout. Now, less than a week later, Mad Max creator and director George Miller has confirmed the sequel to the movie will be Mad Max: The Wasteland.
Details of Miller’s vision for the new Mad Max have been a matter of public knowledge for some time now. The movie was always intended to be the first installment of an upcoming trilogy. However, in a recent Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith , Miller divulged some explicit details of what to expect in the future of the series.
According to the man behind it all, work on both the second and third installments of the trilogy is already under way.
“We’ve got one screenplay [for the second] and a novella [for the third]. It happened because, with the delays [on Fury Road ] and writing all the backstories, they just expanded. [The second] is called The Wasteland .”
When pressed for further details regarding the storyboarding of upcoming titles, Miller laughed off the question with high spirits.
“I just finished this movie 12 days ago! I said to someone it’s like asking a woman who’s just given birth, ‘When are you having your next baby?”
The news comes as little surprise as the movie’s lead, Tom Hardy, confirmed having signed to reprise the character in the next two upcoming titles in an interview with Esquire back in April. It is, however, somewhat different to the details given by Miller back in 2011 when he originally disclosed the title of the sequel to be Mad Max: Furiosa after actor Charlize Theron’s character. The change in title is a hopeful illustration of how development on the project has matured over the past few years, although it isn’t clear whether or not the new title indicates a growth of, or change in plans for the second movie installment.
Mad Max: Fury Road smashed the box office opening weekend with a $45 million haul , reaching a phenomenal $109 million worldwide – an impressive feat for an R-rated cult hit, arguably older than the majority of fans seeing the movie in theaters today! Despite this, the movie’s box office top spot was quickly overtaken by Pitch Perfect 2 .
Only time will tell, though, if the movie will gross enough to not only cover the $150 million budget of production but warrant the development of the sequels the critical acclaim and near perfect review scores indicate we’re all thirsting for!
[Image credit: Warner Bros.]