New Mad Max Film

IceDiver writes "According to Google News Mel Gibson has signed up for a new Mad Max film "Fury Road". His salary? A whopping $25,000,000.00 Apparently the script has been in the works for 3 years and is highly polished. As a big fan of all 3 Mad Max films, I am looking forward to this one! "

Comments

sheesh

[frieked]

and I thought he was too old for the last lethal weapon.

Re:sheesh

[Reality Master 101]

I was tempted to agree with you, but actually dude is younger than you might think. He's only 46. Not like, say, Harrison Ford who is 60.

Re:sheesh

[frieked]

Gonna disagree with me eh?

That's it... 2 men enter, 1 man leave
me and you buddy :p

Re:sheesh

[SEWilco]

I look forward to seeing how the special effects which can make dinosaurs run will work in making Max Mad again.

Re:sheesh

[buzzdecafe]

I agree, Mel's a little old to be playing Mad Max, unless that is the point of the story. There are plenty of other good Aussie stars who could carry off the role of the younger Max: Guy Pearce, Hugh Jackman, even Russell Crowe. But I'll probably see this flick, just because Road Warrior is such a good film.

Re:sheesh

[thesophist]

Great! In 20 years we will have Mad Max X: Wheelchair Warrior to look forward to...

Re:sheesh

[La.swamprat]

Then Mad Max XI: Beyond the Nursing Home

Re:sheesh

[carpe_noctem]

Bah, I was at Wendy's the other day with Mel Gibson and I saw the clerk give him 10% off!!

Re:sheesh

[guzzirider]

I am waiting for the "In Soviet Russia.." post ...

After that K-19 movie er-a accent tragedy.

Re:sheesh

[outsider007]

You're never too old to make $25,000,000.
I'm changing my sig in honor of mel.

Re:sheesh

[kin_korn_karn]

where did the whole "In Soviet Russia" thing come from, anyway?

Re:sheesh

[vsprintf]

Then Mad Max XI: Beyond the Nursing Home

How about Mad Max Beyond the Balding Dome? I'm not dissing Gibson. I'm a big Mad Max fan. I saw the first one as soon as it came out (hot rod AMXs were pretty funny in the US at the time). But really, Mel and I are of the age we need to drive something a little more conservative - like a beige hummer (or a Suburban, the true urban assault vehicle).

Re:sheesh

[Keebler71]

Three Mad Max films? Damn, I had tried to repress Thunderdome. Damn you Slashdot!!!

Re:sheesh

[dirkdidit]

It came from the user appropriately titled, "IN SOVIET RUSSIA."

His jokes of late have fallen flat.
In Soviet Russian, Film Mad Maxes you! Sorry couldn't help it. :)

Re:sheesh

[Phil Wilkins]

Jakov Smirnoff

Re:sheesh

[Gantoris]

...e younger Max: Guy Pearce, Hugh Jac

I just had a mental image of Guy Pearce in drag begind the wheel of a Mad Max style car, very strange. :p

Re:sheesh

[filekutter]

Well, like all sequels (LOTR 2 is not a sequel) I"m sure this one will suk... Flatulent Dome was horrible drivel. unless it's really violent, and no goody two shoes like Road warrior. Best part of that one was the first ten minutes... :) The world after the holocaust should be grim, and scary, not peopled with old hippies... LOL!

Re:sheesh

[kubrick]

As an Australian myself, I just thought I'd check using IMDB... I think it's interesting that from Mel, Guy, Russell and Hugh, only Hugh Jackman was actually born in Australia, with all of the others moving here as children. Does this say something about the alienating experience that moving to Australia must be?

Re:sheesh

[cskoien]

The movie better not be dubbed into "American English" prior to release over in the states, like the first Mad Max. Australian english isn't that bloody hard to understand! Hands up whose seen the original Aussie version?

Re:sheesh

[redshift-systems]

He could always do a Priscilla Queen of the Desert - style Mad Max. Maybe call it "Irate Irene". Actually, I think Mel Gibson is improving as an actor with age, so we might be in for a darker, more brooding and introspective Mad Max 4. Surely by now his thirst for revenge will have been quenched, maybe now he can go on to rule the new world.

Re:sheesh

[DrMaurer]

See, because of this, the possiblities are really interesting.

I really liked that last Clint Eastwood western movie, I forgot which one it was, but Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman were in it, too, IIRC. The concept of the old guy still humping along and getting a little slower is really interesting.

Maybe, then again, I read Stephen King's Dark Tower series too much. I totally could direct that as a movie. (If I could get the money! I could even put Mr. King in the movie in a less than his usual annoying fashion, just kill him in Tull.)

Re:sheesh

[Reality Master 101]

I realize it's not the popular or cool thing to criticize SUVs,

Huh??? I don't know what world you're living in, but in my world it's oh-so-trendy to bash SUVs.

Personally, I like weight. Lots and lots of weight.

Re:sheesh

[Alan Partridge]

I hope your 3 tonne SUV gets smashed by an 18 tonne truck. Your pitiful chromed bull bars won't save your useless life. Get a real car you jackass.

Re:sheesh

[PyroMosh]

Personally, I like weight. Lots and lots of weight.

Why? The weight doesn't make you any safer. In fact it makes you less safe. In a car with a low mass and a low center of gravity, you handle better. Hence, you'll be more likely to avoid an accident by stopping quicker or by an evasive maneuver.

People think weight gives you extra safety in a crash. This is true if you're hitting something that doesn't have enough mass, or inertia to stop your tank, like a small tree. It'll slow down your vehicle and not stop it completely, therefor less force will be applied to you. But factor in modern crumple zones, and this is negated. And then consider that anything that will stop you, well, you're no better off with all your weight. Also factor that the majority of collisions involve multiple vehicles. And in that instance, heavy vehicles are a more dangerous. The energy of a 6000 Lb tank @ 50 MPH > the energy of a 3000 Lb commuter car @ 50 MPH. When the two hit, all that energy goes into the crash. And it makes the crash worse for both vehicles.

I had a Blazer once (a full sized K5, not one of these little pretend SUVs that call themselves blazers now). I used it on the weekends for off roading, and I used it when I went on missions with the Search And Rescue unit I used to work with. Off the road it was a great truck, it sat 4 and all the gear we carried, only ever got stuck once. But on the road, the damn thing was a menace. I managed to spin it twice. Once because of deer, the other time because I got cut off on an interstate full of traffic.

To make a car handle better, (or stop shorter, or accelerate quicker) you LOWER it's mass, and LOWER it's center of gravity. Give it more rubber in contact with the ground helps as do tighter springs.

But with the exception of tires, SUVs are all moving AWAY from all of these objectives! They're getting heavier, they're getting bigger, and taller, they're getting softer suspensions.

Four months ago I was driving down 295 South going toward Philly. On the way I spotted something I'd never seen before in my rear view. A Z06. Brand New. Millennium Yellow. The ultimate sports car. Being DRIVEN.

DRIVEN! HARD.

Conditions were clear, nowhere for a cop to hide, and the guy was hauling. I slam on the gas, and let off a couple miles an hour from where my speed governor is. The guy's like 2000 Ft ahead of me and he's holding his distance. He's weaving through traffic, and I don't want to be too much of a dick, so I slow down. Besides, I know my car trying to keep up with him is ridiculous anyway. The guy's pulling away fast now and like I said, I'm near my speed governor at 108.

5 minutes later I see a smoking thing on the median grass about half a mile ahead. I pull over and see that it's the bottom of a car staring at me, it's rear wheels still spinning, and I get out to see if I can help.

I expected it to be the vette. I really did. He must have been doing 130 when I last saw him. And he was driving like an asshole (and having a world of fun in the process, I'm sure), not 5 under the limit like most vette drivers I see.

It wasn't though, it was an SUV. A 2002 Chevy Trailblazer to be specific. They got clipped by a black sedan, (they said Mercedes or BMW, I forget which now) and you could see the black paint where it had clipped them. The impact put them into a spin and they wound up on the grass median. Once on the grass, they rolled. A car wouldn't have rolled. And (I'm guessing on the force here, since the sedan didn't spin) most cars wouldn't have spun either.

Fortunately, both occupants lived. It rolled once, then settled on the driver's side. The driver was out when I got there, and another guy that stopped at the same time as me was already tending to her (her face was pretty bloody) I pulled the passenger out of the sun roof, (he had his seat belt on and at the angle he was hanging at, he had trouble reaching it himself (he was a large fellow)) he had some scrapes and a nasty looking bruise on his head, but otherwise seemed okay.

This kind of thing happens all the time. There's a reason that the guy going 130 in the vette probably still has it and the 60 year old grandfather who was going to pick up his grandkids with his daughter doesn't have his Trailblazer today. Same day, same road, (long, flat, boring, same conditions. One car was built to handle the road. The other, not only wasn't built to handle the road, but it was later hacked and modified to iron out some of the quirks of it's truck like heritage. And it became more dangerous on the road and less useful off of the road because of it!

I'm not saying I condone the way that the Vette guy was driving (nor all the fun I was having trying to keep up). That's not safe either. (yeah, I'm a hypocrite) But more weight != a safer vehicle. Not unless your such a bad driver that you shouldn't be on the road anyway. And then that safety will probably come at the expense of someone else's safety.

I don't know about you, but I'd much rather avoid accidents (though, of course I still want to have crumple zones and airbags, etc in case they do happen) then just simply walk away from one.

Re:sheesh

[Reality Master 101]

All you've proven with all of that is if you don't know how to drive large vehicles, then you can roll the vehicle. If you don't drive them like a sports car, they're not going to roll in normal conditions.

As for your story about an SUV getting clipped, etc, that sounds a lot like someone saying, "I never wear seat belts, because what if I went off the road into a lake? I would be a dead man!" Sure, that's one scenerio ... but the odds of a seat belt saving you are are much higher than a seat belt killing you. I look at weight the same way. You're much more likely to be involved in a collision (rear-ender, most likely) than a spin off the road or a rolling accident. And if I have some jackass drunk driver like your sports car driver plowing into my family, I want to make sure it's my family coming out alive, not the drunk.

Re:sheesh

[Shodan114]

Hey, we don't know how Gibson's age will be integrated into the script. No one says he's gonna be playing a 20 years old Mad Max, as far as we know it's a completely different, still tough as nails but older (and wiser?) Mad Max raising havoc on screen. I think Gibson's age really is the last of our worries. The Mad Max series have always been a personal favorite of mine - I must admit I have a certain liking to post-apocalyptic settings (in movies, video gaming, etc). So if they ruin the series, a certain user by the name of Shodan114 is going to be very, very pissed.

Re:sheesh

[Shodan114]

That movie is The Unforgiven, and what is IMHO Eastwood's best western movie. *dodges various items tossed at him*

Re:sheesh

[vsprintf]

Please tell me you're joking about the Suburban / hummer thing.

Joking? Would I, vsprintf, someone who reached excellent karma solely on +FUNNY posts (okay, there was one lapse when I got a +5 informative) joke about such a topic? I think not! I should trade in my old, faithful, economical Toyota for something that can protect me and my slower responses from all those weird ricer boys. Of course, I probably won't do it - still living on the edge. :)

Re:sheesh

[PyroMosh]

All you've proven with all of that is if you don't know how to drive large vehicles, then you can roll the vehicle.

You make it sound trivial. I don't know about you, but I fear for my life with half the drivers I see on the road today. Nobody has any fucking clue how to drive. And you're overlooking one very important fact.

Any car that handles better, more like you expect it to is always a good thing. You shouldn't have to know how to drive a specific vehicle. You should just be able to get in a car and have that car be safe so long as you have basic driving skills.

But the very fact that you have to "know how to drive a heavy vehicle" prooves that it's not simple. It's not basic, and that's a large part of what makes it unsafe. It's not as forgiving. Cars should be as forgiving as possible. At least most cars should be. Yeah, there can be exceptions. Enthusiests and people that know what they're doing. People that really do have a reason to drive something less forgiving. But that's not what's happening. It's as if everyone is driving dodge vipers. I don't know if you've ever driven a Viper, but it's a very unforgiving beast of a car. At the time I wasn't so so great with a stick, and I was barley able to get it out of the lot. As soon as I did, I wanted to get back into the lot and park, and I don't consider myself a slouch of a driver (with the exception of not being too familliar with stick). Contrast that with say, a Nissan Maxima (I don't particularly like this car, but it's a good example in thsi case). It handels like you expect it to. You turn the wheel, the car moves. It has good traction in all but the worst conditions, it stops when you ask it to, it doesn't oversteer or understeer, it doesn't want to fishtail, or anything.

SUVs aren't alone with being challenging to drive. The Chevy Caprice / Impalla SSes were notoriously bad in even mildly wet weather. Rear wheel drive, and something about them made them particularly bad about loosing the rear. Probably a combination of long wheel base, rear wheel drive and good power.

But like it or not, SUVs are not optimal road cars. They do have a function. But it's not as a commuter car. Or as a grocery getter, or even to take the whole family out. (Unless you're using it for what it's intended for (read: more than a glorified, high center of gravity minivan)).

How does the weight save you? It doesn't matter if your car weighs 100 Lbs or 100,000 Lbs. If it goes from 60 to 0, that force is going to be transfered into your body in a most uncomfortable way. The best protection is through crumple zones so that this force is transfered as slowly as possible. Most SUVs have poor crumple zone protection since they are built on stiff truck chasies.

As for what you say it sounds like, no, it's noting like saying I never wear seat belts, because what if I went off the road into a lake? I would be a dead man!". Because that's stupid. SUVs make up a disproportionate number of accidents on the road.

Read up on your facts.

There are sligltly better survivability numbers IN A CRASH for SUVs than cars. But that's at the expense of the cars' rates. And the accident rate on SUVs is so much worse that the New Jersey Garden State Parkway has considered banning or restricting SUVs.

Now, I'm going to make up these numbers to illustrate my point, but check it out and you'll see what I mean. If Car A has a crash survival rate of 50%, and car B has a crash survival rate of 75%, but B gets in to accidents 10 times as often as A, despite having equal numbers on the road, which car would you pick? Add to that that B is 10 times more likley to kill someone that you hit in a multi vehicle crash? Still want your big land boat?

What if the trend died tomorrow and instead, everyone wanted to get an 18 wheeler? Would that be good? Yeah, you have to get a CDL, and yeah, they're prohibativly expensive, but it's illustrating a point. It's rediculous, and it's not safer. That's a myth. There's a reason we don't build cars like the 50s Bel Airs and 60s Impallas any more. They weren't safer, and they wasted gas.

profit ?

[a7244270]

I wonder if they will make any money.

According to the article they are going to spend about 180 mil to make MM4, and MM1,2,3 combined made less than 70 mil.

But then again, these days is seems like all you need ia a hot chick and some special effects to rake it in - plot optional.

Re:profit ?

[Sancho]

Ah, but are those numbers inflated? Movies cost more now than they did then.

Re:profit ?

[JVert]

I wonder how much Elijah Wood will make in 10 years make to star in Lord of the Rings 4...

Re:profit ?

[On Lawn]

From an email I recieved this morning...

The trilogy of "Mad Max" pictures, for all their iconic value, amounted to a rather slender box office, grossing only $69 million in total domestically. That's partly because the 1979 original, released by Village Roadshow, Orion
Pictures and AIP, was hardly seen Stateside at all. The franchise only grew significant with "Mad Max: The Road Warrior."

Re:profit ?

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, the article said it was a $104 million project.

Secondly, they said the first three movies grossed 69 million in the US. That doesn't count internation box office totals nor all the other sources of income consistant with films that achieve cult status.

Re:profit ?

[nakedbonzai]

As long as Kevin Costner isn't starring in it, it'll make money.

Re:profit ?

[dvdeug]

Ah, but are those numbers inflated? Movies cost more now than they did then.

The original Mad Max was made on a very low budget. It was the highest profit to cost ratio movie until Blair Witch. So cheap that the only actor to wear real leather was Mel Gibson - the other characters had to do with fake leather.

(All from the pop-up-video type notes on the DVD.)

Re:profit ?

[kizarny]

Waterworld made money, over $70 million in its first domestic box office run, before overseas export, video release and licensing. It's a seldom stated film industry secret but... they all eventually make money.

Re:profit ?

[SethJohnson]

They might make their money back. Austin Powers 2 made way more than AP 1 and cost a lot more, too.

Consider Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. That made over $100 million, and it was based on characters introduced in a movie that made far less (CLerks).

I have a hard time stomaching the third movie in this series. I hope the fourth gets some quality directing and scripting. The fabled prequel would be awesome. I just hope there are no kids in this and it's rated R.

According to the newly-released Mad Max DVD (I highly recommend it), the first one only cost $400k (AUS). It said they had a costume budget for the entire cast of only $3k, so they couldn't put everyone in real leather. Only Mel Gibson has real leather clothes. Everyone else is wearing "the finest vinyl" they could find.

Re:profit ?

[Iamthefallen]

Actually, very few make money, in some magic way they all just barely break even...

Re:profit ?

[Elwood P Dowd]

Hmmm... Are you sure about that ratio statistic? Somehow I understood that there was some documentary or something about butterflies that was made for $27,000 and sold for $1,000,000.

Iduno.

Re:profit ?

[Coward, Anonymous]

Consider Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. That made over $100 million

According to the page you linked to, it made over 100 million pesetas in Spain, it made less than $35 million worldwide.

Re:profit ?

[kizarny]

I used the simple math on this one

$255.2 million (wordwide) - $175 million (budget) = $80.2 million

http://us.imdb.com/Business?0114898

Re:profit ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aah, but you're discounting the mystical "overheads". These fantastic creatures consume all of a films would-be profits, and as a result the poor filmcompany has to go to all the people who were promised a cut and tell them the sad news - they won't be paid after all.

Re:profit ?

[EpsCylonB]

even final fantasy the spirits within ? (which I actually like, yeah take the piss if you like).

Re:profit ?

[kizarny]

Actually, I spent the whole movie going "But he looks nothing like Donald Sutherland! It's just wrong!"

It'll hit a profit eventually (although that one may take years).

http://us.imdb.com/Business?0114898

Re:profit ?

[Aussie]

And in the first movie Petrol was the single largest expense.

Re:profit ?

[modme2]

and i bet there are indian films made cheaper than any of the films mentioned here.

Re:profit ?

[shogun]

Hmm I dont think the Simirillian will work very well as a movie somehow...

Re:profit ?

[gricholson75]

Actually, I think Crocodile Dundee held the title for a short period of time as well.

Re:profit ?

[dvdeug]

and i bet there are indian films made cheaper than any of the films mentioned here.

There are lots of films made cheaper, especially as Joe Blow can take a camera out and make a film for practically nothing. I wouldn't bet on a decent quality Indian film being made much cheaper; there are certain costs - like actors and film and gas and costumes - that you can't cut without going the Blair Witch Project route, which used its low quality for a very deliberate effect.

The question is the ratio of cost to profit; how many of those films made 100 million dollars? If they made 100 million dollars, then someone would start making better Indian films on more money (and/or Indian stars would start demanding a larger cut) and the Indian market would demading higher quality films.

Re:profit ?

[scott_evil]

no, petrol you ignorant pleb

Re:profit ?

[Blackneto]

A mini series on SCI FI maybe?

Re:profit ?

[DraKKon]

Yeah!! Just ask Stan Lee!

Re:profit ?

[kizarny]

Yeah, that one's really hard to defend. I think it's made less money than my parents' vacation movies. I've watched it too though, in fact, I can see the video sitting on my bookshelf (but I'm not planning on buying the DVD (http://us.imdb.com/DVD?0112760)).

I guess the studio got a tax write-off that year.

Re:profit ?

[I. M. Bur]

the other characters had to do with fake leather.

In soviet russia, fake leather does YOU!

25 million?

[PanBanger]

I guess we know who run Bartertown.

Re:25 million?

[GuyMannDude]

C'mon people! What is this "25 million" and "$25,000,000.00" stuff I'm seeing here? This is News for Nerds for chrissake! Mel's salary will be $2.5e7. Get it right. :)

GMD

Re:25 million?

[acherrington]

Ah, thats only like $1.0e7 after tax or so.

Re:25 million?

[BurKaZoiD]

darn straight... I laughed so hard a little blob of snot blew outta my nose. It was pretty funny in and of itself.

Re:25 million?

[delfstrom]

You must be a scientist type, then. An engineer would say 25.7M (Example, for ten megapascals an engineer writes 10 MPa, not 1.0E7 Pa)

Re:25 million?

[marksilverman]

It's mostly News for computer Nerds. So how about $24,414K?

Re:25 million?

[Alan Partridge]

rich people don't pay income tax you fool! He might be a US citizen, but I'll bet he's a resident of Monaco or the Bahamas or something.

Tax! The very idea!

Re:25 million?

[Verne]

An engineer would say 25.7M

Nah, I'd write 25M7

Real engineers don't use decimal points.

Re:25 million?

[Anonymous Coward]

No. The $25M is the beer money.

Re:25 million?

[JohnsonWax]

You must be a private sector engineer, then. For ten kilometers per hour a NASA Mars probe engineer would say 10MPH.

Re:25 million?

[amracks]

Actually, as a computer engineer I would say about

24.414M

Word to your Mother

Re:25 million?

[Nobo]

You must be a scientist type, then. An engineer would say 25.7M

Actually, consider - Washington=$1 Jefferson=$2 Nixon=$3 Lincoln=$5 Hamilton=$10 Jackson=$20 Grant=$50 Franklin=$100 McKinley=$500 (Discontinued) Cleveland=$1000 (disc) Madison=$5000 (disc) Chase=$10,000 (disc) Wilson=$100,000 (used only for Federal Reserve and Treasury transactions)

Thus, a scientist would say, in active currency, that he's being paid 250 kiloFranklins.

Re:25 million?

[Mr Guy]

Or, here's an idea, Australia, where he's from. Or did you just think the Mad Max franchise was set there for the quality internet access?

Re:25 million?

[Alan Partridge]

Nope, Mel's an American alright.

Re:25 million?

[Mr Guy]

You are right. I just learned he didn't move there until he was 9. Something every day, or so they say.

With that salary...

[jackb_guppy]

This film will be about as good as number 3. Which was about as good as WaterWorld.

The low budget Mad Max 1 & 2 were great, even though 2 was over dubbed in American.

Re:With that salary...

[eguanlao]

Actually, Mad Max 2 (a.k.a The Road Warrior) was in the Australian accent. Mad Max (1) was dubbed with the American accent...until the Special Edition DVD came out.

Re:With that salary...

[nomadic]

Beyond Thunderdome was the easily the best Mad Max film. Hell, it's probably in the top 5 sf films of all time. Yep, 2001, Star Wars, Thunderdome, that sounds about right.

Re:With that salary...

[Atrahasis]

No way.
Road Warrior is the best of the three. MM3 was full of cliched post-apocalyptic child civilizations straight from some bad b-movie.
And Star Wars isn't scifi.

Re:With that salary...

[nomadic]

Bah, Road Warrior was a 2 hour fight scene; MM3 was a cinematic, multidimensional view of the postapocalypse. And Star Wars is scifi; not hard scifi, but scifi.

Re:With that salary...

[Atrahasis]

Star Wars is the american war of independance in space.
Would you also classify James Bond as scifi?

Re:With that salary...

[nomadic]

Maybe Moonraker.

Re:With that salary...

[Alan Partridge]

no it isn't, it's WWIII in space, with America as the Empire and NYC as the Death Star. Jedi = Islam. Obi Wan = Osama Bin Laden.

Re: With that salary...

[Black Parrot]

> No way. Road Warrior is the best of the three. MM3 was full of cliched post-apocalyptic child civilizations straight from some bad b-movie.

MM:BtTD is the apotheosis of the B Movie.

I love it; it's one of my five favorite movies of all time.

Re:With that salary...

[juhaz]

You people trying to shoehorn everything into a very narrow category just annoy the heck out of me. Sorry to shake your very world but those films you've so neatly arranged into small boxes still bleed their aspects into the other movies, in other boxes. Tough luck.

Sure, Star Wars (see the latter word of name), is a story about few people in a middle of war, so it has war movie aspects, it's an adventure movie too.

You know what? It's also scifi.

Bonds are not mainly that, but YES, they DO have scifi aspects in them and there's not much you or anyone can do to change that.

Besides, he didn't even use the word scifi in the first message, but sf, commonly used as acronym of speculative fiction, a much broader category that includes ones such as scifi and fantasy, most of the horror as well.

Re:With that salary...

[clarkc3]

maybe he'll dontate some of the $ to the Halls of Justice to buy a few more V8 Interceptors ;)

YYYEEEEESSSSSSSS!

[throbbingbrain.com]

This is perhaps the coolest thing to ever happen!!


"Two days ago I saw a vehicle that'd haul that tanker. You want to get out of here, you talk to me."

"Damage? You should see the damage, bronze! Metal damage! Brain damage! You listening bronze??!"

Ahh. I feel better now...

Re:YYYEEEEESSSSSSSS!

[jazman_777]

This is perhaps the coolest thing to ever happen!!

You _definitely_ need to get out more.

Re:YYYEEEEESSSSSSSS!

[throbbingbrain.com]

"Damage? You should see the damage, bronze! Metal damage! Brain damage! You listening bronze??! I am the Nightrider. I'm a fuel injected suicide machine! I am the rocker! I am the roller! I am the metal controller! I'm the nightrider baby!" ... "I am the chosen one! The mighty hand of vengence sent down to stike the unroadworthy!! ... Step right up chum, and watch the kid lay down the rubber road right to freedom!!!"

"The chain in those handcuffs is high tensile steel. It'd take ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now. If you're lucky, you could hack through your ankle in five minutes."

I hope Johnny The Kid shows up in MM4 with one foot missing. That would kick ass.

And yes, I DO need to get out more!

Re:YYYEEEEESSSSSSSS!

[Alan Partridge]

push me, shove you!

oh yeah, says who?

Yeah but will they be clever...

[Jonny Ringo]

enough to make it look as low budget as the first one? Paying Mel 25 million they may not have a choice! :-)

they'll have some continuity issues, won't they?

[condour75]

I mean, weren't we supposed to expect the apocalypse to have happened by now already? Or is it like a James Bond or Superman thing, the old Umberto Eco concept of the Open Text. I dunno.

Exactly ..

[SuperDuG]

He learned while leaving the thunderdome from masterblaster ... it's all about making them need you, or controlling something they need!!

25 mill!!

And of course...

[killthiskid]

Lazy man's google new link.

Re:And of course...

[Warren_Canuck]

Wow, first return on that link is "Slashdot - 26 minutes ago". Google actually indexes Slashdot for news.... wow.

Re:And of course...

[killthiskid]

Recursion!

Stick that in your browser history and smoke it.

According to Google News???

[Brent_DS]

Try CNN/BBC/etc.

I'm sure the folks over at Google would like to know that they have entered the world of journalism!

Re:According to Google News???

[CableModemSniper]

um news.google.com They have entered the world of journalism. Well not really, its just a really cool gizmo that leeches news off other sites, kinda like slashdot, except automated, and with less dupes.

Mad Max: The Geriatric Years

[Sinjun]

Isn't Gibson getting a bit too old for the action genre? What are they going to title the film, Mad Max Breaks a Hip? Maybe he could drive a junked Caddie going 5 mph.

Re:What?

[Jonny Ringo]

He's.. he's just a child! He doesn't know any better.

Coming soon!

[Anonymous Coward]

Mad Max 4:Beyond the Nursing Home

Re:What?

[chuckfirment]

"You admit to being a "fan" of Thunder Dome? Blarg."

I definately admit to it. To this day I'll occasionally hear the chanting in my head, "Two men enter! One man leave!"

Thankfully it's at completely inappropriate times like corporate meetings or trying to merge in traffic.

Chuck Firment

Geek Quote coming ... okay here it is ....

[airrage]

Remember where you are. This is Thunderdome. Death is listening, and will take the first man who screams.

Of course, I say Remember where you are. This is Slashdot. Mod is listening, and will take the first man who posts.

We don't need another hero, hero, all we want is what's beyond Thunderdome!

Re:Geek Quote coming ... okay here it is ....

[unicron]

Whenever I see Thunderdome, I always feel a great sense of humility,human-ness, and even pride at the end during the girls speech. Like if something catasrophic were to happen our history would be our most prized possesion. I'm aware it's just a movie but it's a pretty awesome fuckign feeling knowing that what I do now, and what any of us do, could very well be the stuff of legend to a group of people that won't exist for hundreds of years.

Re:Geek Quote coming ... okay here it is ....

[yack0]

Two moderators enter, one moderator leaves....

According to Google News?

[FreeLinux]

You mean according to Google News by way of CNN, by way of Reuters, don't ya?

Re:According to Google News?

[tfreport]

This should be modded up. This was the first thing I thought about reading this article, there is no Google News in terms of reporting stories. Sure you can mention that they pointed you to the story but saying that something is acording to them is wrong.

It has been said on Slashdot many times that Google should not be held responsible for what it links to (the whole Church of Scientology debate) but it then should also not credit for someone else's reporting. It is only the way it should be that you either always are responsible for links or you never are.

Re:According to Google News?

[Ryan Amos]

The news industry is kind of held in a different standard because this is normal. Reuters is a wire service, and it's common practice for newspapers to reprint articles verbatim from a wire service (after paying for them, naturally.) Google News is also somewhat edited; any crackpot can write a story and send it to a news outlet (newspaper, etc) but it's up to their editors whether or not to print it; thus giving the newspaper some sort of responsibility to what they print.

Re:According to Google News?

[NFNNMIDATA]

You forgot "by way of Variety".

High Polish

[Anonymous Coward]

...the script has been in the works for 3 years and is highly polished.

3 years!?! That script must be so polished you have to shield your eyes from it.

Re:High Polish

[Chris Mattern]

> 3 years!?! That script must be so polished you have to shield your eyes from it.

"Don't look at the script, Marion!"

Chris Mattern

Come in Cap'n Walka!

[Punk Walrus]

Wow... a sequel to Beyond the Thunderdome. I know I speak for everyone in Slashdot when I say that I wanted to see if Tina Turner ran Bartertown better than Master Blaster. [/sarcasm]

"Four films enter! One film leaves!"

Mel in a dog costume

[eyeball]

Am I the only one that read the title as "Furry Road?"

Re:Mel in a dog costume

[daeley]

Mel in a dog costume
Am I the only one that read the title as "Furry Road?"

Welllllllll, Mel in a dog costume is not the first thing I think of when I see that title you...

Never mind. This is a family geek discussion board. ;)

Re:Mel in a dog costume

[Jedi1USA]

I though it was Pr0n.

MAD Max?

[Scotch Game]

For $25,000,000 for the fourth movie he should go from "Mad Max" to "Old, Rich, Happy Max".

Re:MAD Max?

[Jonny Ringo]

Capital One comerial? Or new Mad Max film?
What's in your wallet Mel?

re: New Mad Max Film

[jonerik]

According to Google News Mel Gibson has signed up for a new Mad Max film "Fury Road".

And it's already available at sidewalk kiosks throughout China.

More apocalyptic blather?

[guacamolefoo]

I read about the movie this morning on CNN, but I wasn't really that excited by it. The interesting part of the story arc has been exhausted, IMHO. I'm not exactly sure where this one will go, unless it is a rehash of the last two plots.

1. Mad Max = world going to hell
2. Road Warrior = world gone to hell
3. Thunderdome = World gone to hell, but redeeming itself
4. New movie = (?) Make money!

There is some overlap (Road Warrior had an inkling of redemption at the end, but it was more explicit in Thunderdome.

This may end up being a good action flick, but I am not seeing significant potential to do anything very new or exciting. I expect that, like Mel, we'll find out that the series is old and tired.

guac-foo.

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[Telastyn]

Kinda like Harrison Ford and the "new" Indiana Jones movie? Or the Scooby Doo movie? Or the Star Wars prequels? Or...

Seems like alot of Movie Execs (read: tripe) have gone from rehashing old, moderately good films, into moderate films with different names and just went straight to remaking the same damned film, this time with nostalgia!

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[jazman_777]

Seems like alot of Movie Execs (read: tripe) have gone from rehashing old, moderately good films, into moderate films with different names and just went straight to remaking the same damned film, this time with nostalgia!

And the next step: Profit!

The public just keeps on lapping it all up, so why shouldn't they keep pumping the bilges?

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[moosemoose]

Its actually, "furry road" and the plot involves an aging warrior who mows down small rodents on an abandoned interstate with his flamethrowing wheel chair in order to provide food to the starving survivors of the apocalypse.

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[Khomar]

Same thing with the new Terminator movie... It seems to me that Hollywood is scrambling for new ideas since their current batch of writers have run out. Meanwhile, some strange Kiwi's down south had the novel concept (no pun intended) of taking a famous piece of literature, adding massive amounts of love and care, and a heavy dose of creativity and integrity (both severely lacking in Hollywood) to make what looks to be a truly spectacular set of films on a relatively low budget ($70 million per film). Is anyone in Hollywood taking notes? If they are, are they taking the right notes? (I expect to see a slew of terrible fantasy clones released in the coming years until Hollywood once again learns the wrong lesson that fantasy films don't work...*sigh*)

Hollywood today seems to be only capable of rehashing old ideas without any real creative imagination. I do not doubt that this creativity exists, but for some reason it is not allowed to thrive. Why is Lord of the Rings successful? There was very little involvement from the high level, Hollywood executives. They let the creative people be creative with plenty of financial backing and time to truly let them imaginations fly. It was something new and distinctive.

Mad Max IV? When will Hollywood realize that what they need is true creativity. Throwing massive amounts of money at an old, fading idea does not equate to a great movie.

Someday I'll think up a good sig...

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[guacamolefoo]

Where will the 4th movie go? Simple, redemption of the world, or at least the beginnings of the establishment of civilization.

Mad Max - nation builder! What? Mel Gibson already did that in "The Patriot"? Damn...more rehash!

guac-foo

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[Col. Klink (retired)]

I think the plots are more like this:

1. Mad Max = Max chased in his car
2. Road Warrior = Max chased in his truck
3. Thunderdome = Max chased in his train
4. New movie = Max chased in his Rolls Royce

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[guacamolefoo]

Yep...I blew it on the "profit!" gag.

Got my +5 on the merits anyway...heh.

gf.

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[Syris]

Movie executives are presented with the following choice:

1. Remake an old movie or add another sequel to a successful series...

or

2. Create an entirely new movie that no one has ever heard of knows about.

Trying a new concept or story always represents a risk to the movie houses, while remaking an old movie or adding a sequel seems a surer way to generate buzz and revenue. If you disagree, consider this thread; it's free publicity for the makers of Mad Max 4.

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[mike3411]

I never understood exactly how the world in Mad Max -> the world in Road Warrior. I thought mad max was extremely cool in its depiction of a society thats been gutted - there are still so many vestiges and many people still live "normal" lives, i.e. get up, go to work, buy food & store, etc. The Road Warrior's future just seemed kind of silly, there were like 10 ppl left in a desert fighting, i never understood why they didnt go some place else, like some place that could be farmed (and perhaps didnt have roads for the bad guys to use). Seemed much less believable than the first one. And beyond thunderdome sucked donkey balls. Dear god was it bad. It suscked so much I cant go into detail because Ive suppressed the memory. If they make another like that itll be worthless, if they make something along the lines of the road warrior or, better yet, mad max, then i'll see it.

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[General Cluster]

Hollywood will always throw its money at the formula. The formula may be blather, but it has a large, established audience. They can dilute the plot with unneeded elements that will bring in different demographics until the target audience is broad enough to bring the investment back. And since each star and threadbare plot device has a predictable audience, it is somewhat possible to model the film's future sales and attempt to estimate a break-even point.

Throwing $100 million at an original film like PI, for example, will never happen.

Broadway shows, by the way, are far worse. The recent theater prosperity is based almost entirely on derived works. I live in fear that somewhere in a studio a songwriting duo is hard at work cooking up 'Phantom Menace' the musical.

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[CAIMLAS]

Posts like this make me wonder if it would be practical for me to put scripts for my film ideas online, and set up a paypal "penny jar" so people liking the scripts could make donations. Later, after the film has been produced, people that have made signficiant contributions (10$?) would get the finished product...

Re:More apocalyptic blather?

[WEFUNK]

Good theory, except apparently this movie isn't being driven by your aptly described tripe (read: Movie Execs). If anything it seems to be just the opposite.

According to Coming Attractions, after trying to revive Mad Max for some time, creator/director George Miller was able to win back the rights back to his franchise from Warner (who wanted to produce an updated, clean-cut "tripe" version, probably to make money selling toys) in exchange for handing "Contact" over to Robert Zemeckis. Since then he's been devoting a lot of his effort to developing this relatively risky movie and shopping around for a studio willing to produce and distribute it.

Now I'm sure he's hoping to make a bundle, but with the whole series combined earning well under the budget of this film, if profit was the only motive he'd still be milking the critical and popular success of "Babe" and producing completely mainstream star-of-the-week movies or maybe a direct to video "Babe IX" by now, not an expensive but bleak post-apocalyptic film that will have to be outstanding in order to favourably stand up to the originals and to deflect the sentiment (from fans, critics, and the general public) that they're just doing it for the money.

I don't know

[tps12]

I'll see it, I'm sure, but I'm skeptical as to whether the true spirit of the originals will persist. The ideas and expressions that once comprised pop culture have changed so much that the original Mad Max themes of individualist strength and moral integrity will probably be cast aside in favor of a more contemporary populist sensibility.

By way of comparison, consider that "Popeye" had a character called Wimpy, who was addicted to hamburgers (a stand-in for alcohol in those more sensitive times). He was continuously broke, and to finance his habit was reduced to trying to con other characters out of their money ("I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"). His crippling addiction lost him everything, even his dignity. He was not a hero, but a character to be pitied for his devotion to something so artificial and his lack of work ethic.

Look at today's children's cartoons and you'll find nothing like Wimpy. Instead, you'll see obviously gay characters like Spongebob Squarepants, who epitomizes and glorifies chronic laziness and disrespect for authority. Even his name, "Squarepants," alludes to the angular uniforms of China's Red Army. Is it any surprise that generation Xers grow up with no work ethic and a feeling of entitlement, when they have been indoctrinated with this kind of skewed moral framework? The values expressed in the original Mad Max films are completely alien to them, and I'm not optimistic that they'll come through at all.

Re:I don't know

[stratjakt]

Spongebob?! No work ethic?!

You haven't seen the show.

He lives for his fry cook work at the Krusty Krab, even willing to accept a pair of squeaky boots in lieu of payment.

Anti-spongebob troll. The worst of the worst.

Re:I don't know

[pmancini]

Um, Spongebob is not gay. He has a rather attractive squiril girlfriend. (how do you spell the name of that rodent???)

While the gay-ultra-left may push for Good 'ole Spongebob to be gay, he ain't!

Plus, who cares? The Pirate is the real star of the show!

Re:I don't know

[stratjakt]

Here's how I understand the spinach thing:

Popeye was originally an adult comic strip, published for sailors out at sea. It was in something like stars and stripes, or whatever.

Anyways, he was a charicature of 'a sailor man', and would go ashore, get drunk, pick up hookers, swear constantly, and fight anyone who crossed his path.

Anyhow, kids would get ahold of the comic and start reading it. And, much like today (GTA3, etc) parents and do-gooders protested and whined. "Please think of the children".

So as a gag, EC Segar decided to mock all the whiners and put a 'kid friendly' message into one of the strips - he ate his spinach and then kicked everyones ass. It stuck.

It was a running gag to mock whiners. Eventually it became nothing more than a kids cartoon, but the spinach thing was already there.

Besides, he doesnt suck it through a pipe.

BTW, the "mexican loco weed" thing is an urban legend. It never happened.

Re:I don't know

[Pathwalker]

Besides, he doesnt suck it through a pipe.

Actually, I remember that once or twice he did, when Bluto had him tied up, and all he could move was his head. He puffed his pipe into a veritable cutting torch, melted off the lid, and sucked down a load of the green stuff in one mighty movement.

Re:I don't know

[dekker]

While I agree that the sequel will probably suck, I have to comment on this post.

In addition to what others have already pointed out, this person is chronologically challenged. Generation X is usually defined as being born in the mid-60's to the mid-70's. Spongebob didn't start airing until 1999. Being an "X'er" (and I hate that label), I saw Road Warrior in the theater at age 9. My son watches Spongebob. Before making generalizations, maybe you should get your dates right.

Re:I don't know

[El]

When you begin to find cartoon squirrels attractive, maybe you should take that as a sign that you REALLY need to get out more often!

Re:I don't know

[farnsworth]

actually the FDA or whatever had the decimal point of the iron content of spinach wrong:

As for spinach, Popeye was wrong. The initial "discovery" that spinach had as much iron as meat was made way back in the 1890's. During the Second World War, American Popeye propaganda cartoons encouraged the populace to eat lots of spinach - a good thing when there was not much meat around. In fact, in WW II, Americans ate 35% more spinach, and the people of Crystal City in Texas put up a statue to Popeye to commemorate that famous 35%. But it's all wrong. The original German scientists way back in the 1890's did their experiment right, but they wrote the result down wrong. They put the decimal point in the wrong place. They over-estimated the amount of iron in spinach by 10 times. This error was corrected by German scientists in the 1930's, but the information did not cross the Atlantic until a long time after WW II. To get his iron, Popeye would have been better off chewing on the can. http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s301760.h tm

Re:I don't know

[Glendale2x]

Look at today's children's cartoons and you'll find nothing like Wimpy. Instead, you'll see obviously gay characters like Spongebob Squarepants, who epitomizes and glorifies chronic laziness and disrespect for authority.

Why is everything gay these days? Something like this is on TV and you suddenly get a group going "oh that's just so *gay* can't you see it?"

I dunno about you guys, but I don't go around looking for and assuming gay themes everywhere I turn. It's like that annoying guy in alt.tv.stargate-sg1 who keeps asking if the character Jonas is gay. Who really cares? Does it make the world better to have confirmed gay characters in TV shows?

Everything is frickin' assumed to be "gay" it's becoming so retarded. Did I miss the boat that said everything is supposed to be gay?

Is it any surprise that generation Xers grow up with no work ethic and a feeling of entitlement, when they have been indoctrinated with this kind of skewed moral framework?

Maybe if kids grow up sitting on their ass and watching TV all day. Go outside and ride a bike.

~Seth, who is typing the word "gay" too much today

Re:I don't know

[endeitzslash]

BTW, the "mexican loco weed" thing is an urban legend. It never happened.

You've obviously never seen Popeye in Rodeo Romeo

Re:I don't know

[sharkey]

Popeye...would go ashore, get drunk, pick up hookers, swear constantly, and fight anyone who crossed his path.

Kind of like Russell Crowe, huh?
"We're fightin' 'round th' world!"

Re:I don't know

[piznut]

It's squirrel, and her name is Sandy. I wonder if I could get on 'Beat the Geeks' as a Spongebob geek. Nevermind...I'd like to have sex again sometime in this life.

Wait, highly polished...

[terraformer]

Apparently the script has been in the works for 3 years and is highly polished. As a big fan of all 3 Mad Max films, I am looking forward to this one!

How is going to anything like the first three???

Re:Wait, highly polished...

[Karel Capek]

Right.
when episode I was first announced I immediately thought:
Cool! they're gonna kit all those new hollywood actors up in 70s garb for continuity. Gonna be a challenge, but worth the effort.
Imagine my surprise.

re:Mad Max 4-

[one_red_god]

will they film this in australia? im thinking someone's going to get paid a pretty penny for a v8 falcon interceptor...as the origional is a rusted shell in someones backyard these days..

Aging Franchise?

[raiyu]

And star wars isnt an aging franchise. Not to start a flame war, but I see no problem with another Mad Max film. Mel Gibson isnt that old, I liked Mad Max, even if Thunderdome sucked. If the plot has really been in the works for three years there may be a chance that it wont suck, certainly Im willing to give this film the benefit of the doubt, simply because there has been such a huge stretch between this film and the last.

At least this long stretch should tell you its not a sequel thats only trying to capitalize off of the success of the first film(s). Sequels to successful first films usually suffer as a result, but here we have will have the fourth installment, where there were good and bad sequels, so hopefully they figured out what to do and not to do. Not to mention technology has advanced and the budget is definitely bigger, so there is potential to really close out the Mad Max franchise with a bang. So long as they dont get carried away with stupidity (Thunderdome).

Re:Aging Franchise?

[MadBurner]

I'd like to see more of the bomarang throwing kid once he's grown up.

Let's see....

[Schnapple]

1. Original director from first film
2. Big budget
3. A script that's been in the works for years
4. Beloved franchise
5. Original actors where possible

Sounds like it can't go wrong, right?

Can you say The Phantom Menace?

Re:Let's see....

[ggruschow]

Sounds like it can't go wrong, right? Can you say The Phantom Menace?

Uh yeah. The Phantom Menace was a major flop (where major flop is defined as the #3 highest grossing film so far.

Seriously. Who here didn't see it?

Now, I know you think it sucked, but I bet you went and saw Episode 2 as well, eh?

I was too young to see Mad Max 1-3 in theaters. I'll go and see this one so long as it's rated >40% on rottentomatoes.

Re:Let's see....

[Schnapple]

The Phantom Menace, financially, was hardly a flop. However, most people were disappointed by it - even the ones who liked it found it little disappointing. My point was that even sure fire formulas can miss.

Re:Let's see....

[CyNRG]

Too much money. If you have unlimited resources for any endeavor, basic human nature kicks in: be lazy, sloppy, etc.

Limited resources generates unlimited creativity.

Re:Let's see....

[HamNRye]

Still haven't seen The Phantom Menace. Downloaded it, but it was all in Norwegian. Haven't tried again.

If you think the Phantom Menace wasn't a flop, compare it's DVD sales with LOTR. There should be a comparison, there isn't.

All that being said, it couldn't have been as bad as Harry Pothead.

~Hammy

Re:Let's see....

[timeOday]

Why do you expect us to be interested in whether it will make a profit? We're not getting a cut. We're more interested in whether we will enjoy watching the movie.

And FWIW, I waited to see Episode II in the dollar theater :)

Re:Let's see....

[bninja_penguin]

No, I haven't seen the phantom menace. I saw how it ends, way back in 1977(?) when I saw Star Wars in the thatres.

Re:Let's see....

[fermion]

I would say this would be more comparable to the Alien series, especially with relation to the amount of time it took to develop the script and the amount of money that was necessary to convince the star to sign on.

Alien and Aliens both are in the top 100 of the the IMDB rankings. On the other hand, Alien cubed is barely average, and Alien Resurrection is not even worth mentioning. Likewise, Sigourney Weaver was paid 30K and 1 Million for the first two, but 11 million for Resurrection.

You do have a point with Star Wars though. The first two films are in the top 20, and the third film is in the top 250. Episode I, II, and probably III, are not much better than average. Finally, it is a mistake to make quality judgements based on box office receipts. I think we can all find horrible movies in the list. Titanic anyone? Or Cast Away?

Re: Let's see....

[Black Parrot]

> Now, I know you think it sucked, but I bet you went and saw Episode 2 as well, eh?

Nope. TPM was bad. I don't have the least interest in seeing e2.

Re:Let's see....

[Pulzar]

The Phantom Menace was so bad that no, I didn't go to see Episode 2. I'm sure e2 made way less money just because TPM was such a disappointment.

Re:Let's see....

[guacamolefoo]

The Phantom Menace was about 200 times better than Attack of the Clones, which was absolutely terrible. The scenes with Anakin and Natalie Portman's tits were so painfully bad that I honestly felt as though I was trapped in an MST3K episode. This is not to say that Phantom Menace was good, I'm just trying to convey how terrible Clones was. What a god-awful piece of shit.

GF

Re:Let's see....

[Smid]

I didn't see it.

While maybe all your friends saw it, maybe about 1/4 in mines did.

And I'll shock you further now.

I didn't see either the Empire Strikes Back or Return or the Jedi at the cinema. Or on rental. I caught both of them a number of years later when they were shown on terrestrial (or network to the US) television. They were bearable.

Yes, I saw the first Star Wars at the cinema. I was a kid. I enjoyed it. I was a kid.

I grew up after that.
While I appreciate for some, life is a nostalgic struggle to recreate the glory days of their childhood.

I did however catch AOTC on divx. Its true. You _can_ polish a turd.

Re:Let's see....

[Chris Mattern]

Hint--if the film makes money, the people who run the studios don't care if it was so bad that it caused uncontrollable projectile vomiting in the audience. As far as they're concerned, the formula worked, and they'll keep using it.

Chris Mattern

Re:Let's see....

[Schnapple]

I assume the "uncontrollable projectile vomiting" was in reference to The Blair Witch Project, which did cause that (due to ShakyCam) and was "guaranteed" two sequels, but after Book of Shadows tanked they wouldn't let it have the second sequel.

this can't be good

[s.d.]

With the first one made in 1979, that means mel gibson will be what, 25 yrs or so older in this one. Now I realize he's only going to be 47 this coming yr, but still, it strikes me the same as making a new Indiana Jones movie at this point. It's a sequel to a movie (or series of movies) I liked a lot, but is the actor too old to portray the character? I don't want to think of Indiana Jones or Mad Max as older -- they're the guys in the originals, characters like that don't age. It's why they switch James Bond actors. You don't want to see James Bond realistically portrayed as a 60 yr old spy. He's a 30+ yr old guy kicking ass and sleeping with hot women.

Re:this can't be good

[dillon_rinker]

Watch the first three movies. The world ages...so do the characters. I see no paradox in revisiting the world after another 5-10 years and find that Max looks 15 years older. Youth and beauty can never beat old age and treachery, you know.

Re:this can't be good

[susano_otter]

It's in your head, man. If you don't like the story, you don't have to believe in it.

Me? I prefer Brian Aldiss's Star Wars prequel plot, and my own history of the Butlerian Jihad.

Maybe some other idiots ineherited the rights to publish their versions for profit, but that doesn't mean their stories are the true ones.

Re:this can't be good

[Lars T.]

Three words: "Grumpy Old Max"

Re:this can't be good

[CaptainAvatar]

In fact, given the extremely harsh post-apocalyptic environment, it's probably not unrealistic for Max to have aged 25 years in (say) 10-15. He's been through a lot, after all ...

Re:this can't be good

[thelovebus]

According to Mad Max Chronology page, Max is born in 1975, and the events of beyond thunderdome happen in 2018. This makes Max 43 just when Thunderdome occured. Certainly, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for Mel Gibson to play what would at least be a 43 year old Max, would it?

Personally, I'm looking forward to a new Mad Max. We can be cynical all we want about how hollywood is just rehashing an old franchise and how this new movie will be terrible, but I'm fairly certain that it will be worth $7.50 to watch a brand new Mad Max.

Re:this can't be good

[Stormie]

It's why they switch James Bond actors. You don't want to see James Bond realistically portrayed as a 60 yr old spy. He's a 30+ yr old guy kicking ass and sleeping with hot women.

That'd be nice, except that Pierce Brosnan is 49 - and looks it. Christ, just cast cast Rupert Everett or Robbie Williams or someone.

Re:this can't be good

[Blondie-Wan]

49 or not, 49 and looking it or not, Brosnan looks great. Frankly, I think he's too good to lower himself to playing Bond, but hey, he seems to like it, so more power to him. But seriously, if you think he's too old... yeesh.

Re:they'll have some continuity issues, won't they

[Karel Capek]

No, no.
After the apocalypse, the discover all the 80s
media on fail-safe celluloid and microfilm. And so the post-apocalyptic retrofashion and cars with mechanical distributors are born.

I'm not sure if I want to see the result

[Gadzinka]

Apparently the script has been in the works for 3 years and is highly polished.

Judging from my experience, if the script for 90" flick took years to finish it is more of a comitee compromise than the work of art.

So I would expect the main character to be strong bl^H^Hafrican-american lesbian of Jewish origin which was molested in childhood by Catholic nun.

What? You can't have these in post-apocalyptical Australia? Wait till you see them ;)

Mad Max Movies FAQ

[eht]

Mad Max Movies FAQ is a great link for all thing's Mad Max

Re:Mad Max Movies FAQ

[eht]

ooh a did a whole google search for mad max faq and i get a +5

tho i have had this link in my bookamrks for a couple of years now

and it is a link to a really good mad max site

Re:Mad Max Movies FAQ

[eht]

now it's overated? bleh, it's not any more overated than anything else posted on this story

In this episode...

[ptomblin]

He makes it to the shore just as Kevin Costner steps ashore from his catamaran.

Re:In this episode...

[Cheap Imitation]

Hey! Maybe they can team up to deliver the mail....

Re:In this episode...

[axis-techno-geek]

First, being a more "environmentally friendly" Mad Max, he has to search the dessert to get a new fuel cell for his car/battle wagon.

MAD MAX Beyond Geritol

[GodHead]

Mel will be driving a beat up station wagon, with the right turn signel flashing, 20 miles an hour under the speed limit while looking for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Re:MAD MAX Beyond Geritol

[Dark Lord Seth]

It'd be funnier if Mr. Gibson would drive around in a custom paint GMC G series van (a la A-TEAM) with trusty old Mr. T as his sidekick. Mad Max, Mr. T, helluva ebonics and a spiffy van. Can't go wrong.

Re:MAD MAX Beyond Geritol

[HedRat]

>Mel will be driving a beat up station wagon, with >the right turn signel flashing, 20 miles an hour >under the speed limit while looking for an >all-you-can-eat buffet.

At three in the afternoon.

Re:MAD MAX Beyond Geritol

[iggymanz]

and worst of all don't forget the usual gratuitous Gibson bare hind shot....NOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

Re:MAD MAX Beyond Geritol

[Fjord]

I ain't getting in no plane, Max!

Yes, but Australian culture is still different

[typical geek]

and as long as Kennedy shoots the films in Australia, enough of the Australian culture, with it's swaggering, hard drinking, tough individualistic nature that show in Mad Max I and II, will flavor Mad Max IV so that it can avoid the worst excesses of the namby-pamby PC culture we live in.

True, the Aussie have had to turn in their guns, and since the Olympics in Sydney they can no longer beat and kill the blackfellas with impunity, but they're still just about the most macho sorts on earth.

So, yes, I have high hopes for this sequel, and as a devoted Mad MAx fan, you can bet that once it's been shot, I will stay up all night scouring WinMX, edonkey and Kazaa for the divx to download.

Re:Yes, but Australian culture is still different

[Christopher Biggs]

You, dear troll, suck.

You love the work of Miller & Gibson so much that you can't /wait/ to steal it from them.

Re:Yes, but Australian culture is still different

[Slurpee]

hehehe...

Mad Max meets Prisilla: Queent of the Desert

this could certainly put a new twist into Mad Mad!

You mean Sandy, the bull dyke squirrel?

[typical geek]

The one who can outlift spongebob, and easily beats the shit out of him, and his lover Patrick?

Can you say beard?

well, in that case

[sydlexic]

he sure looks old for his age. in close-ups he reminds me of the cigarette man.

Re:well, in that case

[Reality Master 101]

Well, Mad Max is supposed to be pretty weather-beaten. :)

Re:well, in that case

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason Mel Gibson looks old is because nearly every other Hollywood star of his magnitude even close to his age has had plastic surgery.

He looks normal for a 46-year old.

Re:Mad Max 4-

[HillBilly]

I remember watching on TV a while a go that the Mad Max fan club (which involves the Feral Kid) have there own look-a-like interceptor in working condition.

Re:What?

[dillon_rinker]

Ignore the plot and much of the dialog. Look at the world. There are few other films that build as good a world as the Mad Max films did. It's not a great movie, I'll grant that, but it's still great entertainment.

Highly Polished

[sdo1]

Highly Polished... yea, I know what that means. It means a committee has been hard at work f***ing up what was probably a pretty good script.

A couple of recent script-by-committee disasters include "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Batman and Robin", and "The Scorpion King". Of course having one person in full control of the script isn't necessarily a good thing either as Mr. Lucas has so painfully pointed out.

-S

Re:Highly Polished

[Kircle]

1) it states in the article that George Miller has "been crafting the script for the last three years." From your comment, it didn't appear you were aware of that.

2) I truly believe the not so great quality of the recent Star Wars films was the result of Lucas' directing ability rather than with his script.

Re:Highly Polished

[drayzel]

I agree!

Somethings are better left ALONE.

I didn't even bother seeing all of "Batman and Robin", or "The Scorpion King". What consumer trash. Will it ever end?

I wonder how much Wal-MArt will be selling the Max Action figure for? I hope there will be a set complete with fruturistic retro car.

Polsihing Script = "Insert expensive digital eye candy where creative writing should be"

Re:Highly Polished

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

2) I truly believe the not so great quality of the recent Star Wars films was the result of Lucas' directing ability rather than with his script.

Right, and how would you direct a script like this:

[Anakin and Padme are about to be carted into the arena.]
Anakin: Don't be afraid.
Padme: I'm not afraid to die. I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.
Anakin: What are you talking about?
Padme: I love you.
Anakin: You love me? I thought we had decided not to fall in love. That we'd be forced to love a lie and that it would destroy our lives.
Padme: I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I truly... deeply... love you and before we die I want you to know.

In other words, you can put a coat of polish on a turd, but it's still shit.

Re:Highly Polished

[L0rdJedi]

Heh, and that was one of the better love scenes. To be quite honest, I hated most of the love scenes too. I would've picked a better example. The fireplace scene. I would've chopped that whole scene out.

[Anakin and Padme in a room with a fireplace]
[Padme wearing sexy evening dress]

Padme: We can't be together.
Anakin: My heart is tormented!

Repeat above for 5-10 mins.

Ugh, cut the whole thing please. Fortunately, for the IMAX release, they did cut that scene in half.

Re:Highly Polished

[dimator]

*cringe*

And thank you very much for putting me through that again.

Re:Highly Polished

[Fjord]

Part of being a good director is seeing a scene and cutting it ot rewriting it to fit the pace of the movie before.

Of course, the problem with out and out cutting these scenes is that it has to be believable that Anakin and Pademe get is on later so that they have Luke and Leia.

Walk away. Just walk away.

[Bitter Cup O Joe]

While I'd love to see a good new movie, and I hope that the script really is as polished as everyone attached is claiming, I get the feeling that the best move is to walk away.

Of course, as soon as I turn to leave, I'll catch a crossbow bolt through the head by some mohawked buy hissing at me.

These movies rock

[geek]

They were so ahead of their time. the essential were doing what Water World tried to do 20 years before.

The messages in the movie are subtle and often hidden under all the chaos and death, but they are there nonetheless.

Mel Gibson is a superb actor, if anyone can pull this off it's him. Very few actors can sustain a series like this, Stallone, Arnold, Bruce Willis.

I'm boycotting the theatres but I'll definately by the DVD.

Mel Gibson = AARP

[mrklin]

Mel Gibson plays the senile Mad Max and is Mad because Safeway is out of Depends.

Kick ass vehicles with blowers, armor, guns...

[Monkeyfarmer]

Unfortunately this time around, Max's vehicle in question is a wheelchair... Maybe The Stones can do the theme song and complete the image?

What's the title of that?

[Steveftoth]

Sauron returns (again)?
Lord of the Rings: Yet more rings.
Lord of the Rings II: The search for more money. (stolen from spaceballs)

Re:What's the title of that?

[T3kno]

Speaking of I'm still waiting for Spaceballs II: The search for more money. It has to be better than Star Wars Episode 2: The search for more money.

Yay overrated actors

[salvius]

Before somebody jumps the gun and condemns me for bashing Mel Gibson, this post is more of a concern of a casual editor (working part-time in my father's company) and knowing a thing or two about film. Acting is the most highly overrated position in film, and with Mel getting $25,000,000 this will not change any time soon. Editors, cinematographers,screenwriters etc., which are far more important than actors, get salaries that are not even close, but do much more work. $25,000,000 is a lot for one of the easier jobs in the film industry.

Re:Yay overrated actors

[geek]

More important than actors? Fine you get your ass up in front of the camera.

Sorry pal but actors go through hell trying to make, they earn their dues just like everyone else. Drop the elitest attitude.

Yes Mel makes a lot of cash. Big deal, he earns it.

Don't like that? To bad, Mel will pack the house. No one cares who wrote, for better or worse.

I happen to like Mels acting, have since I saw the first Mad Max movie. He's extremely talented and deserves what ever the market is willing to give him

Re:Yay overrated actors

[mikester911]

Not that I disagree with you about your point (I agree with you actually), but nobody says "Ohh! A new film edited by Joe Schmoe is out! I simply MUST see it!" It's the folks in front of the camera that get the big bucks and credit (although directors seem to get some as well).

Perhaps you have a better angle on this since you are in the industry, but it seems to me that the Hollywood film industry is like any other, in that there are some people truly concerned with craft and performance, but most of the folks in the business are concerned more with making short sighted decisions that impact the short term bottom line, and they when they succeed it is in spite of themselves.

What that last bit has to do with Mad Max and Mel Gibson I have no idea, but it felt great saying it.

Re:Yay overrated actors

[kizarny]

I've worked in production offices for a few years and, while actors are getting some serious perks for "playing pretend", they also take the brunt of the blame if the movie goes over budget, hits delays or ultimately crashes and burns. I'm not saying that it's fair compensation but if I work on a string of movies that tank I still have a fairly easy time finding work on another one, not so with the face on the screen.

Re:Yay overrated actors

[salvius]

More important than actors? Fine you get your ass up in front of the camera.

Sorry pal but actors go through hell trying to make, they earn their dues just like everyone else. Drop the elitest attitude.

Fact is: a good editor can soften bad acting. Good acting will never make up for bad editing, not in a billion years.

He doesn't 'deserve' $25,000,000. Nobody deservs that much. And don't say "conditions that they have to work with" because so do cinematographers. Elitist? Hardly! Considering it is the actors self-congratulating themselves ALL the time, it seems to me they are the ones being elitist. Sorry, you don't know what the hell you are talking about. Are you a failed actor per chance, or a person that knows nothing about film? Which is it?

Getting in front of camera with all that light in your face may not be the easiest job, but for what it is, it is way to overpayed.

Don't like that? To bad, Mel will pack the house. No one cares who wrote, for better or worse.

Exactly. And how often do you go to a movie with 'super' superstars, to find out the movie sucked because of extremely crappy screenplay? A good actor can't help a bad screenplay. The fact that nobody cares is troubling. It's the reason why we have so much crap coming out every year.

Actors are important, but they are just one cog of the machine. AND, they are the easiest to compensate for, as I am sure you would know if you took any film courses whatsoever.

Re:Yay overrated actors

[geek]

No one deserves 25 million? Thats the most presumptious crap I ever heard.

These actors/actresses spend months away from family and friends on shoots, they spend decades learning their trade (anthony hopkins for an example). They deal with constant press pressure, they have MAJOR expenses in the form of security gaurds because of death threats and stalkers.

Mel also produces and directs most of the movies he is in.

These people deserve the money a hell of a lot more than the fat cat do nothing all day CEO's of HP and WorldCom who cook the books and take 5 hour lunches every day to shoot the shit with other crooked execs.

The elitists are those who claim they deserve the cash more than the ones doing all the work. Sitting in front of a typewritter all day is hardly grueling labor. Guys like Mel do their own stunt work, they do lots of physical acting, tons of travel not to mention the extremely hard work they are put through in promoting the movie.

You sir are the one who knows nothing about the film industry. Scripts are a dime a dozen. There are only so many ways you can tell the same story, but acting them out is a far more intricate and challenging proffession.

Good actors save films. There are plenty of badly written movies saved entirely by the cast, look at the majority of the Star Trek movies for this. Look at Ransom starring Mel Gibson. I could give you a list as long as my arm, but I'm pretty sure it still wouldn't convince an elitist prick like you.

Now take a walk.

Re:Yay overrated actors

[swfranklin]

Editors, cinematographers,screenwriters etc.... do much more work.

The guy who cleaned out my septic tank works harder in a day than I do, does that mean he deserves more money?

More to the point, Mel Gibson's presence will mean tens of millions of dollars' difference at the box office, compared to what it would do without him. Why shouldn't he get a healthy share of that?

Re:Yay overrated actors

[salvius]

No one deserves 25 million? Thats the most presumptious crap I ever heard.

These actors/actresses spend months away from family and friends on shoots, they spend decades learning their trade (anthony hopkins for an example). They deal with constant press pressure, they have MAJOR expenses in the form of security gaurds because of death threats and stalkers.

Nobody deserves 20 mil. Not even bloody stupid CEOs that are now fighting fraud alligations.

What's your point? What are you arguing? Do you even know? Cinemathographers, crew, etc. etc. also spend time away from families. I guess you think it is being filmed by ghosts? Sorry, no dice.

Constant media pressure? Purely their own choiceto be in the spotlight. There are actors, you know, who chose not to be in the spotlight. Regardless of your bullshit, this is more than possible.

The elitists are those who claim they deserve the cash more than the ones doing all the work. Sitting in front of a typewritter all day is hardly grueling labor. Guys like Mel do their own stunt work, they do lots of physical acting, tons of travel not to mention the extremely hard work they are put through in promoting the movie.

Bullshit. What is all the work? Go check the leisure times of actors VS editors. Go to film school. Learn something. Most work isn't done by your precious actors. If you think editors are not important and don't do hard work, next time let the ACTORS assemble edits from rushes because they know it all. Do you know what rushes are at all? Assuming that you do, you better agree rushes are of equal quality to finals, otherwise you admit you're a fucking cluless troll. By the way, while you are at it, fire screenwriters. I'd like to see actors acting without a script. Would be VERY entertaining.

You sir are the one who knows nothing about the film industry. Scripts are a dime a dozen. There are only so many ways you can tell the same story, but acting them out is a far more intricate and challenging proffession.

So are actors. Dime an f'ing dozen. You really think 200 people in the world know how to act? Good for you ignorant jack-ass. What the fuck is your point?

Good actors save films. There are plenty of badly written movies saved entirely by the cast, look at the majority of the Star Trek movies for this. Look at Ransom starring Mel Gibson. I could give you a list as long as my arm, but I'm pretty sure it still wouldn't convince an elitist prick like you.

Star Trek is your idea of a good movie? No, I am sorry; other than to make money, it is boring, trite junk. OK, so you DON'T know anything. Horrible acting aside, you sitll haven't rebutted how acting can compensate for bad editing. It certainly does work the other way around?

I some experience, while it is obvious you are talking purely out of your ass. Not elitist, just more knowledgable than a stupid troll. Next time, let the actors do the entire film idiot. See how that turns out.

Re:Yay overrated actors

[stanmann]

For editing you may be correct, but there are those whose name on a film(producer/Director types) that can make or break a movie Spielberg, Lucas, Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino. Just for example!

Cloning

[psyconaut]

At $25m/movie....aren't we getting close to the stage where it's cheaper to have Colbians kidnap the star, steal their DNA, and for underground Japanese cloning labs to clone said star? ;-)

Hold on....I just gave away the plot for Mel Gibson's NEXT movie!!!

-psy

Re:Cloning

[g4dget]

That has the additional advantage that the star of the movie would have a somewhat more believable age.

AWRIGHT!

[JPelorat]

Yeah, and he shoots Costner in the head with his shotgun pistol! I'd pay to see that!

Re:Mel Gibson = AARP

[geek]

Never fear, Jar-Jar to the rescue!

industry slang

[Dirty_Sanches]

Apparently the script has been in the works for 3 years -> Industry Slang for: The script has been rejected 8 times by all respectable (term used loosly) studios.

Re: New Mad Max Film

[MongooseCN]

Dark Helmet:
How can there be a cassette of Spaceballs: The Movie? We're still in the middle of making it!
Col. Sandurz:
That's true, sir. But, there's been a new breakthrough in home video marketing.
Dark Helmet:
There has?
Col. Sandurz:
Yes. Instant cassettes. They're out in stores before the movie is finished.

Highly polished?

[MeanMF]

This is what the actualy article says about the script:

"This is the most exhaustively prepared movie I have ever been associated with," said Hutch Parker, president of production at Twentieth Century Fox. "The script is as ready as they come."

I can imagine the conversation:
"So how does the script look?"
"It's exhaustively prepared."
"Is it good?"
"It's as ready as they come!"
"oh...great."

Sucked In Again

[DoNotTauntHappyFunBa]

Sigh...The first two paragraphs were insightful and well-written. I was hoping for more material and a conclusion, but then I got lost. Spongebob and the Red Army: is that just a joke?

And a quibble: I would say Road Warrior and its subsequent airings on HBO and cable put it smack-dab in the middle of Gen X's media indoctrination. It may even have pioneered the play-it-ten-times-a-week behavior for more recent cable classics such as A Few Good Men, Tremors, etc.

YES!

[Frobozz0]

Damn, I can hardly think of a reason to see anything on screen these days. This will get me in the theaters again. Well, that and LOTR 2.

Which is going to worse?

[happyhippy]

This or Terminator 3?

Taking bets now.

The last of the V8 Interceptors

[bmajik]

The Road Warrior was my favorite movie from the first time i saw it (at the tender age of 5) up until "The Devil's Advocate" came out.

Nobody in kindergarten knew what the hell i was talking about if i asked them if they needed a guy to haul this rig.

To this day, i still want the car he had in mad max. That supercharger (albeit fake) was the coolest thing i've ever seen. And i want a gear lever with a red button on it that makes the most glorious sound i've ever heard. I had a whole section on my website about the mad max car and some guy in .au emailed me about it with lots of details and info while i was in college. There are clone mad max cars up for auction from time to time. Hopefully, when im old and loaded, i'll be able to pick up a perfect replica mad-max car, with a _working_ super charger that somehow makes that incredible whine when i engage the supercharger.

I've actually asked a couple of tuners about that functionality, apparently it was pretty suspect. To run a boosted motor you need to run lower compression pistons to avoid predetonation, which means that when the SC was disengaged you'd be making shit for power , (although i guess technically you'd be using less gas, but the engine would be way less than optimally efficient). that makes it basically a tradeoff, theres probably some crossover point where you're actually getting better "bang for your gas" with the SC engaged than with it off.

Also, whowever invented the wrist-gauntlet mounted mini-crossbow is a diety.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[geek]

Just use NOS. I had NOS + super charger in a 78 camaro in high school. I blew the manifold senior year hitting 170+mph on the freeway at 2am.

They are fun to have but they get pricey in terms of maintenance. It's like having a kid, you gotta pamper it.

What I want is to build one myself. My old 78 was 90% done by the guy i bought it from. I want to go to a junk yard and find me a frame, then start building from there. I hear Corvettes are great for this, early model 60's vettes that is. Okay I strayed from the topic a little.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[seanmeister]

If you were wondering, that car was a Jensen Interceptor..

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[bmajik]

the problem with NOS is that its not movie authentic.

You may remember that humongous's turbine powered truck seemed to have a NOS bottle on it that gave it the power to overtake mad max and then the quasi-gay biker used a vertical truck exhaust pipe to bash in the windshield on the interceptor, forcing max off the road and ultimately causing the car to be destroyed and his dog to be shot.

putting NOS on a car would be like sleeping with the enemy. I don't care if it would go faster, max's car didn't have it :)

im not sure if this should get
+1 Funny (why do you know that shit, loser)
or
-1 Get A Life (why do you know that shit, loser)

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[Xcruciate]

I would guess the director took creative license with the SC. Why? 'Cause it looked cool in the movie.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[rudiger]

no way, Back to the Future's delorean totally owns mad max's ride.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[geek]

Knight Rider is king of the heap, sorry

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[devbobo]

Actually the car was a 1973 Ford XB GT Falcon (Australian)

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[Cletus the yokel]

I wish. See post below.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[antirename]

I run 14:1 compression with a roots-style blower at 12 lbs of boost. It doesn't run on pump gas very well, and I don't expect it to last very long, but it's fast :) Actually, that car was inspired by Mad Max. Hint: don't use something that get 3-4 miles to the gallon for a daily driver. I did and about went broke putting gas in the thing. I have seen a car with a "switchable" blower; you can do it by attaching the electric clutch from an air conditioning compressor behind the blower pulley. This is NOT an easy project, and you wind up turning custom pulleys and spacers on a lathe, but it can be done if you know what you're doing. However, you're going to foul your plugs pretty quick since the fuel-air mix kind of drips off the blower rotors into the manifold. It looks cool, but really doesn't work too well. Also, be careful stuffing too much horsepower into a unibody car like mine (66 Mustang fastback) or this Falcon (if it is indeed a unibody). It sucks to finally solve you're traction problem and then realize that not only did you twist your driveshaft but that your door doesn't open too easily (because you twisted the whole damn chassis and need a frame machine to fix it). Cars like this are fun, but the fake blower might be a more practical approach. Of course, in my opinion if cops are going to pull you over just to see what the hell you're driving you might as well have a real blower :)

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Most superchargers are always on, though I guess it wouldn't be too hard to get a clutch assembly on one. You can counteract detonation some by using higher octane gas. This is the whole "premium gasoline for cars that benefit from premium" thing. All modern engines have knock sensors and if you give it cheap gas, they'll knock a bit, the engine will retard ignition some (until after full compression) so you won't knock but performace will suffer. Give it premium gas and it won't have to compromise like that. The downside is cost - race gas is 104, 105 octane, but costs $3 or $4 per gallon in the US, about double normal prices. Honda got creative with the rules a few years back and had some effectively 120 octane fuel in their F1 cars, I don't want to know what that was per gallon.

You can also strap on an intercooler (a.k.a. intake charge cooler) which cools the air coming into the engine. It gets heated up under compression (your old friend PV = nRT) and this leads to detonation. An intercooler can cool it down some to avoid this a bit, you can be a bit more aggressive on your compression ratios.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[e40]

When I saw RW at 20 (or thereabouts) it was the most violet movie I had ever seen (including Alien, which was a close 2nd). I can't imagine a 5 yr old seeing it. That's messed up.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[antirename]

The problem with this is that it can lead to spectacular engine failures if you run lean with the boost up and nitrous on. That can happen with either system on its own, of course, but together... I built a drag car for a guy with a blower (the one that's on my Mustang now... he couldn't afford to repair all the damage from the incident I'm about to describe and I got it cheap :). Anyway, he wanted to run for money. I put in a smallblock Ford, heavily modified (read expensive), the blower system, a plate nitrous system, and a fogger system. The car didn't live long enough to be put on a dyno, but it had BALLS. Anyway, we talked NHRA into letting us run the car as test and tune when the work was done. I set it up to run rich, set the nitrous controller to kick in the nitrous from 0% at the starting line when the transbrake came off to 100% by the 60 foot mark (estimated). I told him it would smoke, but to keep the plugs clean and let be know how it ran (I had a final the night this happened and couldn't attend). His driver made a pass, and thought it wasn't fast enough (he must have has brass balls or been on crack). The driver then decided to play mechanic, and while the hood was up to spray down the radiator the swapped the nitrous jets in the plate system for the biggest ones he could find in the kit that I left in car (that plate alone, the way I had it, was good for 300 HP if I remember correctly, and no we didn't expect it to last long. Hey, it's his money). Of course, the driver has no knowledge of basic physics and left the fuel jets alone. He ran the car, the engine EXPLODED and took most of the front of the car off with it. The blower went quite a ways up in the air, don't know how far but it went out of the frame of the video real quick, and landed in the stands. No one got hurt, but the blower landed in an empty lawn chair in the pit area and amazing suffered very little damage thanks to the breakaway studs holding it to the lower manifold. The rest of the car was a write-off. If you have three high-volume pumps pumping race gas to the engine (one for the carb, one for each nitrous system) through half-inch aluminum fuel tubing and an engine grenades, you pump five gallons of gas onto the wreckage long before the fire crew gets to the car. Bottom line: high compression, a blower, and nitrous is a dangerous combination unless you know what you're doing and you change the mixture in VERY small steps and are planning to rebuild/replace the motor every couple of weeks. If you try this, be careful, and if you're a novice with a musclecar and lots of money, please do not engage the nitrous while passing me on the interstate. I've never been a big fan of shattered cast iron coming through my windshield.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[orlock]

The Castlemain Rodshop http://www.rodshop.com.au has a range of clutched blowers like seen on the Black on Black. They have these to suit a wide range of older engines, often as bolt on DIY kits.

I'm assuming this all depends on your engines current compression, so YMMV.

None of these blowers are of the through-the-bonnet 6/71 style though. All underbonnet centrifugal.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[Logos]

it was the most violet movie I had ever seen

Most children can't distinguish between violet and regular purple anyway, so it probably had no lasting effect on him.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[seanmeister]

Oh shit.. I stand corrected!

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[Reziac]

Sorta sideways, but you point up why the Mad Max films WORKED: they were true to their own internal reality. The culture was bizarre, but it was believable in its own context, and the artifacts (such as the wrist-rocket style crossbow) were well-matched in that context. The vehicles are cool because they *feel* right, not just because they looked great.

Back when Thunderdome came out, there were dire predictions that it would be a terrible movie and how no way in hell could it live up to MM2, yadda yadda. Well, it was a different kind of movie (much as MM1 and MM2 are *very* different from one another), but it was true to its world. It *worked*. Gee, it wasn't a letdown after all.

So I'm inclined to give MM4 the benefit of the doubt.

Re:The last of the V8 Interceptors

[a7244270]

I lived for a while in Sacramento, CA, and they had these little "cars" that the parking meter ladies used to drive.

They were about 1/2 the size of normal cars, no doors/windows, lime green, and probably topped out at about 20mph.

Anyway, their bumpers were labelled "Interceptor" just like Mad Max's car was.

My GF at the time couldn't figure out why I thought that was so funny.

Women - no appreciation for shitty movies....

Re:Mad Max 4-

[godawful]

if you will recall, max's interceptor was blown to pieces in the road warrior after someone tried to get his gasoline without defusing the booby trap

The Smurfs!

[TheNarrator]

Oh come on Communism has been in cartoons for a long time. Remember the Smurfs? They are all equal workers. Papa smurf wears a red hat? Brainy is the repressed intellectual. Hefty is the kgb. Gargamel is the evil capitalist trying to turn the smurfs (the proletariat) into gold. Anyone ever notice that Gargamel has very grotesque jewish features (big nose,etc) and his cat is named Asrael (Israel?).

Re:The Smurfs!

[Hormonal]

Most of those connections are pretty weak, but rather than just calling "Bullshit", here's an explanation for the naming of Gargamel's feline friend.

Gargamel was a magician. He had magic books, cooked up potions, and attempted to turn the smurfs into gold via good, old-fashined alchemy. His cat was named Asrael, which is a misspelling of the name Azrael. Googling for said name will turn up references to necromancy, witchcraft, and quite a few theological discussions.

My take is that the cartoon designers were looking for a name, found Azrael while browsing for good names for a sorcerer's familiar, and changed the z to an s. I seriously doubt the entire cartoon is built as an allegory to Communism.

Movies as marketing gimmicks

[Undaar]

I think my favourite part of the article is the president of Fox saying, "This is an event movie, and we know how to market event movies."

It's not even about the movie anymore. It's just about how much marketing can be done; how much money can be made.

Mad Max V: Beyond Pissed Off

[Tseran]

In related news, writers have begun work on the writing of the fifth in the series of movies. However, sources say that it becoming increasingly difficult to keep the character angry, as the years have mellowed the angry warrior.

I'll be downloading

[HockeyP9]

And the MPAA wants us to believe no one is making money off movies anymore...I know Mel is. I won't be going to see this one, I'll just download the divx version when it comes out. I am sure Mel won't miss my $10.00 when he is driving his Ferrari into Hollywood.

The Sure Kiss of Death

[jazman_777]

From the article: But, says Parker, "there are so few roles that define 'big screen action hero' and this is one of them. This is an event movie, and we know how to market event movies. It's Max the way you want to see him."

You see, it's an _event_. Rowf!

bust a deal face the wheel

[godawful]

i'm a big fan and i've been waiting to hear this for years, i know i will likely be dissapointed, but i have hope, and thats what the post apocolyptic world is all about, so i'm true to the game.

on the other hand, i remember reading in the past that they were thinking of casting someone new for the role (heath ledger i think) and that he would play max's son, i can only fear if they try to make this a new franchise by max giving birth so a son who will end up being mad as well.. none the less, this is one i will be keeping track of the news for, i think filming begins in march..

"i only came for the gasoline"

Danny Glover is costarring

[geek]

In an interview Mel and Danny proclaimed "We're not to old for this shit!"

timely!

[kevin lyda]

woo-hoo! new mad max film. it would be a good idea to study it to learn how to live after bush starts a nuclear holocaust...

what is NSA? duh

[Lt Razak]

"Said Parker: "The script's been so tightly controlled, it would have been easier to get into the NSA (National Security Agency)."

NSA is so secret, we don't even know what the acronym is??

Re:what is NSA? duh

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

NSA: No Such Agency

(roaring of engines ceases, picks up microphone)

[gspeare]

You plan to make a movie big enough to haul in the huge wads of cash you need to pay Mel Gibson's script.

What a puny plan.

hahaha

[geek]

Dude you've seen it to many times.

You could always look into what Saleen does with their Mustangs. They supercharge the hell out of them. I used to race against a guy with an old 5.0 Saleen, he made the quarter mile in 11 seconds, with the car stock.

Re:hahaha

[Xerithane]

I used to race against a guy with an old 5.0 Saleen, he made the quarter mile in 11 seconds, with the car stock.

Bunk alert. No Saleen has ever done a quarter mile in 11 seconds stock. Ever.

The closest would be the Mustang Cobra R doing 12.8 with 385hp. That had a Lincoln Navigator 5.4L V8 in it.

Re:hahaha

[geek]

well he claimed it was stock, i'd like to see your evidence that no Saleen ever has stock, that sounds false to me.

Re:hahaha

[Xerithane]

well he claimed it was stock, i'd like to see your evidence that no Saleen ever has stock, that sounds false to me.

Here's some evidence you can verify, aside from looking at the history of V8 Saleens.

Rosch Stage 3 ($50K) Mustange doesn't do 1/4 in 12.

Other stipulations...

[El Camino SS]

I heard that in his contract on the set everyone is to refer to him as "Lord Humongous."

Re:Mad Max 4-

[chimpo13]

Nope, the Mad Max Interceptor is alive and well. Some were wrecked, but the main car is living in a museum in England.

Fake Leather?

[theduck]

You had fake leather? You were lucky! When I was a lad, we had to paint our bodies with hot sulfurous pitch if we wanted to even LOOK like we wore fake leather in a movie!

Re:Fake Leather?

[Bobb Sledd]

You had sulfurous pitch? You were lucky...

Re:Fake Leather?

[shogun]

You were able to complain that other people were lucky.....

Re:Fake Leather?

[dynoman7]

You were....awe fuck it.... i can't compete.

A cool plot

[mao che minh]

Max discovers an old crate of Viagra underneath some rubble, and heads back to Barter Town's red light district in a hurry.

Where are the bristish???

[pagercam2]

Patriot - American challenges the English Braveheart - Scottish challenges the English MadMax4 - Auzzies challenge the English?????

Re:Where are the bristish???

[Reziac]

I suppose that would be Pappagallo, since Mike Preston is actually English.

[I worked on a "Hunter" set with him. Real nice guy, very professional. Good actor, too.]

There's a decent article....

[cyberon22]

There's a decent article that just came out about the prequels in the latest edition of the Bright Lights Film Journal.

Reading it made me wonder if the film was actually better for having Lucas behind the camera.

Back to the issue of Mad Max, I doubt anything can go wrong as long as they haul back Tina Turner. She easily made the third film. :)

Re:There's a decent article....

[susano_otter]

David Brin has an equally strong counter-argument. If you found the Brigh Lights Film Journal article thought-provoking, you may want to check his view out also. He's coherent, thoughtful, and heartfelt.

He has a few short essays on the subject, one of which will do nicely for starters:

http://www.kithrup.com/brin/starwarsarticle.html

The other essays are referenced and/or linked to from this one, so you should be able to find all the parts of his analysis if you're interested.

Enjoy!

He hasn't taken good care of his skin

[burgburgburg]

He just looks quite a bit older then he is.

Re:He hasn't taken good care of his skin

[Alan Partridge]

the word is _T_H_A_N_

Re:He hasn't taken good care of his skin

[fragNabbit]

Damn! Thank you... and I was beginning to think no one actually knew that half of the population didn't know the word than existed.

Remember lingerie?

[burgburgburg]

We're partners, pal.

You! You can run, but you can't hide.

We've all lost someone we love.

The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla!

Be a shame to blow it up.

Re:Remember lingerie?

[throbbingbrain.com]

"Gotta hand it to you tracy... The last of the V8 Interceptors. Piece of history. Would have been a shame to blow it up."

My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. (??something??) But most of all, I remember the Road Warrior.
To understand who he was you have to go back to another time. When the world was powered by the black fuel and the deserts sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now. Swept away. For reasons long forgotten two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze that engulfed them all. Without fuel they were nothing. They built a house of straw.
Their leaders talked and talked and talked. But nothing could stem the avalanche. Men began to feed on men. A firestorm of fear. On the roads it was a white line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavage, brutile enough to pillage would survive.
And in this maelstrom if decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed. Men like Max. The warrior Max. In the roar of an engine, he lost everything. And became a shell of man. A burnt out desolate man. A man who wandered out into the wasteland. And it was here, in this blighted place, that he learned to live again.


(Not 100% accurate, 'cause I'm going on memory.)

Re:Remember lingerie?

[lendude]

Whenever I think of The Ayatollah I always recall that image of the South Park Episode where Butters does him: "Walk away - just walk away"

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

Pre-emptive strike against everyone complaining about how we shouldn't let the MPAA control our lives here.

Wimp

[Anonymous Coward]

C'mon people! What is this "25 million" and "$25,000,000.00" stuff I'm seeing here? This is News for Nerds for chrissake! Mel's salary will be $2.5e7. Get it right. :)

You're no nerd. $25 million should be written as 2ln(5000)/ln(2), or about 2^(24.5754).

Re:Wimp

[aridhol]

Where's that hex troll when you need him?

Real programmers would talk about $0x17D7840, $0137274100, or $1011111010111100001000000 (hex, octal, and binary respectively)

Not to be confused with...

[Bob Vila's Hammer]

The 'zany' Sam and Max comic inspired film Furry Road planned production in the near future.

Re:What?

[Bonker]

I felt like the major theme of Thunderdome was the beginning of rebuilding of culture after the the big end.

The conflict, in case you hadn't noticed, was not between Max, The Kiddies, and Tina Turner. The real conflict was between the gentler, more spiritual, but primative cargo-cult-style cutlure the children had built for themselves and the harsher, capitalistic culture of Batertown. Which of these two would be the salvation of the human race? Barter-town was certainly growing and progressing faster than the Kiddies, but was already encountering shortages and conflicts that could only be dealt through with war... The Thunderdome. Even though they claimed to have done away with the past, it still haunted them. The Kiddies were holding onto the past like a religion... and only a religion. They were starting over from the ground up, having truly left the past behind them for all intents and purposes.

The director's view of the conflict is pretty straightforward. Which culture moved back into the cities and began to rediscover technology at the end of the movie?

I hear a lot of people complain about Beyond Thunderdome. I think it's because they're not looking deeply enough for real, chewable content. It's a great movie. You just have to know where to look to find it. (Hint... It's not in Tina's chainmail minidress.)

You're kidding, right?

[serutan]

Right?

Something I wonder...

[cr0sh]

Will Max sound the same?

Think about it - back in the old episodes, Mel Gibson was still talking twangy aussie-like (not sure what to call it, so don't flame me) - since then, he has managed to "Americanize" himself away from the "Aussie Mad Max" image (voice coaching? I dunno). I have to say I like the works he has done recently (Ransom and What Women Want being two of the better "normal length" recent movies, IMHO) - but there isn't much of a trace of "Mad Max" in either.

I hope what they do with the movie is advance the time a few decades, cast Mel as an older, wiser Max - then get the dude who played the "Ferral Kid" to be the main risk taker, under the watchful eye of Max - it would make sense, timewise - and I think the guy could pull it off...

There CAN'T be a Mad Max 4

[Ubergrendle]

I killed Mad Max in Fallout(tm)!!!! His dog isn't that loyal to my surprise...

Its finals week in them universities..

[I kan Spl]

And I can tell that someone just finished writing an essay before posting to slashdot...

saying "spongebob" and "max max" in the same post is somehow morally wrong...

my bad...

[SethJohnson]

I got confused. I thought those were totals for each week. Instead, they're cummulative totals. My point was that derivative works often sell in excess of the original works.

Look at Scary Movie. That is a satire of several other movies and it made $156 million. Many of the famous movies it's referencing made far less but they are famous enough to give the derivative work traction in the market..

who they gonna get...

[spazoid12]

...to play the part of the aging pop singer lady hoping to stage a come-back? Maybe, Whitney Houston? She's not quite old enough, but she may need the job (so long as it pays $730k).

Mystical overheads

[kizarny]

You know I don't think I've ever seen a mystical overhead fly by a production offices. Most actors get a contract buyout rather than a percentage (the main exception being the films that are a "labor of love" for the actor/director/writer). Promotion costs are taken straight off the top with the rest of the above-the-line costs. Things run over budget when shooting takes longer than expected but it's all documented pretty thoroughly in your daily production report (DPR).

Also, once a movie is in the can, all of the post production is complete and the first wide release is over, the expenses are pretty much capped. If you've recouped your budget at that point, it's all gravy after that... if not, well, just give it time.

With the exception of public domain, there's no statue of limitations on profit and my key phrase was that they eventually make money.

Re:Mystical overheads

[vsprintf]

After reading all the articles about the MPAA, I think I can explain the $80.2 million discrepancy.

It's the post-production costs of the accountants tracking the revenue and the salary paid to the studio execs and MPAA execs to dissipate said revenue in support of the industry (read bonuses and wild parties) that suck up all the profit. Can I be a Hollwood consultant now (or do I know too much)?

Re:Mystical overheads

[Maul]

I think the reference was that the movie industry says all their films barely break even, no matter how the movie actually does.

Senator: Why is it that you think we should give you vigilante abilities to hunt down pirates, at your own discression?

Movie Exec: Because, Senator! As you can see by our numbers, we're barely breaking even! Chinese street vendors have our movies before they are made and are killing us, even though we don't have a market in China! Without vigilante powers, we won't be able to stay in business much longer. It is our God given right to stay in business, no matter what!

Re:Mystical overheads

[kizarny]

The thrust of my point was that the movie industry would never have sustained itself for the time that it has if it wasn't profitable for pretty much everyone involved in the production. Whether they declare the profit and pay taxes on it or just stick it all in a mattress in the spare room and call it "miscellaneous promotion expenses", it's there.

Infact

[geek]

http://www.saleen.com/auto/SR/srperformance.html

This Saleen does 11.8 stock

This wasn't what he was driving so you're probably right his car wasnt doing 11, but you are obviously quite wrong that no Saleen has. The Cobra is a joke compared to Saleen mustangs.

Re:Infact

[Xerithane]

http://www.saleen.com/auto/SR/srperformance.html

You are telling me that he has an SR? And he's racing it? The SR is a new car as well, so unless you were racing him within the last 2 years, no, he was lying. I didn't realize they were actually selling the SRs now anyway. I don't keep up on Saleen.

Look at the history of Saleens, no 5.0 Saleen did that stock. The new Saleens (Since the S7) are complete re-works of the cars (ground up) intead of performance add-ons.

I'd still say he was lying out his ass saying he had a stock Saleen doing 11. I had a friend with an 1989 that was hitting around 14.

Re:Infact

[Xerithane]

Damn, I missed the first sentence "This wasn't what he was driving.." so just ignore me. Long day, literacy failing.

I keep saying "mustange" so I think I should just refrain from literary activities today.

Re:Infact

[geek]

Dude read the post, I conceded he wasnt in an SR, jesus talk about jumping the fucking gun

Re:Infact

[Xerithane]

Dude read the post, I conceded he wasnt in an SR, jesus talk about jumping the fucking gun

I did, my aplogies. My mind just skipped right over that sentence.

Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[MsGeek]

Not exactly...Mel is a walking poster boy for wearing your SPF 30 sunscreen. He got a LOT of sun in his youth. Now he looks like a hunk...of rawhide.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[snowbaII]

maybe he looks older because he was once an alcaholic, that can add years to your body.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[Alan Partridge]

not to mention his beautiful hair hat / pubic micro weave combination hairdo. Last time I put somethng like that on my head it had a Polartec lining. $25Million? What the fuck FOR? The MPAA can fuck off worrying about movie downloading if it's members are wasting THAT MUCH money on wages. How about $1Million? Would it REALLY fucking cramp Mel's style? Or Tom Cruise's?

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[Reality Master 101]

How about $1Million? Would it REALLY fucking cramp Mel's style? Or Tom Cruise's?

Why are you blaming the actors? What are they supposed to do, say "No thanks, that's too much money"?

If Mel Gibson can attract enough people to the movie to make that much money, who should get the money?

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[snowbaII]

There are a lot of usefull things they could do with the money, but it will never happen.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[Alan Partridge]

oh come on! how naiive are you? actors have AGENTS, usually the same ones as OTHER ACTORS ( thus controlling the supply side of "stars" to the studios). If the studios tried giving us films based on interesting ideas instead of bankable "stars" and franchises, we'd all be better served.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[medscaper]

who should get the money?

The Movie execs!

Or Hilary Rosen, if they're not around.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[setiyeti]

If Mel Gibson can attract enough people to the movie to make that much money, who should get the money?

me.

Seriously though, why not some charity, or a not-for-profit organization? I'm not saying Mel shouldn't get paid, but this much? And how much acting does he really have to do for the Mad Max series movies anyway? As I recall there wasn't that much "acting", but the violence more than made up for that....

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[anarchima]

This value is a result of the fact that he has turned down lower offers, in all likeliness. If they could get away with 20 million dollars, they'd do it, but ol' Mel has probably said no to such offers. Blah, how greedy.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[Mitreya]

Seriously though, why not some charity, or a not-for-profit organization? I'm not saying Mel shouldn't get paid, but this much?

I agree that 25M might be too much... but, I can give a reason WHY he is getting paid so much. And the reason is that he can SAVE a pretty crappy movie by his presence alone. I can't think of a really failed movie with him in it... There are very few actors who are that good (most of them need a decent movie to be good), so that's why they get so much.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[Alan Partridge]

you obviously haven't seen What Women Want, Braveheart, Mad Max 3, The Man Without a Face, Lethal Weapon 2, 3, 4, The Patriot, Maverick or We Were Soldiers then.

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[fragNabbit]

How 'bout "Economically-conveyed-yet-valueless-paper book"? ;-)

Re:Everyone's free to use sunscreen...

[Mitreya]

Ok, a good movie is a movie that collected enough money and was liked by *many* people. I liked most of these... though I havent seen a few...
If there is anything I learned from checking imbd ratings, its that regardless of how good a movie is there is *always* some guy who thinks it completely sucks. it's human nature... Even movies that averaged around 9 got a few 1s for some reason... go figure.

Hey, at least RW gave us

[zrk]

Virginia Hey, the touch female warrior who later went on to play Farscape's Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan!

MMBT only gave us Tina Turner in a metal Bikini - attractive, but not quite the same thing!

Title should be...

[Sagz]

"Mad Max 4 - Anger Management"

Who cares if Mel Gibson is in it?

[mypalmike]

I just want to see Grace Jones!
-_-_-

At least 1 and 2 were good

[modme2]

Mad Max 1 and 2 were classic films, 3 was pretty bad although at least Mel wasn't quite at the fake American accent stage and still had a bit of credibility, but really hasn't done anything decent since other than braveheart, so I don't expect this new one to be anything other than a money maker.

Re:At least 1 and 2 were good

[Schemat1c]

I thought he was at his best in the remake of Mr Smith Goes To Washington.

Re:At least 1 and 2 were good

[modme2]

hehe I was a bit critical of Mel he's ok ;) haven't seen that movie thanks for the tip, actors are often better in smaller films, maybe more freedom to do it their own way.

But how much are they paying Grace Jones!?

[mypalmike]

I sure hope she's in the new one. It's time for the Grace Jones '02 comeback special!
-_-_-

Re:But how much are they paying Grace Jones!?

[geek]

oh god please no, no no no nooooooooooooooooooooooooo

This is covered with red flags...

[X_Caffeine]

$25m = Can you name a single movie where the lead made that kind of $$ that was actually any good? I'd rather see Guy Pearce (Memento) or Bruce Campbell get paid $1m to play Max.

"highly polished" == script-writing by committee, always a good sign.

"script has been in the works for 3 years" = "The first draft sucked. The second draft sucked too. 37 drafts later, we still think it might suck, but then, we're the kind of jerks who will put a script through three years worth of rewrites before shooting a lame horse."

My suggestion for the title: "Mad Max Resurrection." I wanna be optimistic, but oh man this looks bad...

Re:This is covered with red flags...

[Blondie-Wan]

$25m = Can you name a single movie where the lead made that kind of $$ that was actually any good? I'd rather see Guy Pearce (Memento) or Bruce Campbell get paid $1m to play Max.

The Sixth Sense. Bruce Willis made a hell of a lot of money on that film, and it was an amazing piece of work. I think that's from having a percentage of the gross, though.

I really don't know whether this will be any good or not, but I'm certainly willing to give it a chance. We'll see...

Profit-to-cost ratios

[Shenkerian]

Which ratio statistic are you questioning? The Blair Witch Project got over a 2300:1 profit-to-cost ratio.. Two orders of magnitude larger than the 37:1 from the butterfly project you mentioned, and one order of magnitude larger than Mad Max's 250:1.

Re:Profit-to-cost ratios

[ConceptJunkie]

Does that count the 800-bazillion dollars they spent hyping the thing once they realized they had a hit on their hands?

Script?

[BryanL]

"Apparently the script has been in the works for 3 years and is highly polished"

I have read childrens books to my four year old that have had more words than the first three movies combined. What can there be to polish?

Sheesh.

[irn_bru]

A big fan of all 3 Mad Max Films eh?

You also like to compare apples, oranges and lemons?

Feral Kid = New Leader

[Slur]

Remember that at the end of "Road Warrior" it is revealed that the feral kid grows up to be the leader of the tribe that escapes to the coast, and he narrates the last part of the movie. So it wouldn't be out of the question for Max to run into the feral kid again, except as the grown up leader of the group that so cleverly used him to make their escape.

An Aussie Ford Falcon...

[Soulfader]

...which was hella cooler than the domestic variety we got here. A quick Google turned up this reference.

I saw a Mad Max replicar at a Ford show outside of Portland, OR this summer. VERY shiny. If I had any pictures scanned, I would link them.

<gratuitous link>
Instead, gaze at the wondrous beauty that is the 1974 Capri--slightly, ahem, used. =)

Re:Walk away. Just walk away.

[geek]

Or get attacked by some guy with a doll attached to a pole strapped to his back that just doesn't know how to DIE!

finally!

[v8interceptor]

I have met heard of someone who likes Mad Mad 3. I guess there's just not enough Tina Turner to go around...

Yngwie must've named the film

[Bassman59]

Yup, Mel's released the fucking fury!

Admit it. You'll all see it.

[EvilStein]

It can't be much worse than Episode II.

Come on. Geeks love movies where stuff blows up. It'll have fire & explosions. Exploding stuff is cool.

And for those that don't pay $5 to see a matinee, there's always KazAa. :P

Some change at last!

[pzilla]

I am probably going to be modded down after this, but I got tired of Mel Gibson doing Braveheart again and again. Trying to bring true historic events was getting tiresome and repetitive. Although it's not exactly new stuff, I liked the Mad Max movies. And Lethal Weapon has just too many sequels for me.

Re:Nah ! Halloween was the one

[dvdeug]

See the comment "Profit to cost ratios" above; Mad Max made 250 times the orignal investment.

I'll see it but...

[Dolemite_the_Wiz]

I still haven't forgiven Miller/Gibson for that pile of crap that was called 'Beyond Thunderdome'. My biggest fear is that this movie will turn into a homoginized version of the original just as the Lethal Weapon series did as each sequel was released. Lethal Weapon 3 and 4 were the biggest piles of festering garbage ever created.

A relevant quote from the first Mad Max...

[jmorse]

The chain in those handcuffs is high tense metal steel. It will take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now If you're lucky... you could hack through your ankle in 5 minutes.

Generation Labels

[Dragon213]

Gen X: mid-60's to mid-70's
Gen Lost: mid-70's to mid-80's
Gen TV: mid-80's to mid-90's
Gen "I don't give a f&(#, I want everything I want RIGHT NOW!": mid-90's to current

Her name is Sandy

[Ayanami Rei]

^_^

Sandy Squirrel and Spongebob Squarepants

So when you draw the heart on a tree or scrawl it in the bathroom, it's S.S. + S.S., which looks real confusing.

LOL!

[Ayanami Rei]

There was that one episode where S.Bob and Patrick were fighting in a wrestling match and then hugged at the end when they realized they were wearing matching boxers. They touched each other's asses, crying.

It's corrupting America's youth, I say! Excellent...

Can't be any worse than Beyond Thunderdome

[Politas]

I'm a big fan of the original Mad Max movie, somewhat less of a fan of Mad Max 2 (Road Warrior in the US?), but I can barely stand to watch Beyond Thunderdome. It sucked badly.

I've got the books for the first two movies as well, and the difference in quality really shows there. Mad Max is a good book, if short and slightly lacking in depth. The book of Mad Max 2 is practically the script of the movie, absolutley nothing more.

I shudder at the though of reading the Beyond Thunderdome novelisation.

Hopefully this new one will be a return to the feel of the first movie, which actually had some depth and change in the characters.

Mad max?

[Pig Hogger]

They should make it in IMAX !!!

Sandy just needs a new wardrobe.

[Ayanami Rei]

Then she'd have a hand up over Lara Croft. Hell, all girls from Texas are lookers, you know that.

This phenomenon is widespread. Cartoons are just as accessable any hottie movie or recording star... they aren't! So the obsession has nothing to do with "getting out". The possibilities of realizing the fantasy are of the same magnitude.
Hell, most guys find me attractive for no reason at all. I'm NOT REAL!!!! Oedipus complex I guess. I'm a mental fuck toy for the whole otaku crowd. So the cartoon squirrel, that's not even a stretch.
I'd be more worried about obsession with REAL inanimate objects, like automobiles, stereo equipment, or pies and canned meats.

Re: New Mad Max Film

[buzzbomb]

Going along with the Spaceballs theme, would this be:

Mad Max 4: The Search for More Money?

Branding

[Animats]

No actor is worth $25M. It's branding, not talent. I'm surprised that Hollywood hasn't figured out a way around that problem.

Some years ago, a friend of mine dragged me backstage at a major rock concert during setup, and I was hearing how the show had two sets of equipment and props, leap-frogging each other from city to city, with one group in setup while another was in teardown. I was talking to one of the promoter's financial people, and said, "So why not have two sets of musicians. Cats has two road companies. Barnum and Bailey Circus has two units. There have been rock groups where, over time, all the members of the band were replaced. And nobody can see those guys on stage (this was in a football stadium, and before big-screen projectors) anyway. Your costs will go up by only 20-30%, but revenue will double." He looked very thoughtful for a while.

Someday, Clear Channel will probably pull this off.

Re:Branding

[PissedOffGuy]

or the wu-tang clan. people would see a partial showing of them too.

Re:Branding

[pjp6259]

Man or Astroman did something similiar. They always play in full costume, so you can't tell what they look like anyway. A couple of years ago, they had four different national tours simultaniously.

Re:Branding

[a1englishman]

Maybe that would work for your boy bands, but not for real artists. When you go to see Pink Floyd, you go to see David Gilmore play his axe. He's very good at it, and watching some look alike isn't going to be the same. You also go to see the light show, and that can be replicated.

The other thing you miss is that rock concerts are how musicians make their money. They don't make jack through record sales. It's the proceeds from concerts where the real money is.

Sure, it's possible to make decent money working only in the studio (Alan Parsons), but it's not in the same realm.

You...

[Anonymous Coward]

You... You have an airplane.

I do?

In Soviet Russia, the hot sulfurous pitch had you!

[texwtf]

Bluh blah blah blah

best mad max quote evAr:

[pauly_thumbs]

use your most outrageous aussie accent:

"Three days ago I saw a rig htta could haul that tanker... you wanna get outta here? You talk to me...."

A wise man once said...

[brettper]

You can't polish a turd

VHS tapes

[chunkwhite86]

Perhaps you'd like to buy my Beyond Thunderdome video on VHS? I watched it once, and thought it sucked horribly.

I tried selling it on ebay for a penny. The bidder backed out when he was I was asking three bucks for shipping. I also tried giving it to friends as a holiday gift. They all gave it back to me the next holiday.

Don't get me wrong, I like Mel Gibson as an actor and I like the original Mad Max - just not BT.

Re:VHS tapes

[cskoien]

The new movie better not be dubbed into "American English" prior to release over in the states, like the first Mad Max. Australian english isn't that bloody hard to understand! Hands up whose seen the original Aussie version?

Oh Boy! Just Like Star Wars!

[istartedi]

Will Jar-Jar be in this?

Ugh.

[Wheaty18]

This'll be just like Terminator 3...

Instead of "I'll be back." .... "Ach, my back!"

I'm so tuff

[FIGJAM]

I'm so tuff, I went up to Mad Max and said "Hey Max! You're not mad, you're just stupid!" -- George Smilovic

AAAAIIIIIIEEEEE!!!!

[Lagrange5]

"Remember where you are. This is Thunderdome. Death is listening, and will take the first man who screams."

I remember that! I saw a sneak preview of "Thunderdome" at the Mann Chinese in July 1985 (holy shite, that's 17 YEARS!) . . .

When that line was uttered, some guy in the back let out a yell. The theater erupted with laughter, followed by lots of hasty shushing. Great moment.

What about USD 25M?

[FearUncertaintyDoubt]

Or do we need to start the whole discussion again?

A tear of joy!

[SomeOtherGuy]

This may be the end of the world coming on. Road Warrior was my introduction to all things good. I watch it at least once a week....(Mad Max about once a month -- and I throw thunderdome in every few months.) No other movie announcment could make me happier. Will we live to see it complete?

Kraftwerk

[davevr]

I believe Kraftwerk did this a few decades ago... They were an entirely electronic band, and would give "live" performances with just automatons on stage. Good Stuff!!

"I am the operator / with my pocket calculator"

oops, I am indicating my age... :-(

Re:Kraftwerk

[gl4ss]

well, then you would be thrilled to hear what aphex twin pulled out once, afaik/iirc/i heard from a friend; the guy has done only few gigs, because he sees little point in doing them because he doesnt play live anyways. but if you give him enough money sure, he'll do it. he arrived at this gig place, popped in the cd, pushed play and left.

Re:Kraftwerk

[mrsmalkav]

a few years back, lexaunculpt performed at a show in costa mesa, california: he was on stage with his laptop fiddling about as musicians are wont to do. he then queued up the song, walked off stage and into the audience, and stood there with his girlfriend watching 'himself'.

classic.

Re: What?

[Black Parrot]

> Tina Turner is SO 80's!

Not quite, but she must be getting close.

Re:Walk away. Just walk away.

[_ph1ux_]

here's the problem that i see with "polished"

I jsut got back from disney land a few hours ago.

Here is my take on the "polishing" of Disneyland:

it used to be a theme park. you would go there, eat some candy - ride some rides - and see a few charcters that you loved from disney cartoons.

now space mountain is "brought to you by FedEX" and there are fedex adds all through out the line in the add - and the ride actually exits you right into a store (as does star tours - which is brought to you by enegizer - and there are energizer bunny ads on the walls.)

coca-cola is everywhere. they sell McDonalds from the McDonalds chuck wagon in frontier land. Disney Downtown is a shopping complex and the strollers.

It was an army of families with strollers and nothing but advertisments.

I took my wife there as she had never been before - and it was my birthday. I thought it would be fun for her first time - and a throwback to the more than 15-20 years since I had been there as a kid. BIG mistake. I wont even take our soon to be kids there.

So much for the polished idea of a theme park.

just because something was good years ago - does not mean that any amount of polishing on the idea is going to make it good now. The idea of Disneyland no longer exists. the idea that a good movie from the early 80's can get a decent attempt at a sequel of any number in this day and age without product placement and mechandising rights and affiliations is about as slim.

Violence and sex is a sure hit worldwide...

[aquarian]

That's why so many violent action movies are being made. Basic themes of violence, revenge, and sex resonate with all people in all cultures. So these movies are a sure hit everywhere in the world no matter what -- language and other cultural factors don't matter. Everyone can understand them, from uptight Scandinavian PhD's to spearchucking bushmen. No matter how much they cost to make, they eventually make money. Add to that the potential for violent video games based on them, plus merchandising, and the profits can be truly enourmous. Not to mention the generations of college students who will rent them to "laugh at" how "bad" they are, pretending to have some higher-level sense of "irony"...

What do you know

[Dusabre]

Overrated?

Seems you don't know a thing about the film business you're part-time part of.

Its the actors that bring in the viewers.

The viewers bring in the money.

Thus the actors are a lot more important (in bottom-line terms) than the directors, producers, editors, cinematographers, screenwriters, though the film as such may be a team effort and may involve more work from other people than from the actors. Even if the film would look and feel the same with a different actor, its the actor (in the case of films with A-list actors) that gets the butts in the seats.

There are some directors and producers that have name value and are 'bankable' (Lucas, Spielberg) but their value is less than that of actors. 'Bankable' means that if you have Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford or De Niro (A-list) in a film, you (producer) can count on getting the money you threw at the film back. That's why the A-list actors get paid so much.

Or in slashdot friendly terms:
1) Get Tom Cruise,
2) Make film with Tom Cruise,
3) Profit.

Of course stage 2.5 which involves a bad script, bad directing and bad filming could get in the way of 3) but most film studios are pretty competent in avoiding making 'bad' films except where religion (Battlefield Earth), ego (Waterworld) or idiocy (Showgirls) overrule the clever people in studio accounting and preproduction.

If you still don't agree with me, check out the film posters. Whose name is written in the largest font? And why?

Re:What do you know

[stanmann]

1) Get Tom Cruise, 2) Make film with Tom Cruise, 3) Profit.

Ok, you mentioned some bad movies, but didn't mention tom Cruise ie MI2

The Feral Kid

[Anonymous Coward]

This blade covered boomerang weilding wild child was the best part of the entire series. The helicopter guy was ok but a little over the top. The Feral Kid was great. He was on the outside of what was left of civilization, like Max, and a survivor to the end. His look, his weaponry and his animal expressions and sounds were fantastic and creative. Making him the narrator of the "Road Warrior" was also a stroke of genius. The gay mohawked biker and Humongus v.s. Mel and the Feral Kid, what a line up!!!

Is it just me? Or does $25,000,000.00...

[keller]

Seem like a lot more than $25,000,000, when seen in a front-page article?
What's the point?

Accents

[1u3hr]

Actually, Mad Max 2 (a.k.a The Road Warrior) was in the Australian accent. Mad Max (1) was dubbed with the American accent...until the Special Edition DVD came out.

Of course Mad Max, as it was released in Australia, was in Australian. IIIRC, it was released for the drive-in circuit in the US, and they thought rednecks needed to have it dubbed into yank, and retitled ("Road Warrior") so as to make it more easily digestible.

When in Hong Kong I saw it on TV I was gobsmacked. Most of the cast are well-known Aussie character actors, and to hear some American voice-over artist messing up their delivery was painful and humiliating.

Martin Lawrence to 20M for "National Security"

[walterbyrd]

At least Mel Gibson is an actual box office draw. What has Martin Lawrence ever done?

Original Mad Max cost less than 1/50th of a Gibson

[Junior J. Junior III]

And dare I say, Mel 2002 isn't worth 1/50 of a Mad Max.

The ultimate product promotion movie!

[TheConfusedOne]

Mad Max - Segway Warrior

Opening scene - Max "roaring" down the road on his super-charged Segway surrounded by hoards of baddies. We see Max being hit multiple times, reeling from the shock of each blow, but he just keeps going.

Baddie #1 - Curse that Segway, if we could just knock Max down we'd be able to ravage the orphanage and take over that oil refinery...

(You can take it from there though I recommend that you don't. :-D )

Re:Her name is Sandy CHEEKS.

[Havokmon]

Sandy Squirrel and Spongebob Squarepants.

Not Squirrel, Cheeks.

Yes, I have 3.5 children.

Mad Max vs The Terminator

[GrendelAlex]

Picture this: The Terminator in post-bomb Australia fights the evil nano-Terminators with the help of aging buddy Mad Max. Now that would be a good flick! Then Mel and Arnold both run for Congress and kick some good old boy network butt and get our economy and all of the GOP deficit spending back in line. ;)

Whazzah?

[ianscot]

So, let's see -- pop-cultural decline as measured by the "spirit" of the Mad Max movies, is it?

Wimpy, who was addicted to hamburgers (a stand-in for alcohol in those more sensitive times).

Those more sensitive times? You're saying it's imaginable, today, to have a popular kids' cartoon where being a drunk is funny? If anything we'd be much quicker to find that offensive now, wouldn't we? (Dick Van Dyke used to do a great drunk on his show, very funny -- until he got sober in real life.)

Spongebob Squarepants, who epitomizes and glorifies chronic laziness and disrespect for authority...

Spongebob squarepants ain't an influence on Generation X, and I'm having trouble thinking of who you mean by "like" spongebob for them. If you wanted a weird choice to do with the drug culture, you might have chosen "H.R. Puffinstuff" -- now THERE was a thinly veiled drug reference, huh? As far as "obviously gay" fictional characters, the first one I can remember was Monroe on a lame sitcom called Too Close for Comfort... hardly a huge cultural milestone, and not much of a formative role model for anyone really.

The Mad Max movies were okay fun -- they did have a low budget thing going on at first, and I sort of dread sitting through what's sure to be a lavish, CGI-beefed reprise. But cultural belleweathers they aren't. If this one sucks, it'll be because it got made for money rather than fun.

Thimble Theatre

[Valdrax]

Popeye was a character in the 1910s-1930s comic strip Thimble Theatre who grew from being introduced as a bit role midway through the run of the comic to the starring character that took it to the national stage. There was no cereal company involved.

Slapping self in face

[Ayanami Rei]

I KNEW THAT! Mother of Pearl!! I'm wearing the friggin t-shirt right now.

By the way, I smell a smelly smell that smells smelly, and it's that 1/2 child of yours rotting in the basement.

j/k.

Last Post!

[alpg]

... it is easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the
sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all. In other
words... their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their
superficial design flaws.
-- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, on the products
of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

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