At ease, folks: George Miller has set the record straight on the immediate future of his rejuvenated Mad Max franchise, revealing to The Wrap that while he plans to take a brief hiatus from the irradiated plains of the Wasteland, those fabled sequels are still on track.
Reports that the esteemed Australian director was ready to call time on his turn at the helm of the post-apocalyptic series emerged earlier this week, when Miller seemingly claimed that he wouldn’t make any more Mad Max films. But according to the director himself, said quote was taken out of context, and he remains fully committed to the two stories brewing in his mind.
“That was a completely garbled interview. I was in New York and it was so noisy and the journalist was asking me questions on a red carpet at the National Board of Review,” he said. “She completely got the wrong fragments of information that were just not true. I said no, [another ‘Mad Max’ movie] will not be next, and she took that to mean I never wanted to make another ‘Mad Max.’ It won’t necessarily be next, but I have two more stories.”
Few things survive out on the Fury Road, and even after persevering through a prolonged and troubled shoot for the acclaimed franchise revival, Miller is ready for another crack at the whip…but not just yet. For now, the director is ready to release another film before smearing oil onto his forehead and marching back to the desert, but while speaking to Studio 360, Miller discussed life post-Fury Road.
“What happened to Max after ‘Fury Road’? What happened before ‘Fury Road’? What happened to the other characters?” Miller said. “Those stories are there — probably not as the next film but the film after. I’d like to do one of them. We’ll see. As John Lennon said, life is what happens when you’re making other plans. There are so many other directors out there. People are directing younger and younger. They’re getting a real sense of cinema very, very early. There are some great directors out there.”
Mad Max: Fury Road emerged as one of the early frontrunners of this year’s Oscars earlier today with a well-deserved haul of 10 nominations – Best Picture included.