Theron and Hardy announced as official cast members

[biolumen]

I'm not giving up on Mel just yet. Why? Because neither Theron or Hardy are Australians. Allow me to explain.

No doubt Warner Bros. is counting on Miller to obtain the 40% Producer Offset that is offered by Screen Australia to those movies made in-country that have enough "Australianess" to qualify (i.e. Luhrmann's 'Australia'). Essentially, for a $100 million movie like Fury Road, the Oz government would rebate the filmmakers $40 million. All other movies made in-country that do not qualify for the Producer Offset (i.e. 'Wolverine') are eligible for the 15% Location Offset, which would be about $15 million for this movie. That's a whopping $25 million difference, a quarter of the budget.

Producer Offset link...
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/producer_offset/

Now, some people might remember the problems with Miller's aborted 'Justice League' movie. Again, Miller was trying to get the 40% Producer Offset but was rejected because the movie didn't qualify, and one reason it didn't qualify was because most of the stars were non-Australians. Miller certainly doesn't want to repeat that debacle again, and casting a South African and a Brit in the leads is just asking for trouble. Because the rebate isn't guaranteed until after the movie is complete, Warner Bros. DOES NOT want a $25 million cloud hanging over this picture. They would make sure that everything that could be done to guarantee the 40% rebate, would be done, and I DO NOT think they would sign off on this $100 million movie without an Australian as Max (or whoever is main character).

This is why I think Hardy isn't Max. He may be the main protagonist or even antagonist, but not Max. Either Mel will return as Max or some other Australian actor will be named, either as Max or some other star role. But I still think Mel will return.

BTW, the only source for the 'Hardy is Max' news is this heatvision blog, not The Hollywood Reporter as some other are saying. I follow movies sites a lot and I've never heard of it before. Variety, however, is essentially the industry bible. Basically, it's only true if Variety prints it. Variety DID NOT say Hardy will play Max. In fact, they went out of their way not to do so.

Dice are rolling!

EDIT

heatvisionblog IS The Hollywood Reporter's blog. My mistake. I'm still sticking with my theory, though.

[biolumen]

Oh yeah, and reading around the internet, it seems the scuttlebutt might have been that Mel would return as Max, but his part would be diminished, and that....brace yourself....he's truly gone mad....or bad, and perhaps redeems himself at the end.....or not. That would certainly explain the 'new direction' Miller wants to take the movie. Not sure how that would go over around here.

[Peter Barton]

Not much to add, I think biolumen has summed it up pretty cleanly. Just want to back up a couple of things he has said...

Like he says, Variety went out of their way not to specify the specific roles that had been cast. I've never heard of the heatvision blog before either, and wasn't sure if they were reading too much into this and drawing their own conclusions - my original update to the front page almost said as much, but I backed off in the end, because I wasn't clear on Variety's source to the info either. Like biolumen said, Variety are basically the industry bible, and it's not worth their trouble to post unconfirmed rumours. At the same time, it doesn't appear a press conference / release or anything was specifically provided, so the source of the confirmation remains a little unclear at this stage.

With regard to heatvision / Hollywood Reporter, the heatvision blog home page states that the site is by "Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter". Directly below that, there's a link right back to THR home page. And if you go to THR home page, there's a link straight back at the Mad Max Casting article, embedded right there as if it were any other Hollywood Reporter article. So my assumption is that heatvision is a THR off shoot, or they're otherwise pretty hand in hand. But happy to clean up the attribution on my front page if it is misleading - I just used the THR name because it would be more recognised, and they did seem to be associated to this story.

Finally, with the tax offset... I would think that 30 weeks filming in Broken Hill is more than enough to ensure Australian content sufficient enough to qualify. The locations will be clearly visible, and that's what is going to generate the tourism dollars. The original trilogy still generates tourism for exactly the same reasons - I should know, I've met many of you over the years who have come out to see them! Hmm, perhaps there's a tax offset to be had for me for promoting the locations for tourism as well...

[biolumen]

Finally, with the tax offset... I would think that 30 weeks filming in Broken Hill is more than enough to ensure Australian content sufficient enough to qualify.

You would think, but it might not, and that's my point. The term 'enough Australian content' isn't specifically defined by Screen Australia. There are general guidelines. It's more or less a judgment call made by committee, and final judgment is made only after the completed film is delivered. Hence the cloud. Unless WB has assurances, written or otherwise, that casting non-Australians in the lead roles won't jeopardize the 40% Producer Offset, it's difficult to see them greenlighting the movie without an Australian as Max. Is it still possible? Sure. But studios are usually meticulous about making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed before spending large sums of money on big movies like this.

Now, that's not to say that my theory has possible holes. It may be enough that the character is Australian, no matter the nationality of the actor portraying him or her. I don't think the relatively new Producer Offset has yet been tested by that particular scenario.

[nolovingplace]

I'm not giving up on Mel just yet.

biomen, I hope your right. It seems like a solid theory. Thanks for the updates, I've been glued to the MM4 Internet news & hoping to see Mels name attached to the movie as I'm sure alot of us are!

Cheers,

[biolumen]

One other thing about Variety. They have a reputation for a reason. Variety prints facts, and the studios essentially use the publication for their press releases. It's likely that Warner Bros gave a Variety editor the specifics for release, that Theron is cast and Hardy would star opposite. That's it. If the studio had said Hardy would play Max, Variety would have printed it. As Peter suspects, the blogger at THR probably read more into what little info they were given. Probably why THR isn't considered the bible of the industry.

[MFP 2020]

Great info. This is going to keep us busy for years. Speaking of which...30 weeks? On location? That's massive!

Theron and Hardy are already listed on IMDbPro (as rumored), although the page says the status hasn't been updated since June 09. Nothing juicy listed.

Talk about jumping the gun: Collider.com claims "Tom Hardy Is the New Max Rockatansky in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD; Charlize Theron to Co-Star"

http://www.collider.com/2009/10/29/tom- ... o-co-star/

From Brendan McCarthy's website, http://www.brendanmccarthy.co.uk/subsit ... /index.htm :

With the help of long time collaborator Peter Milligan, he put together a film proposal for a 'Mad Max goes surfing' movie, called "Freakwave" (later turning it into a comic). Although they were able to get the proposal to directors like Russell Mulachey and Ridley Scott they failed to get a bite, but as a result of the proposal both of them received offers to work on other films. "Freakwave' eventually became a comic series.

Brendan spent several years in Australia, co-writing and designing the new Mad Max movie with the original films' director George Miller and creating a follow-up to the animated Happy Feet, titled Fur Brigade.

Check the sub-page for Freakwave. Definitely RW-inspired.

Probably not germane to the "Australian-ness" of the movie, but does Mel count? He was born in New York; anyone know if he actually naturalized?

[biolumen]

I hope the movie sticks to the story Brendan McCarthy wrote with Miller. The way Brendan described it, it's going to be something truly special. An epic action film like no other. I believe he was quoted as saying that you could call it "Mad Max: Apocalypse Now!". It's that serious a movie.

One more thing about the Variety and THR articles. Variety claims as fact that Theron and Hardy will star. THR's blog only says that they're both "in negotiations" to star. Also, Variety calls the movie "Mad Max: Fury Road" while THR only calls it "Fury Road". One of them is wrong, and I bet I know which one.

[biolumen]

Probably not germane to the "Australian-ness" of the movie, but does Mel count? He was born in New York; anyone know if he actually naturalized?

Mel will get a pass on that one. If he took the role, I suspect most Aussies would welcome him back as one of their own, at least for the movie.

[biolumen]

A fellow user on IMDb was able to unearth the deleted portion of the moviehole.net post through the magic of Google. The original version of the page doesn't appear to have been cached by Google, but I was able to duplicate at least a portion of the results posted by the IMDb user. Apparently, this is how the original article read (pertinent part in bold)....

Variety has confirmed a report by Entertainment Weekly suggesting Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are downunder bound for “Mad Max : Fury Road”.

The film will lens next August in NSW.

I have heard some interesting scuttlebutt concerning Mel Gibson's potential involvement in the film over the past couple of days – but I don't want to say too ... What I will say is that Hardy isn't necessarily playing Max.

I think it's pretty clear that director George Miller had to cough up more than Theron, Hardy and a couple of cool cars to gain his sumly $100 million dollar budget, don't you?

Those probably more in the loop on this one, than the media, serve cold ones at the Silverton Hotel.

I obtained that partial result using the following url...

http://www.google.com/search?q=What+I+w ... 1I7GGLL_en

Just something more to ponder.