Theron and Hardy announced as official cast members

[Mad_Maximus_88]

Look what happened with Lazenby.

Good point!

[Zarana-X]

Hollywood pretty boys and girls... Excuse me while I go to the bathroom and barf.

At theast Theron isn't above getting dirty or made unrecognizable, (Aeon Flux, Monster, etc.) Her and Jovavich are probably the two top pics for convincing female action stars.

[biolumen]

I saw this website and got a little excited at seeing Icon Entertainment and Bruce Davey listed as a Fury Road production company & producer. Then I saw the filming location listed and figured the page was a mix of old and new info. For those unaware, Icon is Mel Gibson's producing shingle and Davey is his business partner.

http://www.hollywood.com/movie/Mad_Max_ ... ad/4228147

I'd guess Ronna Kress is back as casting director. She worked with Miller on the Justice League movie before it got canned and her IMDb page shows she's not currently working on any other film atm.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006353/

[FordMercury]

Where did the whole Gibson rumour started?moviehole?

[Peter Barton]

Gibson was originally signed on in 2003, with Icon Productions (Mel's studio) being part of the deal. Bruce Davey is Mel's long time business partner at Icon, and you'll find him with a Producer credit on a lot of their productions.

The page biolumen has found above appears to still have these credits listed, despite the fact that they were only valid for the 2003 incarnation of the project. None of Icon, Mel or Bruce Davey has been confirmed in any capacity for the current Fury Road production at this point. Given the length of time this whole thing has been in production/speculation, I suspect there will be more of this to come over the coming months - I've certainly spotted a few other old pages still kicking around, and even some current articles still extracting or referencing that info.

[biolumen]

Where did the whole Gibson rumour started?moviehole?

I don't see many websites suggesting the Mel might still play Max, not with that Hollywood Reporter blog post stating as fact that he isn't, so I'm not even sure you could call it a rumor. Being the respected movie site editor that he is, if Clint at Moviehole had kept up his original post, other sites might have picked up on it. But since it was quickly pulled by Clint, nobody really knows what he originally meant to say save for us folks here and a few others on IMDb.

Let's quickly review once again the part he removed.

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

Everything after 'scuttlebutt' was quickly replaced with

(removed at the request of the studio... was I onto something there? hmmm?).

Now, it's easy to read too much into it. Maybe the scuttlebutt is wrong. Maybe the studio made him take it down for other reasons of theirs. Maybe Clint is lying about the studio asking him to remove it (doubtful). Then again, maybe he's on to something. He goes on to say...

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?

I totally agree. After ad campaigns and distribution costs are factored in, this movies' bottom line will be $125 million or more. Is Warner Bros. really gonna spend that kind of money during these tough economic times on a Summer tentpole of theirs that is headlined by an actor who is virtually unknown to the American public? And Theron? It's widely known that Warner exec Jeff Robinov is loath to cast a female lead in one of his action movies, so she's definitely not the reason Miller is getting all this money. Nope, something is amiss. Only question is, what?

[FordMercury]

Well i surely hope Mel's back i mean im in the field which defends that you're doind a sequel to a trilogy where the main characther was always portraied by the same actor then it doesnt make sense to change that said actor.....would pple go see the 4th indiana jones without harrison ford?i mean what about rambo without sly.... so i say if youre not going to get Mel back, dont call it Mad Max then......what i find strange is that Miller didnt confirm max character....

[FordMercury]

Ive seen some sites saying that we stil dont know if mel will be back and miller wont confirm or deny....

[FordMercury]

Well if Gibson is involved he's lying:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainme ... 5790918915

[biolumen]

Well if Gibson is involved he's lying:

Problem is, Mel said pretty much the same thing for years before it was revealed that he was cast in Fury Road back in 2002.

Anyway, it seems Michael Fassbender was on the short list for what I assume would've been the part Hardy was ultimately cast.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=26217