The Wasteland

[Taipan]

Ok I'll cut right to the chase.

I think I have a pretty good idea what 'The Wasteland' is. And it's because of some information I learned from the people working on Furiosa who are also familiar with this 'other' Mad Max project.

Officially: It's a story about a year of Max's life leading up to Fury Road, and it's very bleak. That's all we 'officially' know.
But what I learned - it's a story about Max rebuilding his vehicle by helping others out in the wasteland. Allow me to explain how I learned about this.


A few months ago there were rumours about a 'Mad Max series' that was supposedly being worked on. I snooped around, asked around and lo and behold - it wasn't a rumour. I can't go much into detail without getting myself or others in trouble but here's the most interesting part:
The script for that show was called 'The Wasteland'. And the premise was that Max rebuilds his car by helping others (roughly). Does this sound familiar?
Because it should!

George Miller had that idea for a VERY LONG TIME.
After the release of Beyond Thunderdome he wanted to make a Mad Max TV show starring Jon Blake. According to Mark Sexton: that show was about Max doing jobs for people in the wasteland in exchange for parts for his new Interceptor. Of course the show was never made.
Fast forward to 1996 - George Miller tried making a Mad Max TV show AGAIN. And apparently the idea for the show was just the same - Max rebuilds his car by helping others. That's why he got in contact with Brendan McCarthy who already worked on a TV show called Reboot and he was good with CG that would help filling in backgrounds and such.
But Brendan didn't like the idea of a Mad Max TV show, he wanted a Mad Max movie instead so he pitched George Miller a very rough idea for Fury Road and ultimately they decided to make Fury Road instead of that Mad Max TV show!

But did the idea for a story about Max rebuilding his car go away? Nope!
He decided to turn it into a video game! The game that he was working on with Cory Barlog around 2008-2010. But again - that game never came out.
So what happened later?
WB and Avalanche picked up the pieces of that game and built their own game on its skeleton.
And what is that game about?

It's about Max building himself a new car. Go figure!
Of course the car was now called Magnum Opus and it wasn't the Interceptor but the general idea was the same. Plus WB 'borrowed' so much other stuff from George Miller's notebook that they put spoilers from Furiosa in the game and George Miller didn't even want to have anything to do with the game.

So what happened with 'The Wasteland' later?
Well.... a novella written by Nico Lathouris. I forget how many pages that novella has (something around 190?) but it was later turned into a full blown movie script called 'The Wasteland'.
And as recent as a few months ago I learned that 'The Wasteland' has now become a Mad Max series.

Again: this is what I, myself think The Wasteland is.
A project decades in the making, that took many different forms from TV shows, to games, to books and a movie, and back into a show.
Keep in mind that this is not official, but I learned enough about this stuff to make those conclusions.

Leave your thoughts below, cheers!

[Immortan Joecutter]

That's very interesting.

That means either we will get a movie with Tom Hardy or a TV show...

[Taipan]

That's very interesting.

That means either we will get a movie with Tom Hardy or a TV show...

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that Tom Hardy's involvement with Mad Max is over. We've all heard that he signed up for 3 Mad Max projects at first, those projects being:
Fury Road, Furiosa (cameo), and The Wasteland where he's the protagonist.
But I've heard that he's not coming back. He's definitely not in Furiosa, Max's cameo will be played by his stunt double - Jake Tomuri and we probably won't even see Max's face unless they deep fake it or something.
As for The Wasteland - I heard they simply don't want Tom to work with George anymore because of the issues he's caused on the set of Furiosa. His antics damn near shut down the production of that film with Charlize filing a restraining order against him and threatening to leave the film mid production. Add to it that Tom didn't exactly understand George's vision when filming (who knows who's to blame for that?) and it all boils down to him not continuing to play Max in the future. I'm not saying it won't happen, but I'd be VERY surprised if he came back. After all, with Fury Road, Miller turned Max into a literal hero with a thousand faces.

[AquaCola]

That all sounds right. One thing about the game that really stood out was how well written some of the characters were. It was clear that Avalance didn't write them and many other parts of the game. I was always confused how they planned to fit the whole game storyline with all those characters into a movie so a TV show answers that question.

I really hope they make a show like this. I'd love to see how George handles a TV show and it would really flesh out the world of Mad Max.

[Mad Serge]

Honestly, I can't help but being a little disappointed because The Wasteland seems... unnecessary and redundant? I reckon that the comic book series and The Mad Max 2015 (albeit non-canon) gave us enough insight about Max doing jobs for people in the wasteland in exchange for parts for his new Interceptor. Plus, our imagination can fill in the gaps. Knowing too much might be detrimental to the narrative. I know that Max trying to get car parts are merely "macguffins" or pretexts to explore situations, character interactions, world, lore, etc. But I'm afraid it won't be as "immersive" as the previous films, whereas it would perfectly fit as a video game which is exactly what The Wasteland should have been at some point? It is cementing my opinion that Max, unfortunately, has run his course as a character. That being said, hopefully The Wasteland as a TV series will turn out to be great and not "gimmicky".

I would have preferred The Wasteland being set between the comics and the events of Fury Road (not that it's necessary either): in other words, Max, now possessing his new interceptor, is being haunted by the deaths of Glory & Hope. It could have been an opportunity to chronicle his journey into madness - something more introspective and less action-oriented - which hasn't been really explored before, something akin to Max hallucinating that he's giving "birth" to himself? Perhaps I'm describing a project that would have taken Miller out of his comfort zone.

[Stamper]

Thanks Taipan.
A Netflix style or other TV series could be interesting.

[AquaCola]

Honestly, I can't help but being a little disappointed because The Wasteland seems... unnecessary and redundant? I reckon that the comic book series and The Mad Max 2015 (albeit non-canon) gave us enough insight about Max doing jobs for people in the wasteland in exchange for parts for his new Interceptor. Plus, our imagination can fill in the gaps. Knowing too much might be detrimental to the narrative. I know that Max trying to get car parts are merely "macguffins" or pretexts to explore situations, character interactions, world, lore, etc. But I'm afraid it won't be as "immersive" as the previous films, whereas it would perfectly fit as a video game which is exactly what The Wasteland should have been at some point? It is cementing my opinion that Max, unfortunately, has run his course as a character. That being said, hopefully The Wasteland as a TV series will turn out to be great and not "gimmicky".

That will be the problem they face. While the game didn't do well in it's opening year it did really well in sales and became a loved game by many. A lot of people won't have played the games or read the comics but it would mean spoilers are readily available on YouTube.

[Stef-Man]

I'm very interrested in a Mad Max series, because it could expanse the lore in more than 2 hours. Besides, nowadays TV series have enormous budget, not unlike movies. So, practical and digital effects could be on top, and Miller could be allowed to tell all the remaining stories still in his head about Max. I'm in.

[DGSimo]

Fascinating and thanks for the write up, Taipan! I'll admit I was hoping the Wasteland would move forward from Fury Road rather than being another prequel but if that's what it means to get another Mad Max feature and with Max as the focus then so be it and I'll still be there day 1!

George has been talking a bit about the Wasteland obviously in the Furiosa junkets along the possibility of working with Tom again so we'll what happens after Furiosa. I hope it's a feature rather than tv series though I imagine a series on MAX, no pun intended, would likely allow George to step back and be a Executive Producer if he didn't want to direct but then on the other hand I'm like...what's the point then. lol

The game stuff still fascinates me. I'd love to see and hear what the original vision and design was when Cory was involved, and he must of tried to keep it to that original vision since he went to Avalanche in the beginning but then left.

[Uncle Entity]

Ok I'll cut right to the chase.

I think I have a pretty good idea what 'The Wasteland' is. And it's because of some information I learned from the people working on Furiosa who are also familiar with this 'other' Mad Max project.

Officially: It's a story about a year of Max's life leading up to Fury Road, and it's very bleak. That's all we 'officially' know.
But what I learned - it's a story about Max rebuilding his vehicle by helping others out in the wasteland. Allow me to explain how I learned about this.


A few months ago there were rumours about a 'Mad Max series' that was supposedly being worked on. I snooped around, asked around and lo and behold - it wasn't a rumour. I can't go much into detail without getting myself or others in trouble but here's the most interesting part:
The script for that show was called 'The Wasteland'. And the premise was that Max rebuilds his car by helping others (roughly). Does this sound familiar?
Because it should!

Thank you so much for this post. I didn't know any of this.