Mad Max News: Mad Miller Taking The Offramp After Fury Road?

Update: As I somewhat suspected, George Miller was more or less caught saying words that didn't exactly mean what people thought. He will be directing more Mad Max movies, he just needs a break. Still, enjoy my original post.

It has been reported today that director George Miller does not seem to have a desire to return for future Mad Max sequels. This comes as something of a shock, as the 70-year old director has put together all four films in the series so far over the course of four decades. 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road even delivered big enough to possibly earn him a Best Director Oscar nomination later this week. Perhaps it is just a bit of fatigue setting in for now, but Miller has spoken his mind pretty clearly.

Despite having made the best reviewed film of the 2015 and receiving such honors as being responsible for making the National Board of Review's best film of 2015, Miller was quoted in a recent interview as saying, "I won't make more Mad Max movies." He elaborates further by saying, "I’ve shot in Australia in a field of wildflowers and flat red earth when it rained heavily forever. We had to wait 18 months and every return to the US was 27 hours. Those Mad Maxes take forever. I won’t do those anymore."

The amount of time spent on making a movie like Fury Road does not come as a huge shock and given Miller's age, one can see how he may not be the most forthcoming, when it comes to addressing what kind of effort it would take to film another apocalyptic car chase-action epic. At the same time though, I can only hope this is more based around being asked the same question over and over, with desires to move to something smaller next.

Miller has actually spoken out recently about wanting to make a smaller film before returning to the wasteland of the Mad Max universe. Obviously he's going a bit further now by saying he doesn't even want to make another Mad Max film, but many should keep in mind that the long time spent on Fury Road did mean he was already able to put together the scripts for two sequels. That's actually pretty cool, as far as getting a level of quality in terms of what could come about in this world, regardless of Miller's involvement.

Ideally Miller would at the very least be a producer on the next Mad Max film. This would mean he would both have credit for the story being told and be able to keep a watch on whoever may be jumping into his territory and attempting to make something resembling what he has so carefully crafted. At that point, you just have to hope they don't screw it all up.

In the best scenario, however, Miller does just end up taking it all back and jumping on the Interceptor for another ride through the wasteland. If Ridley Scott can keep making big movies, which includes new additions to the Alien franchise, it would be great to see another veteran filmmaker hold onto that sort of enthusiasm as well. Given how Mad Max: Fury Road is my favorite film of 2015, I'm inclined to want this to work out the best way possible. The last thing I want is something that's merely mediocre.