crazy max It’s a very different franchise now than when it started in 1979; George Miller’s post-apocalyptic saga has evolved a lot over the years. The first crazy max The film was a micro-budget production made on a wing and a prayer, while the most recent entry was a mega-budget blockbuster backed by a major studio. crazy max is perhaps the most successful franchise in Hollywood history: it’s unashamedly strange and relentlessly dark.
Throughout its 45 years of history, crazy max has undergone many changes. The scale has become larger, the colors have become more vibrant, and the main character has been recast… and crazy max remains strong, at least creatively. These are the biggest evolutions in the crazy max franchise.
5 Max Rockatansky Has Been Recast
in the original crazy max trilogy, the lead role of Max Rockatansky was played by Mel Gibson. This was the role that put Gibson on the map, long before he played Martin Riggs in the film. lethal weapon franchise or William Wallace in Brave heart. He made Max an iconic character; the defining archetype of the lone wolf warrior who traverses a lawless post-apocalyptic wasteland and stops to save communities in need of a hero.
But when Miller came to make the fourth crazy max film, he reformulated the role. As incredible as it would have been to see a “old max”film starring Gibson, Gibson had stopped playing the role of Max for the story Miller wanted to tell in Mad Max: Fury Road. Instead, Tom Hardy was chosen to put his own stamp on the role.
4 There was a 30-year gap between the Mad Max sequels
During the simplest era of the original trilogy, there was a new crazy max movie every three years. The road warrior came three years later crazy max in 1982, then Beyond Thunderdome came three years later, in 1985. But then, it would be 30 long years before crazy max Fans got a new movie in 2015. path of furyand another nine years later until 2024 furious.
This is one of the longest intervals between sequels in film history. 19 years passed between Indiana Jones and the last crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There were 36 years between Top gun and Top Gun: Maverick. There were 54 years between Maria Poppins and Mary Poppins Returns. crazy maxThe three-decade hiatus falls somewhere in between.
3 Mad Max’s budgets have gotten much bigger
The budgets of the crazy max The movies have gotten much, much bigger over the years (via The numbers). The original from 1979. crazy max The film was a micro-budget independent film produced for only $200,000. Its cult status propelled it to gross $99 million at the box office, making it crazy max the most profitable film ever made (a record verified by Guinness). This success allowed the budgets of the sequels to become increasingly larger.
The road warrior was produced for $2 million, then Beyond Thunderdome It was produced for 10 million dollars. After a pause of a few decades, when crazy max It came back in the 2010s, it came back as a large-scale blockbuster property. Warner Bros. entrusted Miller with a whopping $150 million to make path of fury and $168 million to make Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The total budget of the original film wouldn’t even cover furiousCatering budget.
2 Mad Max’s color palette has become much more vibrant
When I was filming the original. crazy max trilogy, Miller took to the arid landscapes of outback Australia to bring its post-apocalyptic wasteland to life. It had a very dull and boring palette. But when he came back to do more crazy max movies in the blockbuster era of the 2010s, it increased the brightness and made those colors much more vibrant and saturated.
In the 30 years between Beyond Thunderdome and path of furyCGI was invented and the color grading process became much more advanced. This allowed Miller to turn those barren landscapes into a truly otherworldly vision of a dystopian future. The dunes turned a bright orange and the sky turned a sumptuous turquoise.
1 Mad Max has expanded beyond Max to become a spin-off
In the original trilogy, the crazy max Series focused solely on Max. But the most recent entries have expanded beyond Max. path of fury focused more on Furiosa’s quest to free Immortan Joe’s wives and bring them to the safe haven of Green Place; Max was more of a supporting actor in that story. With the next film, Miller left Max behind completely and told Furiosa’s origins in a spin-off prequel.
furious It showed that there are many more stories to tell and many more corners to explore in this post-apocalyptic gonzo world. Max is the star of the franchise, but this universe is not limited to just him. There are many fascinating characters trying to make their way in crazy maxThe merciless world.
Fountain: The numbers