Miller to Take Anime to Mad Max

Sunday, March 08, 2009
By: Thomas J. Mclean

Mad Max, star of a trilogy of popular action films in the 1980s, could return to the big screen as a 3D anime-style feature.

George Miller, who directed all three Max films and won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for 2006’s Happy Feet, told MTV Movies Blog he is looking at using the project to explore adapting the anime style for Western audiences.

“The anime is an opportunity for me to shift a little bit about what anime is doing because anime is ripe for an adjustment or sea change,” he told MTV. “It’s coming in games and I believe it’s the same in anime. There’s going to be a hybrid anime where it shifts more towards Western sensibilities.”

One person who won’t be involved in the project is Mel Gibson, who starred as Max in all three films—Mad Max, The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Miller also says he’s working with God of War II designer Cory Barlog on a video game to be based on the anime Max feature.

Both projects are still in the writing stage and won’t see the light of day for at least a couple more years, the director said.

Reader Comments

• shane edgely :

  Monday, March 09, 2009

  mate i have been a mad max fan for as long as i can remember and the thought of it as a cartoon, come on !
  mel is the real max and that should be it .
  nearly every aussie knows mel gibson was and still is mad max ,and if the anime version goes ahead, the least they could do is offer him to be the voice of the legend that he created . i think mel would fit the part best because he is the part, as we dont need another hero to play max sorry if i sound catty but thats just me . thats like when they animated star wars the clone wars its not even anakins voice from the movie or even ob 1is not his voice ok i had my whinge and i will go now
  concerned aussie

• Tom miller : Animator : Freelance

  Monday, March 09, 2009

  Wow! So George thinks anime needs to be adapted for western sensibilities. Go ahead george, dumb it down. See how long it stays on the market making cash after you \'fix\' it up. Anime has much longer shelf life than most of the guff you\'ve pumped out. Mad max as anime? Let the Japanese at it and we\'ll get something amazing not a tap dancing roadwarrior.

• chuck alien :

  Monday, March 09, 2009

  If it\'s all the same to you, I\'ll drive that tanka!