As Tom Hardy’s star power increases, so does the anticipation for George Miller’s new Mad Max movie, Mad Max: Fury Road. What with Mel Gibson being something of a touchy subject these days, is there any other actor out there who would be more fun to watch battling weirdos in crazy outfits over gasoline in the desert? Fury Road is a film that’s been plagued with all sorts of disasters and delays over the course of its pre-production though, and sometimes it’s felt like we’re never going to get our chance to see Hardy rev up his engines and do his thing. Well, there’s good news and bad news regarding the film’s production. After experiencing weather related problems with its original location – Broken Hill, Australia – Fury Road has been moved to the African nation of Namibia, where Hardy and crew are currently shooting. That’s the good news. The bad news is, despite Miller’s early insistence that the film was going to be shot with 3D cameras, that’s no longer going to be the case. Any plans to shoot natively in 3D have been scrapped in lieu of using a mix of ALEXA, Canon, and Olympus digital cameras.

It seems like studios and filmmakers alike are trying to distance themselves from the terms “sequel” and “prequel,” despite a filmmaking world that’s seeing more of the damned things. Maybe they can sense a slight backlash against franchising, but instead of seeking original material, they’re more interested in pretending they’re not making what they’re making. Whatever the case, the most recent distancing comes from Charlize Theron, the star of the Alien prequel Prometheus and the forthcoming Mad Max: Fury Road – a project that’s been in the works for quite some time. According to Screen Rant, she’s prepping to travel to Namibia to begin shooting, but the movie is neither a prequel nor a sequel. “Like with ‘Snow White And The Huntsman,’ there is so much potential to re-imagine that world. It’s such an interesting world and how much it still resonates today after 20 years or whatever it’s been. We’re going back to that world but this is not a prequel or sequel or anything like that.” So, it’s what? A spin-off? There’s no real need to get hung up on labels, but this is getting ridiculous. You cannot make a movie called Mad Max 4 and it not be a sequel. Or a prequel. A re-imagining? Come on. We just got over the moronic “DNA” idea behind Prometheus, but when you’re going back to the well, could you just say so? Thanks.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s difficult to explain, really. We do know what it isn’t: boring. We begin this evening with one of two images from the scene of the crime where George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road could very well be shooting. We know this because some wicked Mad Max-esque vehicles have been spotted near where the production is said to begin shooting in April. It’s got Tom Hardy, it’s George Miller back in the saddle, and it’s okay by me.

Director of the Mad Max franchise George Miller sat down with The Daily Telegraph to give an update on the status of his delayed project Mad Max: Fury Road. The film, which has Tom Hardy set to star as the new Mad Max and also includes Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, and Teresa Palmer in the cast, was already set to begin filming, but has been shut down due to extreme flooding in Broken Hill, Australia, where it was scheduled to shoot. If you’re a fan of Mad Max, then you know how important its dry, desolate, scorched Earth setting is to the story. Getting that post-apocalyptic desert landscape feel to resonate on film is pretty hard when you’re standing in ankle deep water. Miller said, “The week we were to start, it rained the heaviest it had in 10 years. I’ll never forget the first day — we were holed up in a big sort of shed watching the rain. We couldn’t shoot. If you want the rain to come, just send a film crew there.”

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

I imagine the children of the next generation will be forced to slam together green blocks and head for a computer to add in the cars afterward. CGI has grown up considerably in the past decade, but it’s also become prevalent to the point of fault. It’s great to see advancements, but it’s not great to see technology used as a crutch when practical filmmaking is so much more exciting to watch. Cars flying down the crackling asphalt of highway is one of those occasions.

We already knew George Miller is planning to reboot Mad Max. But is he hoping to shoot a sequel back to back?