Ever since the release of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome in 1985 cult film fans the world over have been waiting for George Miller to follow through on his promise to continue the saga.

25 years on and just as filming was about to start Australia had other ideas and the shoot got rained off as their once arid location picked for its distinct ‘apocalyptic hell-hole’ look suddenly sprouted some startlingly un-apocalyptic flowers on a brand new carpet of grass. A year on and filming of Mad Max Fury Road has moved to Africa where the weather gods are a little more kind to the dystopian film maker.

In order to do this many of the film’s principal props have had to be shipped over from their original location. Happily this includes many of the ridiculous custom-made cars that will pepper the wasteland, cars presumably fuelled exclusively by testosterone, baby’s tears and the concept of hate:

Other photos were snapped on the back of loaders taking the cars to storage in South Africa that depict several copies of Max’s famed ‘Interceptor’, his coupe of choice from the original movies. My guess is that they won’t meet a pleasant end:

Whilst they are surely a mechanic’s dream and/or nightmare, it’s all very encouraging for the future of the franchise. After struggling for so long to take the new film into production it looks like things are definitely being given the go ahead. If all goes to plan the cars here could be hitting a screen near you sometime in the near future along with new Max Tom Hardy and his prospective co-stars Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult. I for one can’t wait.

Source: The Age

Last week, I got to sit down with the legendary Robin Williams to talk about his new movie, Happy Feet 2. We got chatting about how he finds his voice for the characters , what he thinks about the future of the world and other deep stuff like that! I’ve transcribed the interview with the mega-talented man and I hope it comes across OK. Throughout the interview, he’s doing voices and keeping myself and the others that attended the interview thoroughly entertained.

Happy Feet 2 is released in cinemas this Friday, December 3rd and also stars Elijah Wood, Elizabeth Daily, Sofía Vergara, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Hank Azaria, Magda Szubanski, Pink and Hugo Weaving.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Elijah Wood interview which should hit tomorrow.

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HeyUGuys: George Miller (The Director) brings the actors in together to the same recording session but you play two voices! Can you do them at the same time?!

Robin Williams: At the same time, no! Simultaneous quantum recording, no! I usually do Ramon first just because he’s more active and then you do Lovelace later because he’s got that deeper Barry White thing going. Usually we’d do Ramon and the amigos because vocally it’s easier.

How did you find your own penguin within yourself?

My own Latino penguin? It’s a small fierce side of myself! Being a hopeless romantic of my own and in real life I’m lucky to have my own Carmen. With Lovelace, it was just Barry White. I grew up in Detroit so I heard a lot of Baptist preachers and I could find that voice very easily.

How was it coming back?

Really great because it’s the same people. All the amigos were these Latin comics and add to that Elijah who’s the sweetest man in show business and on top of that you have Sofía Vergara. She’s so sweet and so sexy and is just a gift! She makes the room 3d! It was like a reunion.

You said the voices are easy to find but how exactly do you find them?

Well with George (the Director) on the first day we met, an Adelie penguin lives on the top of Argentina in Patigonia so he said let’s try a Latino. With Lovelace I just saw that look because he’s big and heavy and he just looked to me like Barry White or Don King!

You’ve done a lot of animations recently, do you still like doing live action?

I still like to act. I did a film with Robert De Niro recently called The Big Wedding. But doing the voice is a gift. It’s literally like a paid vacation where you go to Australia and work with these guys for 2 weeks and then come back. The weird thing is how long it takes – three years. I think when we did the first sessions, it was a year ago since we did the last session.

Robert De Niro is the opposite of you, very shy, how is it working with him?

We’ve been friends for years It’s great, he’s my greatest friend in the world. He’s the best. He’s very sweet.

Does he make you laugh?

Big time!! I broke his nose when we were doing Awakenings. We were doing this scene where we were supposed to be having a struggle and I caught his nose with my elbow and he comes up and says: “I’m OK” and I went “Oh f*ck he’s alive!”. Actually his doctor says  I clicked it back in from when he broke it in Ranging Bull! He makes me laugh because everyone thinks of him being that way but he’s really articulate and really funny.

This film deals with many issues, global warming being one of them…..

Totally. The opening scene when we see the iceberg break off has been recorded from satellite imagery that George used as research. As it’s melting it’s making more oil available which continues the cycle. To ignore it would be insane. George is now saying that it’s melting so much that the penguin populations are forced into smaller areas and there’s an overlap. The saddest thing in this movie is that polar bear holding onto that small bit of ice and an orca’s coming along – you know that isn’t going to end well!

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If cute penguins are your bag then you’ll be in furry bird heaven with the latest Happy Feet film and there’s a new trailer out to further entice and tease.

It’s solid family friendly fare from the looks of it and where else, other than in the world of CG anthropomorphic animation, could you find a cast which includes Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Pink and Elijah Wood?

Yahoo had this new trailer and this handy synopsis which proved of great interest to me, and may well do to you.

Mumble, The Master of Tap, has a problem because his tiny son, Erik, is choreo-phobic. Reluctant to dance, Erik runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven — a penguin who can fly! Mumble has no hope of competing with this charismatic new role model. But things get worse when the world is shaken by powerful forces. Erik learns of his father’s “guts and grit” as Mumble brings together the penguin nations and all manner of fabulous creatures — from tiny Krill to giant Elephant Seals — to put things right.

Warner Bros. have released this second poster for their new movie, Happy Feet Two and unfortunately it’s more turkey than it is penguin! I guess it is a kids movie! If you missed the trailer for the film, you can catch it here.

Directed by George Miller, Happy Feet Two stars Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Alecia Moore, Elizabeth Daily, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Hugo Weaving, Hank Azaria, Richard Carter and Magda Szubanski.

Synopsis: Mumble the penguin has a problem: his son Erik, who is reluctant to dance, encounters The Mighty Sven, a penguin who can fly! Things get worse for Mumble when the world is shaken by powerful forces, causing him to brings together the penguin nations and their allies to set things right.

Happy Feet Two is scheduled for release in the UK 3rd December and unlike it’s predecessor, will be in 3D.

Following on from the poster that Jamie put up earlier, Warner Bros. have released the first full trailer from their new movie, Happy Feet Two which is the sequel to the 2006 movie.

Directed by George Miller, Happy Feet Two stars Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Alecia Moore, Elizabeth Daily, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Hugo Weaving, Hank Azaria, Richard Carter and Magda Szubanski.

Synopsis: Mumble the penguin has a problem: his son Erik, who is reluctant to dance, encounters The Mighty Sven, a penguin who can fly! Things get worse for Mumble when the world is shaken by powerful forces, causing him to brings together the penguin nations and their allies to set things right.

After watching the trailer, I’m a little worried as it looks rather penguin poo! Maybe that’s because I’m not five years old though. Would love to know your thoughts in the comments below.

Happy Feet Two is scheduled for release in the UK 3rd December and unlike it’s predecessor, will be in 3D.

Warner Bros. Pictures have released the first official poster for Happy Feet Two, the sequel to the worldwide smash-hit Happy Feet.

Directed by George Miller, Happy Feet Two stars Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Alecia Moore, Elizabeth Daily, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Hugo Weaving, Hank Azaria, Richard Carter and Magda Szubanski.

Synopsis: Mumble the penguin has a problem: his son Erik, who is reluctant to dance, encounters The Mighty Sven, a penguin who can fly! Things get worse for Mumble when the world is shaken by powerful forces, causing him to brings together the penguin nations and their allies to set things right.

Happy Feet Two is scheduled to hit UK cinemas on December 2.

Check out the poster below:

Source: Moviefone

It’s been nearly a year since we learned that Tom Hardy would take a walk with returning director George Miller to the world of Mad Max, specifically Hardy and Miller will be skipping down Fury Road.

Swift casting followed. Nicholas Hoult, so impressive in A Single Man, and so woefully underused in Clash of the Titans joined the film, and Riley Keough jumped on board to join Hardy and the film’s female lead, Charlize Theron.

Little is known about the role Theron will play in the film, so any kind of detail is of interest and there’s a new report from MovieHole who picked up a quote from the ABC website, concerning Annabelle Williams, an Australian Paralympic medal winner, who has been cast as a stunt double in Miller’s film.

Here’s what ABC Sport had to say,

“I got a phone call from one of the people at [the production company] and they said it’s got a $200 million budget. My mum was sitting there and we were just like ‘What?’”

“Then they said that the lead actress was Charlize Theron and I nearly died.

“And then I thought to myself the resemblance (between Theron and myself) is striking.

She laughed, adding: “Not at all. And she’s about a foot taller than me.”

In the film, Theron’s character will have part of one arm missing. Williams will fill in for the Academy Award-winner during a fight scene.

“They are going to film me from a very long distance for the fighting so that they don’t have to CGI out her arm.

“I will be her, but just not [in] the face.

So, Theron is an amputee who gets into a few scrapes along the (fury) road. There’s still no update to the potential back-to-back filming of this film and a sequel but with filming due to start soon it’ll take a trailer, rather than piecemeal news items to get people really interested.

You may have seen our post last week of Mad Max lead man Tom Hardy talking about George Miller’s return to Fury Road, scheduled to start filming later this year?

Well, there’s a story going around tonight that director George Miller is making two Mad Max films back to back and looking back on Hardy’s answers this rumour could have legs.

Among talk of his training and his version of the Mad Max character Hardy dropped a few hints,

We’re shooting for a year…

the he clarified,

[We're] shooting for probably nine months. The training period is allocated as two months, technically. We don’t know whether it’s going to push a little bit or come up a little bit, we’re in sort of a gray area. There’s various anomalies and shifting papers. All kinds of people’s schedules, from what I’m aware, need to be tied down.

For more of this talk do check out Alex Billington’s write up here.

The first thing that pops out is the whole nine months shooting – maybe Hardy included the training schedule in here, but it’s hard to say. The story claims that the second movie will have the name Furiosa, which sounds unlikely to inspire the masses but who knows?

Nine months does seem like a long time to shoot for, and Twitch have their sources and two Mad Max films shot together could account for Hardy’s words, but clarification will be sought.

Maybe the extra time will leave space in Mel Gibson’s schedule for a cameo? Maybe not.

There are several young actors stepping in to the spotlight at the moment whose screen presence and raw potential are exhilarating to see; British actor Tom Hardy is soon to be seen in one of the year’s biggest films with a role in Christopher Nolan’s Inception and was recently cast as the lead in George Miller’s revisiting of Mad Max.

Our good friend Alex Billington from FirstShowing sat down to talk with Hardy about Inception but found the actor open to discussing what he could about Mad Max: Fury Road. Of particular interest were the words Hardy used to describe Miller’s take on this revisiting of the world of Mad Max,

It’s a relaunch and revisit to the world, an entire restructuring. That’s not to say that it’s not picking up or leaving off from the Mad Max you know already, but it’s a nice re-take on the entire world using the same character, depositing him in the same world, but bringing him up to date by 30 years.

And this quote from Hardy,

Obviously Mel would’ve been perfect for it but, for some reason, he’s not doing it and I am.

echoes an interview he gave to MTV at the end of last year, before he had been officially cast,

The Mad Max figure is a big figure, and I have to get my head around that. I would have to pick up where Mel left off, but in all honesty, it would be ridiculous to pick up where Mel left off. He is Mad Max.

If you’re interested in Tom Hardy as an actor, or Mad Max as a franchise you have to check out Alex’s write up of the conversation here, there’s much more to read and Hardy goes into detail about the shoot, the proposed scale and how the inevitable CG fits into the wasted world. Hardy is one of the most interesting actors working today and seems up for stepping into Mel Gibson’s shoes and making the role his own.

The star of About a Boy and Channel 4′s Skins Nicholas Hoult has been cast in George Miller’s Mad Max 4: Fury Road. Currently impressing with Colin Firth in A Single Man, Hoult will star alongside Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy as a character known as Nux, and that’s as much as Heat Vision, who reported the story, can tell us.

By sheer coincidence I saw A Single Man last night and was very impressed with Hoult though he was very boyish, and rightly so. How this will play once the world has gone to Hell in a Thunderdome is unclear, but Hoult is making his name with brio.

It was a casting coup enjoyed by Steven Soderbergh and fans of Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen and now director George Miller and Warner Bros have reunited the dynamic duo of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon on the big screen in the 3D sequel to Happy Feet.

MovieLine dropped the news that Pitt and Damon are already into their voicing duties for the animated penguin fest alongside Robin Williams and Elijah Wood, both returning from the first film.

Their roles haven’t been disclosed, nor their involvement confirmed by the studio, but this news is whizzing around the internet like crazy, and – hey, the internet is never wrong, right?

So, does the idea of a Pitt/Damon combo make you want to see this one?

In a Q&A for Edge of Darkness, Mel Gibson elaborated on a few of his forthcoming projects and the fourth Mad Max film, and Collider has bought us this to chew on.

With George Miller taking on the reins of directing Fury Road, or Mad Max 4 to the rest of us, the first port of call following the years of development the film has stewed in was to assemble a stellar cast. Tom Hardy, recently so impressive in Bronson, is signed on to take the lead alongside Charlize Theron but what devoted fans (Maxims?) want to know is has Mel Gibson signed on to play his part?

At one point I was involved and it fell to bits and then this and that…so now it’s probably gone through a lot of changes and I can’t wait to see it.

It would be something to see Gibson return to that world, and with most of the revisiting franchises, Ghostbusters 3 and The A-Team being prime examples, the iconic stars of the source material are mostly returning in one form or another.

Collider also bought us news of Gibson’s Viking movie, set to star Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s no surprise that he wants to go all out and make this film as realistic as possible.

I think it’s going to be English – the English that would have been spoken back then – and Old Norse.  Whatever the 9th century had to offer.  I’m going to give you real.

I want a Viking to scare you…I want to see somebody who I have never seen before speaking low guterl German who scares the living shit out of me coming up to my house.  What is that like?

So, expect scary Germans and Old Norse. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Sounds like fun.

Talented British actor Tom Hardy (RocknRolla, Bronson) has taken part in an interview with MTV where he spoke about George Miller’s upcoming fourth installment of his iconic Mad Max series, currently known as Fury Road.

Before any questions were even asked, Hardy wanted to state that he has still not officially been cast as Mad Max:

“George (Miller) hasn’t actually confirmed that. It’s strongly coming in my direction. I would be preparing for that role.”

Now whilst I’m a fan of Tom Hardy, this statement still gives me a glimmer of hope that Mel Gibson himself may yet return to play the role which he made so iconic. As a huge fan of the Mad Max trilogy I trust creator George Miller to deliver an excellent fourth movie, however there are just some characters in cinematic history that have been portrayed so perfectly by an actor that it is difficult to accept a different person playing the part. Unfortunately for Hardy, “Mad” Max Rockatansky is one of those iconic characters and at 53 years of age I do not believe Mel Gibson is too old to reprise his role, especially seeing as how the main action pieces of the films are based around vehicles and not that much on actual physical combat.

The iconic status of the character is something that Hardy is fully aware of, and even he acknowledges that Mel Gibson is Mad Max:

“The Mad Max figure is a big figure, and I have to get my head around that. I would have to pick up where Mel left off, but in all honesty, it would be ridiculous to pick up where Mel left off. He is Mad Max. I have to bring something entirely different and new to the stage. If I get offered it and George really wants to go with me, then George will tell me exactly what he wants to do and we’ll work together on the floor to create what it is that he wants to achieve. And I hope I can get that done for him.”

Hardy then stated that his audition was not actually for Max and that George Miller has not even spoken to him about the character, but should he officially get the part he believes the two can do it justice:

“The audition process had nothing to do with Max and nothing to do with the story or the script. It was unorthodox to the point where actually I could have been auditioning for anything. It was an anonymous read. [Miller and I] haven’t actually gotten into the conversation at all about Max.” He goes on to say: “If there’s anybody who can create a Mad Max with me playing the character, it’s going to be George “” it’s his baby.”

I do agree with Hardy in that series creator George Miller is definitely the man to re-create the character if need be, but I would love for nothing more than to see Mel Gibson return as Mad Max.

George Miller is sending a rejuvenating ten thousand volts into the Mad Max franchise and the result will be Mad Max 4 and THR is reporting that Miller has found his new leading man – Tom Hardy.

After his impressive turn in Bronson it seems Hardy will take on the post apocalyptic road warriors in the fourth film of the Mad Max series, and rumours abound that Charlize Theron is in talks to play the female lead.

Interesting casting certainly, and I’ve no doubt that Hardy can kick all sorts of arse and deserves to be given a role that will introduce him to a wider audience. Miller will be shooting Mad Max 4 next year. Eyes, as always, will be on this one.

Now if they could get Tina Turner back involved somehow that would be great.

Check out the THR Heat Vision piece here.

Tom Hardy will have done himself a lot of favours taking on the role of Charles Bronson in the movie biopic about the infamous British criminal. Although the movie was a hard watch at times, Hardy’s performance was exceptional. He put on so much muscle for the movie that he looked like a different person. Personally I think it’ll only be a matter of time before he’s Hollywood leading man material. Which is why this news comes as no surprise to me.

E! Online have reported today that ‘multiple sources tell E! News that the Oscar-winning babe (Charlize Theron) is director George Miller’s pick to play the lead female role in the upcoming, Mad Max 4.’ They go on to talk about Tom Hardy, being looked at as a possible lead.

I guess Mel Gibson is too old now but it would have been nice to see him back. Hardy is a fine choice and as I said above, after watching his performance in Bronson, I believe he could play any role as Bronson’s character was a complete mash-up of different consciousness anyway! More info as we get it.

You can buy Bronson on DVD here if you want to check it out.