Mad Max: Fury Road

Tom Hardy gets down and dirty for the apocalyspe.

Director George Miller Starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult ETA 15 May

After years of development hell, Mad Max: Fury Road is almost upon us. “Finally!” cries Zoë Kravitz, echoing the sentiments of every fan of George Miller’s post-apocalyptic saga. “I got that job in 2009. I was the second person they cast in that film. It’s crazy! It was a journey. I almost cried when I saw the trailer, just because I actually can’t believe it’s happening.”

She’s not the only one. Miller has been working on a fourth Mad Max movie on and off, for the past quarter-century. What’s his excuse for it taking so long? Well, hiccups in production range from Mel Gibson losing interest in reprising the eponymous desert warrior to the 2003 Iraq War causing the studio to pull the plug to heavy rainfalls in Australia ruining the dusty ambiance of the all-important desert locales. As for his new Max, Tom Hardy, he came on board so long ago it was on the strength of his turn in 2008’s Bronson.

“Tom Hardy’s just as intense as the rest of the movie,” grins Kravitz, who plays Toast, one of a band that teams up with Max as they flee across the desert in a rig driven by Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. British actor Nicholas Hoult, cast as the bald, war-mongering maniac Nux, concurs. “Tom never quite does everything the same. He’s always thinking laterally to what he says. He never takes the direct route.”

Following an intense six-month shoot in Namibia (and reshoots last year), inevitable scepticism has given way to awe after that spectacular trailer went online. “I would’ve probably cried even harder if it didn’t look good, after going through all that,” laughs Kravitz. With Hoult pointing out the script read like a “300-page comic book”, he predicts minimal dialogue and maximum carnage. “There’s a lot of action in it,” he says. “The whole film is one big chase.”