Up until now the only people discussing Mad Max: Fury Road have been director George Miller and online film writers (like myself) who have been following the development of the sci-fi sequel.

It looks like original star Mel Gibson won’t be returning to portray Max for a fourth time (he’ll apparently hand over the reins to British actor Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron)  but that doesn’t seem to worry the outspoken star. Having said that, Gibson is less than forthcoming with details about his (lack of?) involvement in the film.

Just a few days ago, we talked about a report E! Online had put out which stated that RocknRolla star Tom “Handsome Bob” Hardy and Charlize Theron were on the short list to star in George Miller’s 4th installment of the Mad Max series, Fury Road. E! Online didn’t have any solid confirmation regarding the rumors so the information was to be taken with a grain of salt.

Today we learn (thanks to a heads up from First Showing), that The Hollywood Reporter is confirming both Hardy and Theron have entered into negotiations to star in Fury Road, with Hardy filling in for Mel Gibson as the titular role of Max Rockatansky and Theron as the female lead (does that mean she’s the new Tina Turner?). At this point, unless something wonky happens, Hardy and Theron will be the ones we see come release time.

Over the past few years I’ve been a bit amazed when certain films – that I honestly believed would never be made – have eventually made it to the big screen.

Films such as Live Free Or Die Hard, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull and even Superman Returns were in development for so long that at one point it appeared that they’d never be made. Now it looks like George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road might be making it onto that list.

Over the weekend Miller talked up the forthcoming action extravaganza to the Australian media, discussing casting, showing off cars for the film and giving details about when the film will shoot.

To learn more keep reading.

George Miller has been trying to get a Mel Gibson-less Mad Max film off the ground for the last few years. The last thing that we heard was that the star of The Hurt Locker Jeremy Renner was up for the role in the rebooted action franchise.

However, there are now rumors that star of Brit-jail-house-flick Bronson, Tom Hardy, will be slipping into Mel Gibson’s leathers for the role of Mad Max, and that Oscar-winner Charlize Theron will be “doing a Tina Turner” and co-starring in Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

George Miller has been working on a new Mad Max film for almost a decade and old Max himself, Mel Gibson, was set to return in Mad Max 4: Fury Road in 2002 when the war in Iraq scuttled the project. Since then, Gibson has passed on the role stating that he is too old to play the character.

Miller has pondered many different possibilities for the future of the franchise, ranging from recasting the part, to making the next installment in the series an animated film.

Now it would appear that Miller has decided to return to the live action format with The Hurt Locker star, Jeremy Renner, as a possible candidate for the lead role of Mad Max.

It looks like Mel Gibson fans will have to make do with those old DVD box sets of Mad Max and Lethal Weapon.

Hot on the heels of the news that Mel wont be returning to Mad Max comes official news that Warner Bros. has given up on the Lethal Weapon franchise due to Mel’s lack of interest.

Clint Morris at Moviehole (who appears to have a mole deep inside the Warner Bros lot) spoke with an executive who said :

“That one is as good as dead. It won’t happen. Which is a pity”

Sometimes directors just lose something. It’s sad but true. Maybe they get too carried away with business (George Lucas) or technology (James Cameron) and this leads to them loosing their magic touch.

George Miller was once a hard hitting director who delivered such R rated fair as the Mad Max trilogy and The Witches of Eastwick. Now the Australian director is content to helm family fare such as Babe: Pig In The City and the animated film Happy Feet.

Welcome to another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up. It’s almost St Patrick’s Day, which is great for everyone, but as I’m Irish it means that I can drink Guinness all day long and no one will look down on me. Well, no more than usual.

That’s enough about me though, I know that you don’t read this item to discover my social calender so I’ll cut to the chase and give you your movie news fix from the past week.

This week we have news on : Mad Max: Fury Road, George Lucas’ Red Tails, The Punisher : War Zone, Wolfgan Petersen’s Uprising and a new version of Heavy Metal.