When I was 14 years old, I sat down on a Sunday and watched two films back to back: Mad Max, and Akira. I lay awake that night until 4am, in a cold sweat, convinced there would be some kind of apocalyptic scenario which would result in everyone furiously driving fast cars and motorbikes.
Both films would prove instrumental in the games that followed - Fallout's dusty vision of a radiated America seems particularly inspired by Mad Max, minus the vehicular combat. Max is returning to the cinema screens in Fury Road, and during this very interesting interview with Australian Financial Review - linked by Kotaku - director George Miller says he wants to do a Mad Max game, too.
“After resisting the impulse for years, and watching imitators clean up, Miller is now finally going to make Mad Max, the game,” says the article. The game was originally going to be made in Sweden (we guess Just Cause 2 developers Avalanche Studios would be the perfect fit) until Miller met LA Noire creator Brendan McNamara, who seems to be working on the game.
Unlike many directors, the 66-year-old Miller seems to have a firm understanding of the games industry, and how mutually beneficial it can be to the film industry. “It's four-dimensional storytelling,” Miller said. “A game can literally become the equivalent of a novel. That is the thing that people like me who write screenplays envy about novelists: that you can actually stop time and explore little cul de sacs. Whereas in a movie, you'd love to stop and examine that character, but you can't.”
More specific details on how a Mad Max game would work haven't been announced yet, but there's a massive amount of potential in the franchise. McNamara's work on The Getaway should ensure the car chases are fun and furious, and Miller's involvement will make the game narratively sound. Fury Road is shooting at the moment , with British actor Tom Hardy filling Max's leathery boots. There's also a Mad Max animated film also in the works, and, in a way that wraps this piece up nicely, Miller's cited Akira as an influence for the animation.
