First look at Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Thirty-five years ago, George Miller re-imagined the action movie with his visceral, dystopic 1979 debut Mad Max, starring a 23-year-old Mel Gibson in one of his first movie roles. Flash forward two sequels and many decades later and the 69-year-old Miller returns with a new cast and a story  that is sure to take the road chase to an entirely new realm of chaos and carnage.

Photo credit: Jasin Boland.

In an exclusive first look at the the May 2015 film in this week’s Entertainment Weekly, we talk to Miller about what prompted his return to the beloved franchise: a story that popped into his head fully formed back in 2000 but that took more than a decade to realize. This time, Tom Hardy takes over for Gibson as the very damaged road warrior Max Rockatansky, while a shaved-headed Charlize Theron plays a bad-ass commander named Imperator Furiosa. The stars spent a harrowing seven months in the desert of Namibia to shoot the film. “It was mental in a brilliant way,” says Hardy. “You have no concrete, no coffee shops. We were in the middle of a sandpit.”

The rugged production suited Miller and his singular vision to reboot the Mad Max franchise. “I wanted to tell a linear story–a chase that starts as the movie begins and continues for 110 minutes,” says the Australian writer-director. Fury Road features few digital effects and even less dialogue, he explains. “In this crucible of very intense action, the characters are revealed.”

Read more at Entertainment Weekly