The new Mad Max film will no longer be shooting in the outback city of Broken Hill. Director George Miller has said that the landscape is too green for a Mad Max film.
The film’s crew and equipment are currently preparing to move to an overseas location most likely Namibia according to a report in the if.com.
Production on the film had already been delayed for 12 months while Miller waited for the landscape to dry out after Australia was flooded in 2010. The film had originally planned to shoot in Namibia as early as 2003 before the Iraq War made production impossible in the region.
The film was revived in October 2009 with New South Wales as the planned location until seasonal rains once again delayed the film.
“The Mad Max landscape looked like Wales,” Mr. Miller told the Sydney Morning Herald. “There was a carpet of flowers on the location we were shooting on.
“There’s no way it’s going to brown off. Not only that, we wanted to shoot some of the shots on Lake Eyre but now it’s full of pelicans.”
“Mad Max 4: Fury Road” will be the first part of another trilogy of Mad Max films. It will star Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Hugh Keays-Byrne.
The loss of the film has also affected Broken Hill whose residents had anticipated that the film’s 200-strong production crew would generate business. The town located 700 miles west of Sydney had been the location of other major productions including Mission Impossible II and Mad Max II.
“Let’s look at the long term future; if there’s going to be a Mad Max Four, it’s better to be made then we possibly can get some input into Mad Max 5, or have Mad Max 5 here,” said Broken Hill mayor, Wincen Cuy