Back in 2009 George Miller was all set to shoot Mad Max Fury Road, a sequel to the Mel Gibson films which would be set shortly after the events of Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Miller had planned to shoot in the Australian outback as the series is set in a post-apocalyptic future following the breakdown of society, and the bleak outback fit the bill.

But then unseasonal rains hit the region, and while people living there welcomed it, Miller decided to delay shooting for a year in the hope of regaining the post-apocalyptic landscape. Well it’s been 9 months since shooting was delayed, and unfortunately for Miller the Australian outback is still full of life.

The director recently spoke about the situation to The Sydney Morning Herald:

…looking to start pre-production on the fourth Mad Max in October, Miller was hoping the desert would dry out to resemble the required post-apocalyptic landscape. The film crew had built a road in the desert and had stored 150 vehicles for the film, which will star Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Hugh Keays-Byrne. “The Mad Max landscape looked like Wales,” Miller told Garry Maddox. “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.”

Miller said the search is now on for a new (pelican-free) filming location both within Australia and internationally, possibly in Morocco, Chile or China. Miller also revealed that Fury Road will be the first part of a new Mad Max trilogy, with scripts being written for the fifth and sixth films.

Tom Hardy (Inception) will play the lead, and he’ll be joined by Charlize Theron and X-Men: First Class actors Nicholas Hoult and Zoë Kravitz. The film will apparently follow a convoy of women known as the ‘Fives Wives’ who require protection during a road trip.

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According to Movieline both Matt Damon and Brad Pitt will be lending their voices to the penguin sequel Happy Feet 2. It’s quite a contrast from their previous roles in Troy, the Bourne trilogy and Oceans Thirteen, however they both have kids now so they are most likely doing it for them.

Pitt and Damon will both be voicing characters in Miller’s Happy Feet 2, a 3-D sequel to his 2006 animated film. They’ll be joining original cast members who include Robin Williams and Elijah Wood.

Warner Bros. refused comment on the casting, but Movieline sources say that it’s a done deal — in fact, both Pitt and Damon were recording for it this week.

Happy Feet 2 is currently set for release on November 28, 2011 and will be in three dimensions.

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Director George Miller confirmed on a Sydney-based morning talk show this morning that he is no longer involved with the Justice League movie in any capacity.

From Dark Horizons:

According to scooper ‘Steve’ he says that Miller indicated that if the project does get going again, he expects that it’ll be recast as “the studios seem to want bigger stars in their superhero movies now.”

Miller must be disappointed, as he tried his hardest to get it made. He attepted to get it filmed in Australia so it could benefit from the same tax benefits as Baz Lurhmans Australia, however that was rejected. There was also some negative buzz surrounding the casting and the use of characters such as Batman and Superman, who already have movies of their own. The fact that this movie has ground to a halt is a good thing.

From what we have heard it looks like DC and Warner Bros intend to follow Marvel’s lead by giving characters their own movies, then joining them up for the group movie. From the looks of things Green Lantern will be first on the list, as production could start sometime next year.

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Some thought that the Justice League movie was placed back in development hell after attempts to film in Australia didn’t work out. However, director George Miller recently spoke to the Herald Sun about how good Megan Gale’s audition as Wonder Woman was, and that filming would be taking place next year.

The Aussie Oscar-winner said the glamazon “blitzed her opposition” when she read for the part of Wonder Woman in the sci-fi production.

“She got the job because she blitzed her screen test. I mean, I had no idea she was so good,” Miller said.

“She walked into our office in Sydney and read the part. She has done some Italian movies, but I didn’t think she would be as good as she was.

“But once she read we all looked around at each other and said, ‘Well, there’s no question’.”

Initially slated to be filmed Down Under, Miller conceded production had been moved offshore, with a plan to resume filming next year.

It seems DC want to rival Marvel in the movie department, with Marvel working their way towards an Avengers movie. A few script reviews for the Justice League movie have been rather negative, so maybe George Miller and friends will be able to improve it before filming begins at some point next year.

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One of the main reasons the Justice League movie is not moving forward as much as it would like too after the writers strike, is down to one thing. Australia. Director George Miller has been trying to get the film made in his native Australia so that it can benefit from a 40% refundable tax offset. Many films have been rewarded with help from the Australian Government, such as Baz Luhrmann latest movie. The films leading actors, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, are Australian. Baz Luhrmann himself is Australian, as are two of the writers. It was all filmed in Australia and the name of the damn movie is called Australia! It doesn’t get more Australian than that! The problem the Australian Government have with The Justice League is that is it described as ‘an American story that will be performed in American accents.’George Miller and Warner Brothers have tried. They have hired many Australian actors for the lead roles, such as Megan Gale as Wonder Woman. They have also ditched the word ‘America’ from the title, instead calling it Justice League Mortal.

George Miller spoke about the situation to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Australian film industry is being frittered away because of very lazy thinking,” Miller said. “If that’s going to be the final decision, they’re throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that the rest of the world is competing for and, much more significantly, highly skilled creative jobs.”

Miller said he had “utter creative control” over Justice League and plans to appeal against the decision. “It feels to me like I’m not fighting for this film. I’m fighting for the Australian film industry.”

The Australian-born director said the industry needed movie franchises, even if they were not identifiably Australian, to boost production, improve skills and draw talent back from overseas.

“New Zealand built up their franchises through Hercules and Xena into Lord of the Rings,” he said. “Now they’re doing three Tintin films, two more Hobbit films and Halo. They’ve got work for 15 years in that country.”

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