Mel Gibson as Mad Max in the 1981 post-apocalyptic film "The Road Warrior"
Coy time is over, Dear Reader. Yesterday, we told you that God of War
II director Cory Barlog--who'd left Sony Computer Entertainment last
November partway through the development of God of War III--had formed
a creative partnership with writer-director-producer George Miller. Today, we can finally reveal what they'll be working on first: a "Mad Max" action-adventure game, inspired by the "Mad Max: Fury Road" movie that Miller had been preparing to shoot in 2003 before the war in Iraq forced him to put everything on hold. Specific details on the gameplay are still fuzzy, as Barlog and Miller are still early in the planning phase, but we can confirm that melee weapons, projectile weapons and vehicles will all be present, just as you would expect. We spoke with Miller by phone in January, who personally informed us that Mad Max would be his first serious videogame venture. Here are some excerpts from our hour-long conversation:
On the balance between action and drama in videogames:
Games are a way more nascent medium than cinema. We're watching games
evolve as we speak, very dramatically. The balance is going to tip the
other way. I go back to the notion of immersion of the audience. Games,
being highly interactive, are very immersive with the audience, but
there needs to be some experience that the player takes from that. And
it's a very fertile medium to work in if you're looking towards how you
can inform a character. So what I'm saying is, just as movies are
moving towards games, games are going to be moving towards movies,
where that balance is going to be less--that sort of balance towards
action over character, and any character or story is basically in
support of the action sequences.
On why he's resisted previous entreaties to work on a "Mad Max" game:
For many, many, many years--for as many years as I can remember, we've
been asked to make games of the "Mad Max" story. I mean, we've been
approached by every major game company or developer virtually, asking
"Can we do a 'Mad Max' game?" And to me, it always felt like what I
used to call empty calorie action. Where you just--the thing that you
were alluding to before, which is just action for its own sake without
anything underneath it.
On why the movie "Mad Max: Fury Road" was never filmed:
We were all ready to go, within eleven weeks of shooting the next
"Mad Max" movie, "Fury Road." This was way back when the war in Iraq
started, and that really threw this out for a whole host of reasons,
not the least of which was that the American dollar crashed against the
Australian dollar. And apart from that, just insurances, getting
vehicles and stuff there on container ships--all that slowed down
around the world. So we had to move on to "Happy Feet," because that
was going to take a long time.
On whether Mel Gibson will star in the movie and the videogame:
Oh, it wouldn't be with Mel....I didn't realize it was so long ago but, he was 20, well, he was 21 when
he first played Mad Max. He's in his 50's now--it's too old. Yeah, I
think for "The Road Warrior" he was 22 or 23 or something, so he was
just a baby back then.
To read Part I of our in-depth Q&A with Miller, click here. For Part II, click here.
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