Mad Max homecoming leaves Gladys Berejiklian giddy

It may be more than 40 years old — older, in fact, than its new star, heart-throb Chris Hemsworth — but the Mad Max franchise is revved up and roaring back to life.

A star-struck NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian with Chris Hemsworth and Mad Max producer Doug Mitchell at Sydney’s Fox Studios. Picture: Dylan Coker

It may be more than 40 years old — older, in fact, than its new star, Hollywood heart-throb Chris Hemsworth — but the Mad Max franchise is revved up and roaring back to life.

The latest saga in the post-apocalyptic drama is set to start shooting in various locations around NSW later this year — a $350m powerhouse that promises to be the biggest movie production ever filmed in Australia.

Also returning for Mad Max: Furiosa is director George Miller, who has helmed the series since a young Mel Gibson got his big break in the 1979 original as a cop seeking revenge in a barren, near-future Australia.

For the fifth instalment — a prequel to the 2015 Mad Max: Fury Road — action hero Chris Hemsworth will play an as yet ­unspecified role alongside Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) as a younger version of Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron in the earlier film.

At a press conference at Fox Studios in Sydney with Hemsworth by her side, a clearly star-struck NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the movie would create at least 850 jobs and “not only reinforces NSW as the economic capital of Australia, but also as the cultural capital”.

Ms Berejiklian described Hemsworth as “a global superstar”, adding: “I couldn’t be prouder of him and his generation of actors who are really continuing to put Australia on the map.”

After leaving Australia more than a decade ago to launch his Hollywood career, the Thor star said the opportunity to come home to undertake such an iconic project was “a dream come true”.

“I’d grown up watching Mad Max, like most Australians, and to be here so many years later and to be part of it is a huge honour,” he said. “Out of everything I have done, it really is the first big ‘pinch ­myself’ moment.”

George Miller thanked the ­Berejiklian government for the ­financial incentives that allowed the Mad Max franchise to return to NSW.

“They made it possible for the film to be greenlit, shot in Australia and for the production to be based in our home state.”

Not wanting to give anything away about the film, Miller said: “The one thing I can say about it (is that) Fury Road happened over three days (the plot), but this is a saga and it happens over many years, so there are many different elements to it.”

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet hailed the production as confirmation that NSW is the premier filmmaking destination in Australia, with Furiosa being partly paid for by the $175m “Made in NSW” fund.

Furiosa is produced by Kennedy Miller Mitchell Films and ­financed by Warner Bros-Village Roadshow for worldwide distribution. The blockbuster is anticipated to be released by mid-2023.