Mad Max: Fury Road – NSW filming announcement

This ABC News (Canberra) item from 2009 covers the announcement that a fourth Mad Max film is going into production and will be filmed in NSW.

However, despite all the preparation and financial support from the NSW Government, Fury Road was not ultimately filmed in Australia. Heavy rains around Broken Hill, the site of filming Max Max 2, turned the arid landscape into meadows of picturesque wildflowers unsuitable for the envisioned look of the production.

Production had to be postponed and principal photography instead began in 2012 in Namibia. Additional filming also took place at Potts Hill, south-west of Sydney, and Penrith Lakes in western Sydney.

This two-minute news item focuses more on the financial benefits of making the film in Australia rather than the artistic endeavours of director George Miller. It packs in a lot of detail and gives us a sense of how local businesses and workers would have benefited from the production.

Also, given the then 25-year gap from the last film in the franchise, the ABC has sensibly incorporated scenes from the previous films to key audiences on what to expect from a new instalment. These clips from Mad Max and Mad Max 2 are used effectively throughout the segment, though clips from Max Max Beyond Thunderdome are curiously absent.