There’s an incredible new oral history of Mad Max: Fury Road at The New York Times. It chronicles the film’s journey to the screen, one that was almost as arduous as the characters’ quest to escape Immortan Joe. That’s essential reading for all Mad Max fans — and today the Times added an epilogue, an update on the rumored Furiosa movie that would spin off the fan-favorite character into her own film.

Mad Max director George Miller confirmed that he’s working on the project, which he hopes to make after his next movie, Three Thousand Years of Longing. Miller also revealed the origin of the story: “Purely a way of helping Charlize,” Miller said, he wrote an elaborate backstory for Furiosa’s character explaining how she became the woman we saw in Fury Road. Before they shot any of the fourth Mad Max, there was already a completed Furiosa screenplay.

Unfortunately, the fact that it’s a prequel means Charlize Theron will not reprise the role this time. Miller told the Times he did consider trying to de-age the star for the movie, but ultimately decided against it:

For the longest time, I thought we could just use CG de-aging on Charlize, but I don’t think we’re nearly there yet ... Despite the valiant attempts on ‘The Irishman,’ I think there’s still an uncanny valley. Everyone is on the verge of solving it, particular Japanese video-game designers, but there’s still a pretty wide valley, I believe.

Still, even without Theron, this movie would have Miller, plus Fury Road cinematographer John Seale, and possibly even more cars and vehicles than Fury Road. That doesn’t even sound possible — which sounds very much like a Mad Max movie.

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