The film was produced by
Doug Mitchell, George Miller, and P. J. Voeten (who was also first assistant director).
Development Mad Max: Fury Road had a
lengthy gestation period. In 1987,
George Miller had the idea of making a
Mad Max instalment that was "almost a continuous chase". He got an idea for the plot in 1998 when he was walking across a street in Los Angeles, and about a year later, while travelling from Los Angeles to Australia, a story in which "violent marauders were fighting, not for oil or for material goods, but for human beings" coalesced. Miller said he worked with five
storyboard artists to design the film in
storyboard form before writing the screenplay, producing about 3,500 panels, which is almost the same as the number of shots as in the finished film, as he wanted the film to be almost a continuous chase, with relatively little dialogue, and to have the visuals come first. The screenplay was written with
Nico Lathouris and cult British comic creator
Brendan McCarthy, who also designed many of the new characters and vehicles. The film entered pre-production at
20th Century Fox in the early 2000s and was set to star
Mel Gibson, who had portrayed
Max Rockatansky in the first three films in the series, with
Sigourney Weaver contemplated for the female co-lead which would later become
Imperator Furiosa, suggested by Gibson himself after they had worked together in
Peter Weir's
The Year of Living Dangerously, and Miller agreed on the idea. However, production was indefinitely postponed after the
September 11 attacks in 2001 caused "the American dollar [to collapse] against the Australian dollar, and our budget ballooned", as Miller has said in several interviews since the film was released in 2015, or due to security concerns and tightened travel and shipping restrictions during the lead up to the
Iraq War caused issues with the proposed
Namibian shoot, as had been reported previously. In either event, Miller said he then "had to commit to
Happy Feet because we had the digital facility booked to do it", and by the time he got back to work on the
Mad Max project four years later, Gibson "had all that turbulence in his life". He confirmed his intention to make another
Mad Max film in 2007 and stated that he thought Gibson was focused on his own films and was also "too old" to play the part. On 5 March 2009, it was announced that an
R-rated animated feature film inspired by Japanese
anime, but adapted for Western audiences, was in pre-production that would be taking much of the plot from
Fury Road and would not feature Gibson's voice. On 18 May 2009, it was reported that location scouting was underway for
Fury Road, which "could go into production later this year". By this time, the project had moved from Fox to
Warner Bros. That same month, British actor
Tom Hardy was in negotiations to take the lead role of Max, and it was also announced that
Charlize Theron would play a major role. The finalists for the part of Max were Hardy,
Armie Hammer, and
Jeremy Renner, with
Michael Fassbender,
Joel Kinnaman,
Heath Ledger,
Eric Bana, and
Eminem (who did not wish to leave the United States) all having been considered at various stages of the film's extended development. Hardy announced he had been cast on
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in June 2010. In July 2010, Miller announced plans to shoot two
Mad Max films back-to-back, entitled
Mad Max: Fury Road and
Mad Max: Furiosa.
Weta Digital was involved with the film when it was scheduled for a 2012 release. The company was to handle visual effects until production was postponed from its November 2010 start date. Specialty physical effects house
Wētā Workshop provided conceptual designs, early character look development, prototyping and specialty make-up effects. After unexpected heavy rains caused
wildflowers to grow in the desert around Broken Hill, filming was moved from Broken Hill back to Namibia in November 2011. Other potential locations scouted included the
Atacama Desert in Chile,
Chott el Djerid in Tunisia, and
Azerbaijan. Miller said he did not feel he had to top the production design of the previous films in the series. Instead, he wanted the design to harken back to the earlier films and reflect the changes of the past 30 years.
Colin Gibson, the
production designer, said the filmmakers developed an internally consistent history to explain the film's look and justify its use of
hot rods. He designed the vehicles in the film, some of which were constructed as early as 2003, and all of which were fully functional. Of the 150 vehicles constructed, only 88 survived to the end of filming, with the others built to facilitate their intended method of destruction. The War Rig, the film's most prominent vehicle, was made by combining a
Tatra 815 and
Chevrolet Fleetmaster and fusing a
Volkswagen Beetle to the hull, among other modifications. The cars were designed with an emphasis on detail and characterisation, and effort was made to show the various characters' attempts to recycle the remains of civilisation and their feelings of guilt and loss. replacing
Dean Semler, the cinematographer of the previous two
Mad Max films, who left the film near the end of its preparation period. It was the first project Seale filmed with digital cameras. as the Canon cameras were simple consumer-grade ones, when one would break, the crew would simply source new ones locally from an airport store. Because of the fast-paced editing style Miller intended for the film, he asked Seale to keep the point of interest of each shot in the centre of the frame so the audience did not have to search for it.
Principal photography began in July 2012 in Namibia, Some scenes were also shot at the
Cape Town Film Studios in
Cape Town, South Africa. In October 2012,
The Hollywood Reporter reported that Warner Bros. sent an executive to Namibia to keep the production on track. Filming wrapped on 8 December 2012, although the opening and closing scenes at the Citadel had still not been shot. The Namibia Film Commission said it had "no reservations" after visiting the set during production and disputed claims reported in the media, calling the accusations "unjust rhetoric". Filming went over budget and producers forced the film to wrap before any of the Citadel scenes had been shot. A change of leadership at Warner Bros. later allowed production to continue and the missing scenes be filmed. In September 2013, it was announced that the film would add
pick-ups of the opening and closing scenes at the Citadel. Filming continued on 22 November 2013 at
Potts Hill and
Penrith Lakes in
Western Sydney, and concluded in December 2013 at
Fox Studios Australia. Miller invited playwright
Eve Ensler to act as an on-set adviser. Impressed with the script's depth and what she saw as feminist themes, she spent a week in Namibia, where she spoke to the actors about issues of
violence against women. According to Miller, 90% of the effects in the film were achieved
practically. Both the Doof Wagon and the Doof Warrior's guitar are fully functional, and none of his scenes were rendered using
CGI—even when the guitar shoots fire.
Second unit director and supervising
stunt coordinator Guy Norris was in charge of over 150 stunt performers, some of whom were from
Cirque du Soleil. Hardy later said he had a hard time seeing Miller's vision during production, which frustrated him. He understood after seeing the finished film, however, and started his Cannes press briefing with a lengthy apology to Miller, calling the director "brilliant". Theron and Hardy clashed on set during filming. Hardy would show up late to set frequently, disrupting the shooting schedule.
Post-production Miller recruited his wife,
Margaret Sixel, to edit the film, as he felt she could make it stand out from other action films. Sixel had 480 hours of footage to edit, which took three months to watch. The film contains about 2,700 cuts in 120 minutes, or 22.5 cuts per minute, compared to
Mad Max 2s 1,200 cuts in 90 minutes, or 13.33 cuts per minute. According to Seale, "something like 50 or 60 percent of the film is not running at 24 frames a second, which is the traditional
frame rate. It'll be running below 24 frames because George, if he couldn't understand what was happening in the shot, he slowed it down until you could ... Or if it was too well understood, he'd shorten it or he'd speed it up back towards 24. His manipulation of every shot in that movie is intense."
The Washington Post noted that the changing frame rate gives the film an "almost cartoonishly jerky" look. The film contains 2,000
visual effects shots. The lead effects company was Iloura, which produced more than 1,500 effects shots for the film. Additional visual effects studios that worked on the film include
Method Studios, Brave New World vfx, Stereo D, 4DMax, BlackGinger,
The Third Floor, and Dr D Studios. The effects work included altering lighting and time of day, weather effects, terrain replacement, and plate composition.
Sound designer Mark Mangini stated that he viewed the War Rig as an allegory for
Moby-Dick, with Immortan Joe playing the role of
Captain Ahab. As such, the mechanical truck sounds of the Rig were layered with whale calls to provide a more animal-like quality, and when the tank is pierced with harpoons and milk sprays out, sounds of whales breathing from their blow-holes were incorporated. For the final destruction of the War Rig, the only sounds used were slowed down bear growls to symbolise the death of the truck as a living creature. Although Miller was contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13 film, Miller had originally planned to shoot the film in native 3D, but this idea was eventually scrapped, due to both budgetary concerns and doubts that the 3D cameras could withstand the tough desert filming conditions and extensive stunt work, and it was converted to 3D in post-production instead. == Music ==