Mad Max (franchise) Mad Max (franchise) Mad Max is an Australian dystopian action media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with "Mad Max", and was followed by three films: "Mad Max 2" (1981), "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985) and "" (2015). Mel Gibson starred in the first three films and Tom Hardy took over as Max in the fourth film. The series follows the adventures of Max Rockatansky, a police officer in a future Australia which is experiencing societal collapse due to war and critical resource shortages. When his wife and child are murdered by a vicious
Mad Max street of Clunes, north of Ballarat. Much of the streetscape remains unchanged. Some scenes were filmed at Tin City at Stockton Beach. The "execution of the mannequin" scene was filmed at Seaford Beach in Seaford, Victoria. "Mad Max" was one of the first Australian films to be shot with a widescreen anamorphic lens, although Peter Weir's "The Cars That Ate Paris" (1974) was shot in anamorphic four years earlier. Miller's desire to shoot in anamorphic made him seek a set of Todd-AO wide angle lenses used by Sam Peckinpah to film "The Getaway" (1972), which were damaged enough in that