Coming soon to a theatre near you … or even in your own home theatre ….

ACROSS THE PLANET, Mad Max Fever is building. The news that Kennedy Miller had finished their script for the Fourth iteration of the classic action thriller, was enough to light-up Internet sites and gossip columns across the globe. Filming will start in mid-2002 and MM4 will take around 12 months to hit movie theatres. In the meantime, some real action for Mad Max-ophiles…

Mad Max 1 and 2 have been re-struck in 35mm digitized format and the prints released for distribution throughout Australia. The round-the-Continent tour starts Thursday December 13 at the classic Hayden Orpheum Theatre in Cremorne Sydney. (Our spies tell us the Distributors are considering a further release for the US market next year).

But this is just the appetizer… the real deal is the World-wide DVD release of MM1 and 2 - set down for 2002.

This is the REAL reason behind the release of the Movie to Theatres - original films have to be digitized to reproduce in DVD. The MM DVDS will be produced with all the usual support material - interviews, clips, explanations of scenes, takes and stunts and … this is the hot tip… some never-seen-before out-takes from the original cutting room floor…

But in the meantime, the company has sent the Prints on a promotion tour…

www.AussieCoupes.com was invited to an exclusive pre-release screening this week and we sat through the entire two movies in the one session on the Orpheum's brand new SuperScreen - complete with superb surround sound.

The result can only be described as sensational… Mad Max as no-one has ever seen it before. The digitizing process actually enhances the picture quality and the sound is better and clearer than before - just wait till you hear those V8 throbbers booming out from multi-directional speakers.

Mad Max-ophiles will revel in the opportunity to get up close and personal with every little intimate detail of the film - the cars, the scenery, the 'future shock' costuming, dialogue and throw-away lines.

If you have only ever seen this on video (that's around 95% of all Mad Max viewers), the action on the widescreen is more in-your-face than you can believe … proving that this ground-breaking movie duo was truly ahead of its time - in theme, concept and cinematography.

The Mad Max Movies spawned many imitations and created the format for the cult of the modern action movie (from Waterworld to Terminator and Diehard) but none have matched the shock value of this quintessential piece of movie history.

Conceived, scripted and directed by Australians George Miller and Byron Kennedy, the MM duo were filmed entirely in Australia using all-Australian talent including a then-youthful and unknown Mel Gibson. Of course, the cars that starred in the movie have also passed into film and motoring legend… they include the famous Interceptor (based on a 1973 Falcon Hardtop Coupe), Falcon GT sedan, and Holden Monaro GTS Coupe (the Nightrider's car).

These movies were made on a budget that wouldn't pay the catering crews on a modern Hollywood action-movie production (Mad Max 1 cost $US175,000 all-up), yet they remain the most successful and profitable movies of all time.

In their DVD guise, they are set for another echelon of fame and fortune as the legend will surely never die.

Expect a release of the DVD through Warner in 2002.