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 Asked if the expected huge U.S. opening this weekend of the
fourth installment in the saga meant the series would continue,
Miller said it was like asking a woman who had just had a
painful birth when she planned to have another baby.
"I'm just not recovered enough to get into it," he told a news
conference, ahead of its glitzy, out-of-competition screening at
the Cannes Film Festival later on Thursday.
"But you know these characters live in your head and we've got a
lot of back stories and if we have time again to go out into the
wasteland there are other films we will want to do. Yes, so
that's the answer I can give at this moment now -- I've just
come out of labor."
Miller, 70, had a huge hit with the original trio of "Mad Max"
films, the first of which came out in 1979, starring fellow
Australian Mel Gibson as the road warrior of the title battling
for survival in a dystopian future.
In the reboot, which was years in the planning and making, Tom
Hardy plays Max, supplanting Gibson who, according to trade
reports, was deemed to be too old for the role.
Miller sought to dispel rumors of a rift between him and Gibson,
saying that the "Braveheart" star who has become a director in
his own right ("The Passion of the Christ") sat beside him at
the latest Mad Max premiere in Los Angeles, and was chuckling at
times and digging Miller in the ribs.
"He gave me great respect... I think he's wonderful," Miller
said.
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 Hardy said he'd felt at times at sea during filming in the
Namibian desert because there was little written dialogue and
the scenes were shot in extremely short takes, sometimes lasting
only a few seconds.
"There was no way George could have explained what he could see
on the set when we were out there," Hardy said, adding that it was
only when he saw the finished product that he realized what Miller's
intentions had been.
"I knew he was brilliant, but I never knew how brilliant until I saw
that," Hardy said.
Initial reviews of the new movie have been highly positive.
"It’s all great fun, and quite rousing as well," wrote the New York
Times. "Worth waiting 30 years for," said Wired, while Britain's
Guardian newspaper said it was like "a rollicking Grand Theft Auto
revamped by Hieronymus Bosch."
Pundits predict it will open in the $40 million range this weekend
in the United States.
(Editing by Crispian Balmer)
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