We’ve got some media from two long-in-development pictures today, as follows:

• Riddick – The third film in the Riddick franchise starring Vin Diesel from writer/director David Twohy.  This new image shows off the brooding anti-hero who someone left out in the rain.  The long-awaited film, also starring Karl Urban (Dredd 3D) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), will finally land in theaters September 6th.
• Mad Max: Fury Road – The fourth film in writer/director George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action franchise.  The latest iteration features Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) as Max Rockatansky along with Charlize Theron (Prometheus) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class).  New video shows behind-the-scenes footage of the film’s crazy vehicles in action.

Hit the jump to check them out.

A new overseer has been assigned to the Namibia-based filming location of director George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road.  Concerns about the film falling behind schedule and beginning to go over budget (not to mention the cost of flying executives to and from Africa) have necessitated the placement of Warner Bros. producer, Denise Di Novi on location.  While she won’t have producer credits on the film, Di Novi will be responsible for supervising the production as a “studio representative.”  The film, which started shooting in July, is reportedly still expected to wrap by the end of November.

Mad Max: Fury Road starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Nicholas Hoult and Zoe Kravitz, is due out next year. Hit the jump for more.

Filming on the fourth Mad Max film, Mad Max: Fury Road, has been underway for a couple months now, but Kennedy Miller Mitchell Productions have now released an announcement that principal photography has begun.  These production start announcements usually don’t mean much except they usually contain the first synopsis for the movie, and this press release is no different.  We’ll also give the release a pass since Mad Max: Fury Road looked like it might never happen since it was constantly delayed, and the production hit a serious snag when their original location was hit with flooding and turned into an oasis, which doesn’t really lend itself to a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Shooting is now taking place in Africa.

Hit the jump for the press release, which contains the synopsis along with the names of all the major roles (and there are some great character names).  Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy as the new Mad Max, and also stars Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Hugh Keays-Byrne, and Nathan Jones.

Once cast as the Amazon warrior princess Wonder Woman in what was to be George Miller’s failed Justice League film, Megan Gale will finally get to team up with the director in Mad Max: Fury Road.  Her role is unspecified at the moment, but we do have character names for a host of other roles, including that of Hugh Keays-Byrne, who was tapped to star as the Martian Manhunter alongside Gale.  Mad Max: Fury Road features Tom Hardy in the title role along with Charlize Theron as Furiosa.  Hit the jump for more casting info.

We’ve got some early set photos from George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road to share with you today.  From on location in Africa, they feature model/star Abbey Lee Kershaw and some suped-up vehicles that continue the signature look of the Mad Max franchise.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been 27 years since the last Mad Max movie came out, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome starring Mel Gibson. The fourth installment features new additions Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Zoe Kravitz. Hit the jump to check out the first set photos from Mad Max: Fury Road.

[Update: A few more set photos have surfaced, including one of Huntington-Whiteley, Kravtiz, and a few other cast members.  They're included after the jump.]

In last week’s featurette for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Charlize Theron explained that her character, Meredith Vickers, works for the Weyland Company and is basically overseeing the mission that the team aboard Prometheus is undertaking, and she’s also a bit of a hard ass.  However, when you talk to her in person, you quickly realize that Theron has a mouth like a sailor, she’s incredibly smart, and she can talk about anything you ask her.

Yesterday in London, I got to participate in an extended group interview with Theron.  She talked about making Prometheus, how the script evolved, working with Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof, the practical sets, the physical nature of the role, and a lot more.  In addition, she talked about her love of HBO’s Game of Thrones and if she’d be open to being a part of it.  Finally, for all you Mad Max fans, Theron says she leaves in two and a half weeks for Namibia to shoot Mad Max: Fury Road and “we start shooting I think around mid-July.”  She also says it’s “exactly the same script” they set out to make three years ago, “there’s some badass violence in it,” and it’ll be up to George Miller if they make a PG-13 or an rated R movie.  Hit the jump for the full interview.

Director George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road has been a long time coming.  The film was planned as a reboot of sorts for Miller’s Mad Max series that launched Mel Gibson’s career.  Pre-production began in 2009 with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron set to star, and when filming was finally gearing up to commence in late 2010 on the ambitious, large-scale project, Miller announced that they would have to postpone production until 2012.  Torrential rains flooded the area in Australia where Miller was planning to shoot, so he decided to wait until the landscape returned to its desert-like nature.  Hit the jump for more.

Director George Miller is having a tough time getting Mad Max: Fury Road made. The Mad Max reboot was supposed to shoot in 2011, but weather and changing landscapes lead to a herculean delay. When the planned Australian location refused to revert back to its desert topography, Miller decided to move production to Africa. Now filming on the first entry in a planned trilogy is set to commence in April in Nambia, with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron set as the leads, and some images of a few new vehicles have surfaced. We’ve already gotten a peek at some of what Miller has put together, but the vehicles seen here promise an adequate amount of destruction. Hit the jump to check them out.

Writer-director George Miller is having trouble getting just one new Mad Max movie into production, but it looks like he’s now aiming to get three of them.  Mad Max: Fury Road was supposed to be the first part of two new movies, which were set to shoot back-to-back in 2011.  Then weather and changing landscapes caused massive delays, but Miller now plans to begin filming in Namibia in April with additional filming and post-production taking place in his native Australia.  But it looks like he has yet another Mad Max movie in him. Hit the jump for more.

In 2007, the smash hit Happy Feet won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. So, it’s certainly no surprise that writer/director George Miller and some of the voice cast returned for Happy Feet Two. This time around, Erik, the tiny son of master tap dancer Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood) and the vocally gifted Gloria (voiced by Pink), runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria), the only penguin who can fly. When violent shifts in the glacial landscape of Antarctica threaten the survival of the entire Emperor penguin community, Mumble and Erik must rally all creatures, both great and small, to save them.

During a press conference to promote the film, George Miller talked about collaborating with tap master Savion Glover for the penguin choreography, the importance of following nature and natural history for the film’s story, how despite our differences we can overcome the chaos of the world, what a privilege it was for him to see this voice cast working and recording together, and how he has no idea what the story for Happy Feet 3 could be, at this point. He also talked about his Justice League movie with Common as Green Lantern that never got off the ground, and whether Mad Max: Fury Road will ever actually happen. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Although previously known for his live-action work, including Babe: Pig in the City, Lorenzo’s Oil, The Witches of Eastwick and his feature directorial debut Mad Max, writer/director George Miller has also made his mark in the animated world with the smash hit Happy Feet (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2007) and its sequel, Happy Feet Two.

While we will run what he had to say about that film, closer to its November 18^th release date, we did want to share what he had to say about his live-action work, his Justice League movie with Common as Green Lantern that never got off the ground, and whether Mad Max: Fury Road will ever actually happen. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

A new trailer has gone online for George Miller’s Happy Feet Two. I know I’m not the target audience for these movies but I find penguins adorable.  Theoretically, I should be willing to give the Happy Feet flicks the benefit of the doubt on that alone.  But the animators for the Happy Feet films made a serious error when they decided to give the penguins human eyes.  The characters all exist in a weird middle ground between trying to have animated expressions and still remain realistic-looking.  The movies are made worse by the having penguins squeak out hip-hop songs. But none of that matters because the movie will probably make hundreds of millions of dollars.  Hooray.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, which doesn’t tell you what the movie is about (Mumble and his son have to find an escape route when the penguin population is covered in ice). The film features the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Alecia Moore (P!nk), Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Hugo Weaving, Richard Carter, Common, Magda Szubanski, and Anthony LaPagila.  Happy Feet Two opens in 3D on November 18th.

Filming on George Miller’s Mad Max reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road, was originally set to begin in August 2010 but then was pushed back to February 2011.  Then it was kicked back eleven months to January 2012 because torrential rains had flooded the Australian desert where the movie planned to shoot.  Last month, Tom Hardy, who will play the eponymous road warrior, said the film will go before cameras in April and it looks like he could have his ride.  MadMaxMovies.com may have landed some set photos of a couple vehicles used in the movie.  The truck definitely looks like it could fit into the world of Mad Max and if the four-door sedan is actually attached to the six-wheeler, that’s an awesome design.  Of course, these could just be pieces of a different, unknown vehicle, and this is assuming these cars are even from Fury Road in the first place.

Hit the jump to check out the potential vehicles.  Mad Max: Fury Road co-stars Charlize Theron and possibly Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) and Riley Kileough (The Runaway).

George Miller’s Mad Max follow-up Fury Road has had a bit of a storied history. The film was originally set to start production in August 2010 with stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, but after massive sets had been built and intense pre-production work was underway, torrential rains flooded the Australian desert that was set to be the film’s backdrop for the duration of the shoot.

Flash forward to this past March, when Miller gave an update on the project saying that they would restart pre-production later this year and commence filming early next year, with the film fully funded and ready to go. Now we have a solid start date, as Hardy revealed to Steve at today’s Warrior press day that the film will begin production next April. He said:

“we’re going to have to find somewhere else to shoot it, but it looks like it’s going in April.”

Hit the jump for more on Mad Max: Fury Road.

The first trailer has landed for Happy Feet 2, the sequel to 2007′s best animated feature Oscar winner, and it has to be said, it is pretty grin inducing.  As to be expected, it features a host of cute and cuddly penguins bopping about and tapping their (happy) feet, and in this case rapping to Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back”, albeit cunningly reworded “Fluffy Back” – think of the children!  Happy Feet 2 carries some heavy weight vocal talent, including Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Sofia Vergara among a ton of others, and Mad Max‘s George Miller is returning to direct.  It opens November 18, 2011 in the US, followed by a later release of December 2, 2011 in the UK.  Hit the jump for the trailer and official synopsis.