海角大神

Will George Miller return to direct a new 'Mad Max' movie?

Recently, Miller reportedly stated that he would not make any more 'Mad Max' movies. How common is it in Hollywood for directors to stay for multiple movies in a franchise?

鈥淢ad Max: Fury Road鈥� director George Miller may not be returning for future films in the dystopian series.聽

鈥淔ury,鈥� the newest movie in the series in 30 years, was a box office and critical smash. The movie has picked up award nominations from such groups as the聽Screen Actors Guild.

The movie鈥檚 director and co-writer, though, may not be coming back if there are future installments in the 鈥淢ax鈥� series.聽

鈥淚 won鈥檛 make more 鈥楳ad Max鈥� movies,鈥� Miller said, . 鈥溾�楩ury Road鈥� with聽Charlize Theron,聽Zo毛 Kravitz,聽Rosie Huntington-Whiteley聽and Riley Keough was forever getting completed. If you finish one in a year, it鈥檚 considered a leap of faith. Start, stop, start again鈥� Those 鈥楳ad Maxes鈥� take forever. I won鈥檛 do those anymore.鈥澛�

Even if a new 鈥淢ad Max鈥� movie is made without Miller, though, this wouldn鈥檛 be unusual in Hollywood today. Some of the most successful franchises that have been in theaters recently have switched directors between movies.

When the movies were released in the 1970s and 鈥�80s, every original 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� movie had a different director (George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, and Richard Marquand took on the duties, respectively).聽

Now the new and planned 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� movies seem to be using a similar method. J.J. Abrams directed the recently released smash hit 鈥淪tar Wars: The Force Awakens,鈥� and directors Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow are scheduled to direct the second and third films, respectively, in the new series.聽

The 鈥淢ission: Impossible鈥� movies, which have been some of the highest-grossing movies of the last several years, have switched directors every time. Most recently, Abrams, Brad Bird, and Christopher McQuarrie helmed the movies.聽

The 鈥淔ast and the Furious鈥� film series has switched directors as well, with Rob Cohen, Justin Lin, and James Wan each leading the production of a sequel.聽Both the "Hunger Games" and "Harry Potter" movies switched directors over their run, though they experienced less variety than, for example, the "Star Wars" series.

This is, of course, not always the case. Director Bryan Singer, for example, has directed many of the movies in the 鈥淴-Men鈥� film series.聽

There are no doubt drawbacks to this switching of directors. A new person on the job is building on what came before and attempting to create a cohesive story.

But switching directors and thus getting a fresh creative perspective and possibly different strengths has earned praise from critics in some cases. 鈥淢cQuarrie聽doesn't change the prescription for what makes this franchise so successful, nor does he have the most practiced hand among the series' directors at milking the big action sequences for all they're worth,鈥� wrote of the newest 鈥淢ission: Impossible鈥� movie. 鈥淏ut he's deepened the dramatic involvement.鈥澛�

Meanwhile, wrote of the film, 鈥溾�橰ogue Nation鈥� feels like the most dramatically sustained and conceptually unified picture in the series. To be sure, McQuarrie isn鈥檛 as flamboyant a stylist as his predecessors Brian De Palma and John Woo鈥� But whatever the filmmaking may lack in visual or visceral impact, McQuarrie鈥� more than compensates on the written front.鈥�