RoadWarrior

Let this be my public apology to Tom Hardy, an actor I'd completely dismissed due to his pouty-lipped performance as Picard's villainous clone in Star Trek: Nemesis. I expect evil clones to at least act somewhat like their heroic counterparts, but Hardy didn't even come close to resembling Jean-Luc Picard at any point in that picture. These lowered expectations led me to get knocked flat on my butt by Hardy's amazing, fearless performance in this year's Bronson, in which he disappears completely into the role of England's most notorious career prisoner. Hardy is unhinged in that film, turning from shockingly funny to downright scary on a dime, as the scenes demand it.

It's that presence that Hardy brings to Bronson that makes me excited that he's being considered for the role of Max in director George Miller's new Mad Max relaunch (announced originally as Fury Road). E! Online reports that sources close to Miller confirm that he's got his eye on Tom Hardy to replace Mel Gibson as the lead, and I'm hard-pressed to think of a more inspired choice. Oscar-winning glamourpuss Charlize Theron is also being considered as the female lead role in the film.

It's a step in the right direction for this long-gestating project. Miller is keeping the story details under wraps, and there's still no word on when cameras will ever start rolling on this thing. The original 1979 film introduces Max Rockatansky, a drfiter in a post-apocalyptic world, who continually runs afoul of roving gangs of murderous scavengers, causing large-scale vehicular mayhem in the process. The hugely influential film was followed by two sequels, 1981's The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2) and 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and spawned countless imitators.

Advance word on the amazing action in George Miller's The Road Warrior in 1982 was amazingly strong, even without Internet movie sites. When The Road Warrior did rampage on American movie screens, lo, the destructive path was indeed very broad and thrilling, unsuspecting audiences collectively dropped their jaws, and Mel Gibson was firmly cemented as an "A" list star.