Mad Max: Fury Road to premiere at Cannes Film Festival

Mad Max: Fury Road is travelling to the Cannes Film Festival. The movie will premiere at a black-tie evening gala in the Grand Theatre Lumiere on May 14, 2015. The 68th edition of the festival runs from May 13 to 24. Mad Max will hit the theatres worldwide on May 15.

Mad Max returns after 30 years, and actor Tom Hardy will be essaying the legendary hero this time. The fourth work in George Miller's franchise, Mel Gibson caused a sensation in the first that opened in 1979. He performed twice again as Mad Max in 1981 and 1985, but when the project got delayed after the third episode, the Hollywood actor decided not to step into the role. The reason was also his age, and he thought that the character needed someone younger.

Mad Max got struck in 'development hell' according to Miller, but has now turned out nicely as a 3D live-action work, 'a simple allegory, almost a Western on wheels'. Miller had first planned a 3D animated version, but later switched, probably when he found Hardy (Warrior, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) to play the dare-devil protagonist, and Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa.

Loner Max meets Furiosa, a woman who wants to cross a desert in post-apocalyptic times -- and so goes the story. Max is a captive, and his captors want his help, because he is the only one who has a perfect knowledge of the vast and hostile stretch of sand. But Max's job is not going to be easy, for Furiosa is trying to flee from the captors, whose most precious 'commodity' is woman -- for she alone can mother the next generation.

The complete official list of the festival will be announced in Paris on April 16.