Oh, to think what could have been!
If Mad Max: Fury Road had been released twenty years ago, the accompanying video game – currently in development by Avalanche Studios and scheduled for release this coming September – might’ve been created by Fallout developer Interplay.
Universal flew Brian Fargo – Interplay’s founder – and George Miller – the man behind Mad Max – to Whistler, Canada, by private jet. The two got talking, Miller shared the script for Fury Road, and together they talked about what a new Mad Max game might look like.
“I got to fly with him to Whistler, Canada, on the Universal private jet – because Universal used to own half of Interplay – and spend three hours with him,” Interplay founder Brian Fargo told Kotaku. “The Road Warrior was my favourite movie for a decade. I’d watch it over and over again so I was a huge fan of Miller’s. [He] was familiar with Wasteland and Fallout and loved the work we’d done. So half of the ride was us fanboying and half was ‘OK, let’s do something’.”
Sadly, it was not to be. The film’s lengthy delay pushed back production, and then EA got in touch with Miller and offered him $20 million for the game rights. Miller told Fargo that “I like you but I don’t like you that much” and signed everything over to EA… but nothing came of that, either.
“The movie had lots of fits and starts,” Fargo added. “The movie was at Fox for some of the time, it got announced and then it got canned. Then Warner Brothers ended up getting the rights, they had a relationship with Miller that goes way back.”
Given the recent shots from the Mad Max game it’s difficult to lament too much, but a Fallout-Mad Max lovechild sounds just a teeny bit perfect.
Also, did you know that Fallout 4 is a thing now? Seriously.
