'Max'-ed Out

Talk about inflation. After making just $6,000 for the original ''Mad Max'' in 1979, Mel Gibson will reportedly earn $25 million to reprise his postapocalyptic antihero in ''Fury Road,'' the fourth installment of the ''Max'' saga. The new movie is said to have a budget of more than $100 million -- which is nearly three times what the last ''Max'' movie made in the U.S. So have the producers and Twentieth Century Fox suits behind this deal gone, um, mad?

Probably not. ''Mel Gibson is one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood,'' says Gitesh Pandya, analyst for boxofficeguru.com. This summer, Gibson carried ''Signs'' to a higher-than-expected $195 million gross, and in 2000, he scored $182 million with ''What Women Want.'' Even a relative disappointment like 2000's ''The Patriot'' did $113 million (which is more than this year's hit ''The Scorpion King'' pulled in). And Gibson is at least as big overseas: ''What Women Want,'' for instance, made another $191 million in foreign markets.

True, the last ''Max'' flick, 1985's ''Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome,'' took in just $36 million (or $58 million when adjusted for inflation, according to boxofficemojo.com). But Gibson's star power was much dimmer in those pre-''Lethal Weapon'' days. And anyway, 17-year-old box office figures can be misleading, says Reelsource analyst Robert Bucksbaum. For one thing, today's big movies see much wider releases: 'Thunderdome'' played in about 1,500 theaters, while ''Spider-Man'' reigned in more than 3,600. And with the rise of the ''event movie,'' ever-bigger grosses are the rule. We now live in a world where the $300 million-plus take for ''Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones'' can be called a disappointment.

But despite the early optimism, could ''Fury Road'' fail? You bet -- especially if it sucks. That's why director George Miller, who created the franchise and helmed the three previous movies, has been working on the script and preproduction sketches for five years already. ''It's his true love,'' says a source close to Miller. To boost the visuals, the director has enlisted his former ''Babe'' cinematographer, Andrew Lesnie. (Lesnie won an Oscar this year for his work on ''The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.'')

Like its car-chase-heavy, pre-CGI predecessors, ''Fury'' is expected to eschew fancy special effects for old-fashioned wheel-spinning action. But one thing WILL change: the location. Instead of Australia, the movie will shoot in Namibia, where Miller can get a fresh-looking postnuclear landscape. Oh, and Tina Turner won't likely return as the villainous Auntie Entity.