Mad Max 4 without "The" Mad Max!

I just read this on Scifi wire, if its true it'll be a crying shame!

Mel Gibson talks Mad Max IV: Possible cameo

January 18, 2010
Mel Gibson, the original Mad Max, will appear in the long-awaited fourth installment in the post-apocalyptic movie series.

Or he won't.


Actually, he's leaving the door open to adding a cameo in the series that first brought the American-born, Australian-raised actor to the attention of the world.

Creator/director George Miller has recently started the new Mad Max follow-up, to star Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy. Will the original Max Rockatansky appear in the new Miller film?

"Oh yeah, I've talked to George," Gibson said in a press conference over the weekend in Santa Monica, Calif. "Yeah, we've had a good chin wag about it. We talk all the time anyway, George and I, so I'm abreast of that."

While Gibson doesn't exactly say that he'll come back, he doesn't say he won't. In fact, he emphasizes his enthusiasm for Miller's new idea, rather than a previous proposed fourth Mad Max that would have centered on the original Max.

"I know he's been trying to do this for years, the fourth installment," Gibson continued. "At one point I was involved, and it felt a bit [wrong], and then this and that, so now it's probably gone through a lot of changes. I can't wait to see it, because everything he does I think is magic, I think is a touch of genius, more than a touch of genius about George. Probably most of any good trick I've ever learned, I've learned off that guy and Peter Weir."

Gibson still has more than half a year to decide whether to do a cameo: Variety reports that Mad Max IV is slated to begin shooting in Australia in August.