The Daily Telegraph is reporting that:

Scouting for locations is already happening, and specialized technicians have been approached.

This would be in Australia, naturally. Please, please, please let this be for something other than reference stills for animators. I would absolutely love to see some real life end-of-the world fights and chases. Does anyone know anything more about this? I'm desperately hoping for a Sam Worthington-starring flick, where he eventually runs into Mel Gibson, playing an Obi-Wan Kenobi-type character. But I'm not getting my hopes up until we hear more from Miller.

Miller plans to make the fourth Max as an R-rated, 3D animated movie, and not just because it'd be cheaper than hiring Gibson and paying for all the special effects; no, the director plans to use it as a chance to redefine anime altogether:

I've always loved anime, in particular the Japanese sensibility. It's something I've always wanted to do... The anime is an opportunity for me to shift a little bit about what anime is doing because anime is ripe for an adjustment or sea change. It's coming in games and I believe it's the same in anime. There's going to be a hybrid anime where it shifts more towards Western sensibilities. [Japanese filmmaker Akira] Kurosawa was able to bridge that gap between the Japanese sensibilities and the West and make those definitive films.

Some would say that we've had hybrid anime for years - If nothing else, projects mixing American and Japanese animators like The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight would seem to fit the bill - but that doesn't mean that we're not interested to see what Miller has in mind. Not that we'll be seeing it for awhile yet; Miller says that the project has "a couple of years left" at least before we'll get to see exactly what he has in mind. Here's hoping it's more successful than his failed Justice League movie.

Fourth ‘Mad Max' In Development…As 3-D Anime Feature [MTV Movies Blog]

What's making us curious about the validity of the news is that all of the reports we've seen are crediting website Dark Horizons with the scoop - and linking to a story that has nothing to do with Miller whatsoever. In fact, at time of writing, the news story seems to have disappeared off Dark Horizon's site altogether.

Does this mean that it's untrue, and Miller didn't announce that he was off the movie because Warners wanted "bigger stars in their superhero movies now"? Not necessarily - but the sudden disappearance of the story seems more than a little bit unusual... and leaves the story without a source (The official website of Sunrise, the show that Miller apparently made the announcement doesn't seem to mention it, but it may just be in need of updating).

If the news is true, then it wouldn't be surprising - Warner Bros. have been known to be reapproaching their superhero franchises in the light of The Dark Knight's success, so trying to make a bigger deal of Justice League wouldn't be an unexpected move. We'll just wait to see if Miller actually said it or not before wondering whether the movie has become any more likely or not.

Super Friends: Worried about potential accusations of jingoism, ABC didn't think Justice League of America had the right ring as the title for its 1973 Saturday morning JLA cartoon. But judging by the seven name changes that the series went through in its 13-year run, obviously Super Friends wasn't the right choice either.

Despite character designs by animation giant Alex Toth, this Hanna-Barbera series was limited by some shitty animation and even shittier storylines, even when Jack Kirby's Darth Vader-prototype Darkseid came in to mess with the heroes in later seasons. The show's main drawback, however, may have been the kid sidekicks forced upon the heroes by worried TV executives; Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna may have been annoying, but they were nothing compared to the non-powered Marvin and Wendy. And don't get me started on Wonderdog.

Legends Of The Superheroes: Oh, Adam West, must everything you touch turn to camp? Apparently, if this 1979 two-part live-action special (also starring Burt Ward as a somewhat older than usual Robin, as well as Ed McMahon as himself) is anything to go by. If the laugh track on both shows wasn't enough to let you know that things weren't being taken too seriously, the fact that the second episode of the series was a roast in honor of Batman where brain-dead undead villain Solomon Grundy kept punching Ed McMahon every time he said the word "swamp" might clue you in to the abuse the Justice League endured in their prime-time debut.

Justice League of America: Things, of course, could get worse. This 1997 live-action pilot for a show that thankfully never got produced focused around the successful late-80s version of the comic devoid of big names - that's how we got M*A*S*H's David Ogden Stiers as green-skinned leader J'Onn J'Onzz, fighting Miguel Ferrer's villainous meteorologist, The Weatherman. Not so much camp as just plain bad, this show was unaired in the States, but ended up getting released to unlucky viewers overseas as a TV movie.

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited: Leave it to the animators to finally get it right. The five year run of Justice League — which changed format twice, and name once, during that time — was brought to the Cartoon Network in 2001 by the people who'd created the groundbreaking Batman cartoon in the 1990s, and used stories by animation and comics veterans (including Warren Ellis and Wonder Woman's Gail Simone) to create with a show that was as respectful to the fans as it was friendly to a regular audience. It also featured classic scifi actors (including Mark Hamill, Michael Ironside, Rob Zombie and almost everyone who had ever appeared in a Joss Whedon show. Also, Ed Asner played Granny Goodness, which always amuses me.)

With some of that show's staff behind New Frontier — as well as working on more direct-to-DVD animated features for DC — it's good to know that, even if George Miller does go ahead with casting Seth Cohen as Wally West in the live action movie, there's still potential for some good Justice League movies in our future.

• The budget: According to several different sources, the budget on the film was spiraling out of control. Although we wonder what "out of control" really means, because the effects powerhouse Weta was onboard to do the costumes, and "maybe" some digital effects... if they had time. If a studio waves a $25 million dollar check at you, we have a feeling you'd make the time.
• The rumblings from the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman camps: Christian Bale was not happy that they were making a movie that would feature another Batman in it, saying it'd screw up what they'd been working on as part of the whole Batman Begins / The Dark Knight series. Plus with the constant rumors that Warners wants to return to basics with a new Superman movie (sans Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh), and a Wonder Woman flick, then it doesn't make any sense to populate a big budget film with other actors playing the parts of the Big Three members of the JLA.
• The cast: Director George Miller wanted this film to be huge, which could account for the budget being pushed up, but his cast was cast with a slew of B-list actors, at best, and didn't feature a name that would draw masses of people to the theaters. Did you want to shell out $12 bucks to go see some unknown amateur magician play Batman, or would you rather wait for Christian Bale? That's what we thought.
• The script: Apparently everyone and their mom thought the script needed work, and this will probably be the ultimate reason for the movie coming to a dead stop. Due to the strike, no rewrites can happen no matter how hard anyone begs. It's the kryptonite to this project, and maybe that means we'll get a quality JLA movie sometime down the road. Probably after Marvel releases The Avengers and it rakes in a boatload of cash.