Mad Max: Fury Road‘s wide acclaim and decent box office performance revealed the George Miller movie series’ franchise potential. As a result, a spinoff movie focusing on Furiosa was greenlit. With Anya Taylor-Joy as its lead, Furiosa proved to be an incredible addition to the Mad Max franchise and effectively expanded its lore. The movie even won critics worldwide and still boasts an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%.
Unfortunately, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga failed to leave its mark at the box office by earning a little over $170 million against a budget of $160 million. With this, even Mad Max: Fury Road‘s direct sequel‘s chances of seeing the light of day significantly went down. While only time will tell whether a new Mad Max movie will ever happen, fans of the George Mille franchise can look forward to an upcoming TV show.
James Wan’s Pacific Drive Show Seems Perfect For Mad Max Fans
James Wan is involved with an upcoming adaptation of the indie game, Pacific Drive. Considering the game’s mechanics and storytelling, it is hard not to see how it could be the perfect series for Mad Max’s fans. Like Mad Max, the game features an automobile as a primary narrative device, where it serves as everything from the protagonist’s skin to his home.
Similar to the Interceptor in Mad Max, the station wagon in Pacific Drive becomes a character in itself as the main player uses it to navigate the ever-shifting Olympic Exclusion Zone.
When a door falls off or a tire pops in the game, you feel the same desperation Max feels in the Mad Max movies because the vehicle not only offers protection but also a semblance of companionship. As a player, it also comes down to you to make relevant repairs and upgrades to the station wagon, which is one narrative element even the game’s upcoming TV adaptation can adopt.
There are no War Boys in Pacific Drive, but its outside world is equally dangerous, where the main player encounters eerie supernatural threats. As shown in the Mad Max movies as well, the environment itself becomes an enemy even in Pacific Drive.
With only voices from a crackling radio guiding the main character in Pacific Drive, it also captures the same sense of loneliness and isolation that haunts the heroes in the Mad Max movies. Pacific Drive is more supernatural and less grounded in realism than the Mad Max franchise.
However, it still shares many intriguing parallels with the George Miller franchise, making it the perfect replacement for the post-apocalyptic movies.
Pacific Drive Continues An Incredible Indie Game Adaptation Trend
After learning about Pacific Drive’s upcoming adaptation, it is hard not to notice how many indie video games are getting the TV and movie treatment. A live-action movie adaptation of the Lovecraftian horror game, Dredge, is reportedly in the works. Five Nights at Freddy‘s movie adaptations have also been doing fairly well from a box office standpoint.
Similarly, Arcane‘s TV adaptation also proved to be a massive hit on Netflix and even earned rave reviews from critics.
Exit 8, too, got a movie adaptation, which has earned unanimous acclaim from critics and currently sits at an impressive 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With so many indie game adaptations performing well on the big and small screens, it is hard not to believe that even the Pacific Drive show will not disappoint.
If it performs well, it could even prove that the Mad Max franchise deserves a second chance and Mad Max: Fury Road‘s planned sequel deserves to see the light of day.