Source: E! News

It's far from set in stone, but rumors are spreading that actor Tom Hardy, who stars in Nicolas Winding Refn's acclaimed biopic Bronson (about the notoriously brutal British prison inmate, not the actor) is set to pick up where Mel Gibson left off as Mad Max in a fourth Road Warrior film, with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron joining him.

Writer/director George Miller has been trying to get a fourth Mad Max film off the ground for some time. For years, the project was subtitled Fury Road, but Miller claimed he'd abandoned that script in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq War. Gibson, who starred in the previous three films, had always expressed reluctance about returning due to his age, and Miller recently stated in an interview that "I don't think he would have interest in being involved at all."

Other rumors over the course of the year have included The Hurt Locker star Jeremy Renner taking over for Gibson, and the possibility of doing the movie as an animated film (a suggestion brought up by Miller himself). Warner Bros. is tentatively hoping for a 2011 release date, although no solid commitment to any date has ever been made.