Australia's THE DAILY TELEGRAPH reports that director George Miller is scouting locations for the fourth installment of the MAD MAX series. Citing insiders, the paper says the film could start filming as soon as late 2009.

What's up in the air is whether star Mel Gibson will be back. The newspaper printed a quote from Miller stating that it wouldn't be Gibson, but that was following Miller's Oscar win for HAPPY FEET. The fourth MAD MAX film had been ramping up post HAPPY FEET with Gibson, but the project fizzled when locations fell through at the star of the Iraq War.