The Order director Justin Kurzel has offered a clarification on an early story doing the rounds that he wants to make a Mad Max prequel.
On the 27th December, out came The Order – what is for this writer one of the finest thrillers of 2024. Early in the promotional trail for that film, its director Justin Kurzel was quoted as saying he’d be interested in making a prequel to George Miller’s seminal 1979 revenge piece, Mad Max.
The quotes originated from an interview with Collider, and we reported on Kurzel’s comments in early December 2025. “I’ve always been curious about what happened before the first Mad Max,” Kurzel said at the time; “what was that world with the Nightrider, pre-Mad Max?”
(The Nightrider Kurzel refers to is a member of the maniacal biker gang that turns Mel Gibson’s protagonist Max Rockatansky from patrolling highway cop to avenging angel.)
In a more recent interview with Film Stories, however, Kurzel offered something of a clarification on that earlier story: rather than a project he seriously intended to pitch, his mention of a Mad Max prequel was intended as a “compliment” to a film series and director he admires.
Podcast | In conversation with director Justin Kurzel
“It was sort of reported… not in the way that I actually talked about it,” Kurzel told us. “The question was, ‘If could do a dream [project], what would it be?’ It wasn’t meant to be me going, ‘I’m putting my hand up for Mad Max.'”
“What George has created is so astonishing. That first one was really an extraordinary film, and the way he developed it has obviously become what it’s become, which is incredible. But I was always really curious about that time before the first [Mad Max], and those particular antagonists that were set up, especially Knightrider, and what was that world leading up to that dystopia.”
Like George Miller, Kurzel hails from Australia, and his filmmaking is therefore steeped in the genre filmmaking – often called Ozploitation – that came from the country in the 70s and 80s.
“That period of Australian filmmaking was incredibly exciting,” Kurzel said, “and you’re getting films like Wake In Fright [1971, directed by Ted Kotcheff] coming out of that – those films were hugely influential on me. So look, [the Mad Max prequel] was a comment about, ‘if you had a magic wand…’ I would never put myself in George’s league. It was me giving a compliment to the world that he created in Mad Max.“
Kurzel brings his characteristically terse, rough edge to The Order – a crime thriller based on the true story of a racist militia group which staged a number of robberies, bombings and assassinations across the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s. Nicholas Hoult is strikingly charismatic as the white supremacists’ leader, Bob Mathews; a moustachioed Jude Law is similarly watchable as the FBI agent on his trail, Terry Husk.
Read more: The Order review | Intense Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult thriller shouldn’t be missed
If there’s any justice, The Order will find the audience it deserves. In the meantime, Kurzel is already working away on his next film – Mice, an adaptation of his regular collaborator Gordon Reece’s novel of the same name. It’s about a mother and daughter reeling from the latter’s bullying at school, only to experience more trouble when they take themselves off to a remote cottage. The original book was widely billed as a psychological thriller; Kurzel says his adaptation, which will star Nicole Kidman, will see him dabble in the horror genre for the first time.
By the sounds of things, Mice should be going into production at some point in the near future. That Mad Max prequel, meanwhile, almost certainly won’t be on a screen near you anytime soon.
The Order is in UK cinemas now.
Read more: The Order, and why great modern thrillers are being made outside the Hollywood system
