Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy hit `Fury Road`

Los Angeles: Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are in negotiations to star in `Fury Road,` this century`s installment of the `Mad Max` movie series from writer-director George Miller.

Despite his long association with the fourth movie, Mel Gibson is not reprising his iconic role of Max Rockatansky, the hardened ex-cop in a future beset by gas shortages and marauding gangs. That job goes to Hardy, the British-born actor who stole scenes as Handsome Bob in Guy Ritchie`s "RocknRolla." ("RocknRolla" has proved to be a launch pad for Hardy, who booked a role in Christopher Nolan`s "Inception" as well. He also starred in "Bronson.") Theron is playing the female lead. Story details are being kept under wraps; what`s known is that the movie takes place a short while after the story detailed in 1985`s "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," which would keep Mad Max relatively young. The filmmakers are eyeing a summer 2010 shoot in Australia. The movie will be an Australian production that Warner Bros. will distribute. "Road" has been in the works for more than a decade, with Gibson attached to star at one point. Theron appears next in this fall`s `The Road,` the big-screen adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel. Bureau Report