by: S. Scott Stanikmas – Senior Staff Writer

Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller has been tied to a few projects since his critically acclaimed return to the Wasteland earlier this year. It’s been hinted at that he’d be doing dual Mad Max sequels, one of which would focus on breakout character Imperator Furiosa. Another rumor said that he’d be handling a DC Comics property at Warner Bros, possibly the upcoming Justice League film.

But Miller has said time and again that all he really wants to do is a smaller film before he returns to the big budget arena. And the inspiration isn’t what I would have thought.

Sean Baker’s Tangerine, a story about a transgender prostitute out for revenge on her pimp, was shot on an iPhone. And now Miller wants to try something along those lines. In speaking with the Wall Street Journal, while not directly citing the film as an influence, the director talked about doing something outside of his comfort zone and keeping up with the changing ways films are made:

I seriously would love to do something on the iPhone. It’s really an interesting exercise. It’s so available now, if you have something to say. It won’t be on an iPhone, but it’s leaning in that direction […] I don’t make many films. I have to really feel some strong gravitational pull both in the story and something to do with the technological shift. If there’s a new tool or a new process, it’s always very interesting [to me].

It’s refreshing to see that at 70 years of age, Miller still wants to branch out and try different things.

But that doesn’t mean we should rule out another Mad Max film. When he did an interview with Entertainment Weekly (via The Playlist), the filmmaker said that it’s in his sights…just not immediately:

Yes, I have. And certainly having conversations about it. But I’m not sure if it’s the very next movie I want to do. I’ve got something a bit smaller before we go back out into the wasteland — something that’s contemporary that we can get through fairly quickly. And something with not too much technical difficulty. Something more performance-based and so on, just to clear the exhaust.

I’m very interested in another Mad Max film (even if it did only place 8^th on my Top Ten this year. I still loved the film and thought it was wicked fun). But I’m even more intrigued by what Miller might do next.