The Art of Mad Max: Fury Road (Review)...

Mad Max: Fury Road may not have suited all tastes, but most audiences seem agreed that it's a cinematic achievement - one of the loudest and visually stunning films of the year to date and a movie that has to be seen on the big screens of the multiplex to fully appreciate the sheer scale of its ambition.

It was inevitable and probably essential that a 'Making of...' book would be produced and the resulting 'The Art of Mad Max: Fury Road' lives up to expectations. Respected film journalist Abbie Bernstein - with a foreword by no less than George Miller himself and an afterword by designer/co-writer Brendan McCarthy - is our guide not just through the barren wastelands that were the backdrop for all the action, but also in the design process that populated that canvas with the good, the bad and the ugly.It's a world of metal and flesh and though, by necessity, the tome is pictorially-led, the text is plentiful, fairly in-depth with the cast and crew helping explore how those elements were combined for the finished result.

Many of McCarthy's original storyboards and original pre-production sketches are included alongside images of the final props and costumes and it's fascinating to see how ideas on the printed page evolved to the 3D elements needed. For instance, Theron/Furiosa's prosthetics, noticeable for being how 'natural' they looked to be a 'real' part of proceedings, are explained from start to finish.... as are Max's look (Tom Hardy) and the umpteen dangerous vehicles that littered the Namibian desert for filming.

Abbie talks to a wide breadth of the talent involved in bringing the physically-demanding film to the screen. We're given glimpses of ideas before they fully evolved and see elements that didn't make it to the finished piece or in vastly-changed forms.

Shiny, glossy and full to the brim between deluxe hardback covers, the book runs to over 170 fully-coloured and often gloriously painted pages and is very reasonably priced at £24.99. The sort of book that films-fans will love and Mad Max fans will savour, it's an ideal heavyweight addition to your reinforced shelves.

The Art of Mad Max: Fury Road is authored by Abbie Bernstein, published by Titan Books and is out now...