'Mad Max: Fury Road' Release Date News: Movie Set for May 14 Debut at Cannes – 30 Years After Last Mel Gibson-Starrer

Thirty years after "Mad" Max Rockatansky last appeared onscreen, the fourth film in the dystopian cult saga "Mad Max: Fury Road" will make its debut on May 14 at the Cannes Film Festival. English actor Tom Hardy will replace Aussie actor Mel Gibson who starred in the first three movies.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" will be released globally immediately after its out-of-competition screening preview in Cannes, on the next day, in fact.

The 68th Cannes Film Festival will take place between May 13 and 24, with U.S. filmmakers Joel and Ethan Cohen presiding over the jury.

The movie will see the much-awaited return of Aussie director George Miller, 70, whose first "Mad Max" film became an instant hit worldwide when it opened in 1979. He also directed "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior," released in 1981, and "Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome," released in 1985.

The movies are set in a dystopian future in Australia where law and order have begun to break down following a major energy crisis. Motorcycle gangs scavenge the lands and terrorize the population. The Main Force Patrol was created to patrol the lands and uphold what remains of law and justice. Mad Max is a member of this patrol.

Gibson, who was cast in the first three movies, was a relative unknown, with only one movie under his name at the time. The Mad Max franchise catapulted him to major stardom.

In the new movie, still set in the post-apocalyptic universe where biker gangs fight over water and gasoline, Mad Max encounters Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, a mysterious woman in the desert, as she flees across the wasteland. Furiosa teams up with Max to survive both the harsh environment and the roving gang of lunatic motorheads who prey on the weak and helpless.