Tom Hardy films in 'middle of sandpit'

Tom Hardy thinks filming Mad Max: Fury Road was “mental in a brilliant way”.

Fury Road is a reboot of the 1979 Mad Max, which starred Mel Gibson and was directed by George Miller. The new movie shot in Namibia for seven months.

“It’s very hot, it’s quite isolated, and it was mental in a brilliant way,” Tom explained to Entertainment Weekly about filming. “You have no concrete, no coffee shops. We were in the middle of a sandpit.”

Tom, who plays Max Rockatansky, was featured on the cover of the magazine with co-star Charlize Theron, who had a mechanical arm in the photo. It is unknown whether Charlize’s character, Imperator Furiosa, loses her arm before or during Fury Road, which hits theatres May 2015.

Charlize agrees with her co-star that filming conditions were gruelling. The actress had to build up her upper-body strength until her neck was “the size of a football player’s”.

“Vanity went out the window,” she joked.

George is back behind the camera for the reboot, bringing the script he co-wrote with Nick Lathouris to the screen.

“I wanted to tell a linear story - a chase that starts as the movie begins and continues for 110 minutes,” George told the magazine.

The film, which has reportedly tested very well in early screenings, is apparently light on special effects and dialogue.

“In this crucible of very intense action, the characters are revealed,” George said.

Fury Road was first announced then abandoned in 2003. In September 2009, it was revealed that George had decided to cast Tom and Charlize in the flick, but filming didn’t begin until 2012.

Nicholas Hoult, Nathan Jones, Zoë Kravitz, Riley Keough and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will also star in the film while Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played Toecutter in the first version, returns in a new role.