"Mad Max" is coming back to the big screen sans Mel Gibson. The 1979 action thriller film's director, George Miller, is re-imagining the movie into a 3D anime project.

He told MTV News, "The anime is an opportunity for me to shift a little bit about what anime is doing because anime is ripe for an adjustment or sea change."

"It's coming in games and I believe it's the same in anime. There's going to be a hybrid anime where it shifts more towards Western sensibilities. [Japanese filmmaker Akira] Kurosawa was able to bridge that gap between the Japanese sensibilities and the West and make those definitive films."

He also said that he is resurrecting the film as an R-rated, stereoscopic anime picture for theatrical release and that Gibson, the star of the original film and its two sequels, won't be involved in the project.

He said, "We'll probably go a different route."

The plot would be based on the fourth "Mad Max" film, which was never shot in production.