Mad Max 5 in the works

'Mad Max 5' is reportedly in the works and will begin filming in the autumn.

The film had been planned after the successful revival of the action franchise with 2015's 'Mad Max: Fury Road' but has been held up by a legal battle between Warner Bros and director George Miller's production company, Kennedy Miller Mitchell, over unpaid earnings from the most recent movie.

According to Geeks WorldWide, the movie has the green light to start filming in Australian later this year.

The original trilogy of movies starred Mel Gibson as title character Max Rockatansky, before Tom Hardy took over the role for the revival.

'Mad Max: Fury Road' also introduced Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron and has been hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time.

It is unclear whether Tom or Charlize will return for the project - which has a working title of 'Mad Max: The Wasteland' - as both have busy schedules.

Meanwhile Miller - who created the franchise and has directed all four films - is also committed to making 'Three Thousand Years of Longing', which stars Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton and begins shooting next month.

The 74-year-old filmmaker recently assured fans that he had two projects planned involving both Max and Furiosa.

George said: "There are two stories, both involving Mad Max and also a Furiosa story. We're still solving, we've got to play out the Warners thing [but] it seems to be pretty clear that it's going to happen."

Tom previously stated that he is ready to "jump" back into the franchise as soon as the film gets given the green light.

He said: "It was always the plan to do three of them, so I think we're still waiting on being given the opportunity and the green light to go ahead on the next one. But when I engaged on that there was a plethora of material on it ... As soon as it's real we'll jump on it."