f13.net

A new Judge Dredd film is in pre-production and scheduled to start shooting soon. Pete Travis (Vantage Point and some TV stuff) is directing a screenplay by Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later) and Karl Urban has apparently been cast as Old Stoney Face. Budget is reckoned to be in the region of $50 million.

I've read an undated version of the screenplay which appears to be closer to a shooting script and is definitely not a first draft. My (spoilered) thoughts:

Well hey, after the first attempt, there is no where to go but up.

The description there sounds like it fits with the theme a little better at least. Judge Dredd was not supposed to be comedy, and does not require Rob Schneider. If there is anything comedic to do with Dredd, it should come from the fact that the Dredd comics were always an exageration (or even borderline satire) of current politics and culture.

Oh, and Judge Fish of course.

Very glad they chose to go with Anderson this time - she was always the best "sidekick".

There was nothing borderline about its satire. It was full blown satire and some of the more classic Dread stories WERE satire. The Fatties. the Uglies, hell there was one great story where Dredd chased this guy halfway around Mega City one for littering.

Hell the Irish judges were fucking cool. And that story of a terrorist group who had figured out how to make "spud guns," guns that fired bits of potatoes at people. I literally laughed my head off at that one  :drill:

And then there was the one that Had some Mexicans trying to break into Dredds house, Dredd is there having a bath (still wearing his helmet) and watching them on CCTV footage. Hello?

Ignoring the satire and making it yet another violence flick will remove a lot of the charm and appeal of the strip. Dredd was a caricature in a caricature, and it was the sheer bouncing of Dredd hardheadedness off the insanity of the world he was in that provided a lot of the humour and appeal of the character. Without that, he's just another asshole cop.

Ok, you make a fair point. Satire was obviously an import part of it. The problem is, the first movie jumped past satire and went straight to Rob Schneider slapstick. That needs to be avoided.

It's tough to blend a dark action movie and an intelligent satirical comedy in to one movie - without it ending up being lousy camp.

Yeah, I agree, it would be tough to do, and the comic has has the advantage of a long time and several writers to build up its world.

If I was asked (and I'm not) I'd have them concider doing the Chopper Skysurfing story for at least part of the movie. That's a good, self contained Dredd story that would have the potential of some spectacular action racing scenes, Dredd doing his job no matter what and would introduce you to the world at large. And you could wrap it inside the first half if you wanted to do something else.

I don't think they could do the Chopper story this early on (assuming you're talking about the time that he returns from the Radback to race in MC2) - you need to set up the world and the characters first. Also, Chopper would be the main protagonist in the story rather than Dredd. I say this as someone who would dearly, dearly love to see that particular story as a movie.

There's a high risk that Dredd will come off as another asshole cop in this although there's absolutely no doubt that he is an total badass. He's a very, very difficult character to make sympathetic, especially to a cinema-going audience who may only be familiar with him as a character in an old Stallone movie.

What does give me hope that this will be watchable and do the IP a good service is a) Alex Garland knows his stuff and is a 2000AD fan, b) the movie is being funded outside of the studio system  and c) Karl Urban is not Stallone and does not necessarily require "face" time in his movies (see Bourne Supremacy where he didn't speak English though the entire movie). I'm not sold on him being right for Dredd but there are worse options.

Tangenitally related, a quote from Duncan Jones about the Judge Dredd movie:

First shot of Karl Urban as Dredd

(http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg526/scaled.php?tn=0&server=526&filename=5tvb.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640)

Jury's out but, personally, initial feeling is a little underwhelmed. Lawgiver looks fine and helmet design is spot on, albeit looks too big.  But... where's the chin, man?

Fucked up the shoulders again.

Why ?

Hell, First one was closer.

Agreed about the helm though;  Picture perfect.  The lawgiver's gone through so many different versions, that one's more like the Game one that was based on, er, Esquerra's Design, I think.  For me, the lawgiver will always be the Iconic Boland design.

Shoulders.  WHY ?

I can cut him some slack for not being a comic book character and thus having to follow physical laws re: chin size and the possibility of moving around without looking like a fool in giant shoulderpads.

I agree and I'm just fanboi nitpicking.

For my vote, I think no matter how enjoyable a film it is, it's unlikely to capture Mega City One.  The whole Dredd Strip was always about the city and the pressures of the people living atop each other in a fascist state.

I don't really think any film will manage that.

(but, hey, I liked the first one !)

Clancy Brown for Judge Dredd.

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5189870027_c43f9f33ec.jpg)

Comes with chin.

Well, I'm still excited, so that's good.

IMDB lists some of the other characters, including Anderson (Olivia Thirlby). Can't say I remember a Judge Lex character from the comics, so I assume they are going with a mainly original story?

Aren't you one of the lot usually bitching about WoW's shoulder pads?

I liked the Stallone version, but I never read the comics, and didn't have any expectations on that end.

Stallone was actually a pretty good Dredd until he took the helmet off.

That Dredd is pretty underwhelming to me.

Can't wait to see if they have a three shells joke in this remake.

Demolition Man.

The inclusion of Psi Judge Anderson raises alarm bells for me. I smell romantic interest.

Also, I wonder which Karl Urban will show up for 'Judge Dredd': awesome actor Karl Urban or human statue Karl Urban.

There isn't.

So much fail.

I think Dredd really requires Human Statue KU.

Um...No ?

Hm, carry on then.  I thought you were and it was ironic to see you asking for larger shoulders here.

So long as this movie doesn't have Rob Schneider trying to channel Malak in it, it will be worlds better than the first.

The Dredd shoulders weren't overly large though;  they just had this RIGHT look about them.

(http://itsalljustcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/judge-dredd.jpg)

For example.

Not too big, but bigger than shown and, you know, some protection.

The left I'll agree with (Depending on the artist.)  The right, however... it's still a gigantic metal eagle stuck onto the side of his body.

Fucking shoulder pads are naff & agreed chin isn't prominent enough.

There are so many different variations of Dredd but I reckon this one would have translated the best

(http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Judge-Dredd-Mega-City-Masters-John-Romita-Jr.jpg)

There was a lot of stories that had satire but it Dredd himself rarely if never camped it up.

One of the consistent points in the comic has always been that there is no romantic interest around Dredd. There's like one story line about someone falling for him, which he ignores. With Anderson, throughout the whole comic series, it's considered huge when Dredd actually admits that he considers her his friend.

So if they are sticking to the heart of the comic (which they claim) I would expect we'll get a little bit of coy flirting - with absolutely no response.

Aye.  Bear in mind that the comics made it clear that the strain that the Psi Judges feel allows them quite significant leeway in the way they're 'allowed' to behave as Judges.  The issue where Cass and her friend went boogying in skimpy outfits I remember quite clearly.  I think Will Simpson was the artist.  He's a boy that knows his way around a pair of tits.

Kind of like how one of the core features of The Avengers was that Mrs. Peel and Steed scrupulously never went beyond harmless flirting, right?

Just sayin'.

You can't water down Dredd because particular writers were given free license for an episode or two, even if they were particulary favourable and memorable. I remember there was even an episode where he started to be nice to perpetrators after banging his head, but it's not contextual and damn after 1500 episodes I doubt if every single one was true to the essence of the character. The real Dredd always came out for the epic storylines Judge Child, Damned City, Oz etc. basically a futuristic Dirty Harry, I know cliche but that's what he was, at times you even hated him. The only other absolute consistent thing about Dredd was that you never saw his face. It would be almost better if they didn't credit an actor for him, although I know far-fetched.

Someone open a window, it's so nerdy in here you could cut it with a knife.

This movie will be awesome if there is a lot of explosions and people die in many violent ways. It wont even need dialog, seriously.

Judge Dredd just sucks. In every form, it'll always suck. I don't even know why it ever got made into a movie the first time around.

Dredd is definitely not the best strip to come out of 2000ad but every so often a good story arc  would appear. Last good one I remember wad Oz, Jamie Hewlitt did the artwork and that was mindblowing for the 80s.

I forgot I wasn't in the Comics subsection :oh_i_see:

To quote a very old meme, I disagree with what you said.

(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/111434/ab-rise.gif)

Trailer is out. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUJiXG3yq6g) May have been "leaked" so the video might go down eventually.

Well, that was quick. :why_so_serious: Updated link.

 Giggity :inluv:

The Raid: Judge Dredd

What's with the 'Judgment is coming'?

 :ye_gods:

 :heartbreak:

Hmm...

I'm hoping its just a poorly planned trailer, in that it looks like 80% of the movie is him fighting through one building. Which would suck.

Judges looked fine, but Mega City 1 wasn't really Mega-y enough. Not sure if I like the idea of using Anderson without relating it to Psi-Division (maybe they do, but it doesn't seem so).

You're in for disappointment then.

I don't know - I'm not sure the production designer even bothered to read any of the comics. They were obviously just shown a picture of Dredd's helmet and had the rest described to them with the instruction to "make it not look anything like the Stallone film". Which was a mistake because the prod-design was one of the best thing about it.

I'll still watch it.

Never saw the Stallone version-  I loved Dredd and knew Stallone would fuck it up. Still holding out hopes for this one.

It wasn't really Stallone that fucked it up.

It just wasn't... right.

This looks even more wrong, if that's possible.

Two things wrong with the Stallone Dredd film - Rob Schneider and the fucking ending. As in, it ended about 30 minutes too early for no good goddamn reason. Oh and lest I forget, taking him out of the Dredd armor for 70% of the fucking movie.

Two things wrong with the trailer - the aforementioned lack of MegaCity-ness of the city and the continued use of gun-cocking sounds before the quip gets thrown out painfully.

Yes.  Sorry, but you're quite right and I should have high lighted that :

Rob was fucking awful and horrendously out of place.  They didn't even BOTHER trying to 'mega city' him up.  It was like he was dropped from a 90's comedy store.

Awful.

The only redeeming bit Schneider had in that film was holding his hand up to block the top of Dredd's face and then convulsing - and they spoiled that joke in the trailers.

Stalone's Dredd to me, was the perfect example of utterly shitty editing making a bad movie unwatchable. Haemish is right, the entire last thirty minutes of the movie made no fucking sense.

Hammerstein was cool tho.

 :oh_i_see:

Like I said upthread, I liked the Stallone Dred for the mindless action schlock it was. And I thought there were some really kool visuals.

New trailer looks so generic action movie. I'd like to think they're going for a satire of action movies, but it looks like they're playing it straight, just like the Stallone Dred.

This trailer made the movie look completely forgettable.

Yes. Definitely. And Mean Machine's design/makeup was perfect. It's a shame that whole scene with the Angel family was totally unnecessary to the story.

Two things wrong, Haemish? You're more forgiving than I am.  :oh_i_see: I can't forgive what they did to Judge Hershey's character.

Holy jesus that acting was terrible (by everyone)

Keep in mind I only have a passing familiarity with the character. I've never been a huge fan, or even read much of the original comics. I'm sure to someone who knows more about the character's history, it was a goddamn crime against humanity.

I was pretty big fan of the comics and that looks fairly legit, even down to the hammy Clint Eastwood impersonation, Dredd was modeled on Dirty Harry.

The story is pretty much based on the grand epic Dredd storyline Block Mania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_Mania). Which was a prologue to the revered Apocalypse war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_War) and finalised by my personal favourite Dredd strip City of the Damned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_the_Damned_(Judge_Dredd_story)). Judge Andersen was the main other character in this arc.

It does look cheesy but nowhere close to the bastardised Stallone version which I refused to watch.

Karl Urban's a 50/50 shot of being watchable or being awful.

So, at comic-con right now.  Friend of mine (european) got a press pass to come with us, and from that,  got to go see a per-screening of this movie.  His comments about it so far:  1.). He liked it, and the trailer didn't do it justice.  2.). It was shockingly violent.  Like, he and everybody else there were not expecting the level of violence and gore they showed at all.

So take that as you will.

(https://p.twimg.com/AxjSC31CMAACX46.jpg:large)

Very short clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8lMmRe6Z44)

This film may well make me break my no-3D rule.  :awesome_for_real:

Yeah. Holy shit.

Ok, I'm feeling better about this.

Being shot while on Slo-Mo is an eerily beautiful affair. The ultra-violence is kind of haunting; it should feel glorified but somehow it's not. I feel sad for these tripping idiots.

Welp, that clip just sold a ticket.  :drill:

This could be the best example of a shitty trailer almost ruining a movie.

That clip.... :ye_gods: :why_so_serious: :drill:

Yeah, it actually looked like it was trying to go with the comics when it comes to just mowing down criminals.  Though in the comics Dredd probably would've just switched to ricochet bullets, stuck the gun in the door, and filled the room with bouncing shots until everyone was thoroughly incapacitated.  He wasn't too proud to be pragmatic.

Saw the cinematic trailer in the DKR viewing I went to and this and Total Recall were the only movies that came across as being worth watching. I'm not 100% sure on the visuals for Mega City 1 (it looked more generic post-apocalypse than a city of however many million crammed into a small space) but the setup is a classic story and a nice way of introducing the character and action without everything being about the spectacle. Plus if it's good and does well they've got things set for a bigger sequel (not going to happen methinks).

Went to see this last night, the screen I watched it in was pretty much empty so not sure what it's opening numbers are like in the UK. It was however a solid, fun action movie with enough of a nod to Dredd stuff that it was recognisably Judge Dredd. Definitely looked good, though perhaps a tad overly gory (quite a few slo-mo scenes involving people getting shot in the face). Ultimately, while it was definitely fun and I'd recommend watching it, it didn't really have enough to it to be something I think there'd be any point ever re-watching. It pretty much all happens in a single block but they don't really make enough of that to make the place feel supremely claustrophobic or anything and we miss out on much (really any) world building regarding Meg-1. The plot itself is simple, which means it doesn't get overly silly or anything but also means there isn't really anything to build much up on. There's really only one character who we see anything much happen with, though in the context of the film that does make sense .

I might be being overly harsh sounding here actually, I honestly think they do a good job with Dredd. His whole character gets put across pretty quickly and stays consistent. They don't attempt to humanise him or have him 'learn to love' or anything like that and if this was being put out as a traditional summer blockbuster I could see them having been very tempted to go that route. I just think they were aiming for an action movie and went a little overboard in trimming out stuff which could have crapped up the film  Personally I think they did a good job with it and I honestly think this was simple enough, with strong characters and a half decent world established that it could be built on for a bigger sequel but I don't think it's going to do well enough for them to greenlight anything more for it. Plotwise I'd say it's about on par with the Bourne Legacy without the pretence that there's anything more going on, which I definitely prefer.

In summary, if you like action films definitely worth a watch. If you like Judge Dredd I'd say it's definitely worth a watch. If you want sci-fi in a compelling world with relatable characters and an engrossing plot, skip it.

Out of curiousity do you think the lack of world building you speak of was mostly a budget issue or a script issue?

I'd say it was probably a bit of both. Like I said I got the impression they didn't have the budget for a traditional summer blockbuster type film and went for a slimmed down action piece. The plot in this really doesn't have a lot to it, there was more they could have done with the budget they had so I'd imagine that they were really aiming to avoid cluttering it with any possibly unnecessary complications. In some ways it works well, frankly Dredd's character doesn't have a huge amount of depth and trying to add that in would have felt really, really wrong. They do also do a pretty good job of showing not telling with regards to a lot of it, they present just enough of Mega-City One that you get an idea of what life is like and swiftly move on to people getting shot in the face.

The two are related and Garland has already said as much in interviews. There was no way they were getting a big budget for this film so he wrote the script accordingly - keeping number of locations and (main) characters down. If this sells well and makes money then future films might expand on the world.

Fucking nailed it. To the wall. With a Nail Round.

I concur.

I stopped reading 2000AD back in '95 after 12/13 years of collecting  because I couldn't get over how bad the Stallone film was. After seeing this, I'm almost tempted to start buying it again. Mega-City One might not be quite how I imagined or wanted to see it but as far as Dredd goes, pitch fucking perfect. This film was made by people who got the character and it works.

Also, easter eggs..


Also, I saw it in 3D and loved it - thought it was really effective for the most part. And I say that as someone who would actively campaign to stop 3D movies being produced.

Saw it.

I think the phrase "like a video game" will be used a lot in reviews of "Judge Dredd". A number of FPS-style sequences.

Pretty much an arty love letter to violence with all the slo-mo (which has an in-movie justification) and framing of entry and exit wounds.

Karl Urban almost pulls off Dredd the character, but not quite. He lacks the presence (but given that the comics often has Dredd as a force of nature, that's understandable).

It's not bad, but if you only see one film this year about police entering a block of flats that results in a lot of death, go see "The Raid" instead.

I've seen both Dredd and The Raid in the past month and substantially preferred Dredd, for what it's worth.  Can't go wrong with either of them if you want to see some dudes die in brutal ways.

I wonder if this is a case of whichever you saw first, you prefer, because they are essentially the same move with different window dressing. I saw Dredd first and enjoyed it more. I will say that The Raid is one of the few movies where it's the "bad guys" who can hit everything and the "good guys" who can't hit the broad side of a barn.

This is something I've noticed across a lot of Asian movies and Anime.  Bad guys are all totally bad ass and always wipe out the cops or people who try to fight them (all of which are shown to be inferior in every way to the bad guys), and only the lone super ultra bad ass is able to take them on and win.

Just saw this last night now that it is in Redbox.

I really liked it. As others have said, Karl Urban absolutely nails Dredd. He even did the obligatory "I am the Law", but did it in a much better and in context way than Stallone.

The "meat for the meat grinder" speech was memorable by Judge Lex, as well. The violence in the movie is a slight bit over the top and probably would have looked great in 3D, especially the falling scenes.

I highly recommend it.

saw it yesterday as well. Fun film for all the reasons stated above, I really hope there will be a sequel.

"Dredd" bombed terribly, iirc. Unless it is saved by DVD / online sales, it was a loss-making film.

I also believe it was left on the shelf for about a year, so even the studio behind it had no faith in it.

I saw The Raid first and enjoyed it more. Alot of it had to do with the fact that it (felt like) wasn't taken for granted that the "good guys" would come out of the situation alive unlike in the Dredd.

Yeah the fact that the good guys could all die no matter what is what made the movie. Though it was honestly quite dumb.

I saw this on on-demand yesterday. It was pretty good. A million times better than the Stallone version but that goes without saying. I liked Anderson and I liked Dredd. I quite enjoyed the little speech he gave over the PA system. I got a bit tired of the slo-mo at times since it seemed a bit too much but it was in context so I gave it a pass.

I did enjoy Dredd's response to Anderson when he questioned her about not wearing a helmet.

Just saw it. Very nice action movie, doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't.

Your quote is the second time I heard it bombed with the American audience. Why is that?

I would guess a combination of memories of the quite bad '95 Stallone film, lack of big draw actors, and flaccid marketing.  Releasing in the middle of September probably didn't help, either, as they completely whiffed both holiday and summer seasons.

Disc sales have been good, seemingly in common with a lot of people I bought it on disc after never seeing it in theater.

This is the type of movie Americans will buy the $19 DVD, on sale for $15 (or wait until it's $10) or rent from RedBox/ Netflix instead of paying the $12 for the theater experience.  There was no compelling reason to see it in the theater. It certainly wasn't going to be a cultural touchstone or big draw like Avengers.

So long as Hollywood continues shoveling higher ticket prices at us for even low-budget movies to make up for bad planning on high-budget flops, they should expect to see declining box office sales.

To which their response will be more expensive movies with higher ticket prices.   :awesome_for_real:

I don't go to movie theaters anymore and haven't for years. No movie in ten years has been worth the price of a movie theater trip.

So... take pride in being part of the problem then, I guess?  :headscratch:

Is the Judge Dredd character that well known in America?

I watched the entire movie.  Then, I charged up the 3d glasses for my TV for the first time ever, got medium-drunk, and watched the slow-motion drugged-out violence again in all its oversaturated glory.

Fun times  :awesome_for_real:

Barely at all, I would say.

Only due to the Stallone movie for people old enough to remember it, which is a strike against it.  Even as a comic book fan, I can't recall ever seeing 2000 AD ever really being displayed anywhere in the comic shops.

Anthrax (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCdsO1mBGE4) is what got me to look into Judge Dredd when I was younger.

Also, it's an R rated action movie. There's no romantic subplot or buddy comedy stuff tacked on to try to attract a wider audience (which is a good thing, except when it comes to box office grosses unless you happened to make Terminator 2).

I vaguely recall that they never really sold 2000AD in the states but they did do a Judge Dredd standalone comic which was basically strips from the UK weekly plus some of the small strips from the Daily Star newspaper.