2000AD fantasy film season

[AlexF]

If I was in charge of programming at one of the film-based Freeview Channels, say Film4 or the Horror Channel, I'd try to programme a series based around the films/TV shows that inspired, and were inspired by, 2000AD stories.

I'm sure boring reasons around rights mean this would never actually happen, but wouldn't it be neat to get even a few of these together somehow, along with, of course, screenings of Future Shock and the two Dredd movies.

Anyway, here are some starter lists, grouping films into various categories of inspiration. I feel that some of these examples are almost boringly well-known; others less so. I also don't know if anyone's ever gathered a definitive list anywhere. Please add in examples I've missed off!

1. Films that inspired 2000AD

Hell Drivers – gave birth to Bill Savage and Invasion (it's also really exciting!)
Rollerball – gave birth to Harlem Heroes / Inferno
The Six Million Dollar Man – MACH One (I've never actually seen it; presumably there are some choice episodes)
Death Race 2000 – inspired the look of Dredd, (and is laced with the kind of black humour that 2000AD thrives on; also a lark of a film)
Dirty Harry – a more obvious influence on Dredd
Jaws – the archetypal killer monster movie, with a direct link to Hookjaw (from Action comic), and in turn to Flesh and more obviously Shako
Damnation Alley – gave birth to the Cursed Earth storyline

and, from more recent years:

X-Files – without this, there'd be no Vector 13 or Black Light
Pulp Fiction – Sinister Dexter
The anthology films of Hammer and Amicus, e.g. Asylum, The House that Dripped Blood, and a bunch of Doctor Who – Caballistics, Inc + Absalom
Jason & the Agonauts  / The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad / The Golden Voyage of Sinbad – the Harryhausen elements of these films directly link to the Read Seas.


2. Films inspired by 2000AD stories

Hardware – wittingly or not, it's a direct adaptation of Shok! (and it's pretty decent, too)
RoboCop – would not exist without Judge Dredd
Universal Soldier had loose (but not that loose) connections to Rogue Trooper,
as did Soldier
BloodRayne – based on a computer game very directly inspired by Harrison era Durham Red
E.T. / Boys from the Blackstuff – Skizz is a mash-up of these two
O.C. & Stiggs – the very direct antecedent of DR & Quinch, which I've never seen

3. Films inspired by 2000AD generally, or films that just have that 2000AD feel about them (this list could probably go on forever)
Accion Mutante + Day of the Beast (seriously, check 'em out!)
Avatar – I doubt it was even slightly deliberate, but the film is mash-up of Maniac 5 and Firekind (with both the fun and intelligence sucked out)
Underworld – a not-as-good similar story to A Love Like Blood
Moon

4. Films made by people with an explicit 2000AD connection
Shaun of the Dead (although, for me, The World's End is the Wright/Pegg film that feels most as if it could have run in 2000AD as a strip)
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road (and I suppose highlander II: the Quickening. But who wants to see that again?)
The Book of Eli

[JOE SOAP]

2. Films inspired by 2000AD stories

O.C. & Stiggs – the very direct antecedent of DR & Quinch, which I've never seen

It belongs in a seperate category as D.R. & Quinch are based on the O.C. and Stiggs text stories published in National Lampoon magazine between 1981 and 1982.

The film O.C & Stiggs was scripted in 1982 and shot in 1983 - which is also the same year as the publication of D.R. & Quinch's first Future Shock story - but the film was not released until 1987.

E.T. / Boys from the Blackstuff – Skizz is a mash-up of these two

More aptly belongs in Category 1

[Dandontdare]

E.T. / Boys from the Blackstuff – Skizz is a mash-up of these two

According to Steve McManus' recent book, the ET connection was purely coincidental as Alan Moore hadn't seen or heard of the film when he wrote it, but it was immediately assumed people would think it was copied.

[Rio De Fideldo]

The film the Lives of Others is an amazing portrayal of life in a totalitarian state (East Germany). I watched it and immediately thought of Dredd, America, and the various Democracy based storylines.

Highly recommended.

[JOE SOAP]

According to Steve McManus' recent book, the ET connection was purely coincidental as Alan Moore hadn't seen or heard of the film when he wrote it, but it was immediately assumed people would think it was copied.

Although in the previous chapter Steve does mention E.T. being a hit at the Cannes film festival in the context of having dinner with Michael Wadleigh which is interesting when put with these words from Alan Moore about the creation of Skizz in the 1984 2000AD annual -



While Moore probably had no knowledge of the film it's possible a similar idea had been suggested by McManus.

[Lobo Baggins]

E.T. / Boys from the Blackstuff – Skizz is a mash-up of these two

According to Steve McManus' recent book, the ET connection was purely coincidental as Alan Moore hadn't seen or heard of the film when he wrote it, but it was immediately assumed people would think it was copied.

Loz has half a page of dialogue about ET including a vague description of the plot (he can't remember if the bit with the bicycles comes before or after the bit with the government), but 'this isn't a movie, Loz - this is Birmingham!' so I think it's safe to say that Moore was at least aware of the movie (or it's been sub-edited in).

[Frank]

The film the Lives of Others is an amazing portrayal of life in a totalitarian state (East Germany). I watched it and immediately thought of Dredd, America, and the various Democracy based storylines

Absolutely. There are a bunch of films where I like to mentally CG a judge helmet onto one character and pretend I'm watching the kind of Dredd film we'll never, ever get.

Catch A Fire (2006) offers a pretty good compendium of the America/Total War storylines if you imagine Tim Robbins with a metal eagle on one shoulder, and who didn't watch Willem Dafoe playing the part of a total bastard - who rides around on a bike, with black leathers and a lantern jaw - and wish he'd been tearing up the sked instead?


CYCLOPS LASER CANNON!