Film Discussion

[DKCX]

Paul cast discuss the film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB9b7zYxNEY

Fergie....pppfff....ship him off to Brit-Cit
CLASSIC 

[Beaky Smoochies]

Just read recently about John Wagner and Alan Grant writing a treatment for the Judge Dredd movie back in the day, but the powers-that-were never followed through on it (and look at how THAT movie ended up) for whatever reason.  Does any forum dwellers know what the storyline was on the Wagner/Grant treatment, I would love to know...

[JOE SOAP]

John Wagner didn't remember doing it the last time he was asked about it.

[House of Usher]

I think Mean machine might be doable..

...but probably best avoided, because filmgoers who aren't also comic book readers might feel ripped off seeing exactly the same villains as they got from the Stallone movie.

I would love to see the Dark Judges as the main villains in a Judge Dredd movie down the line. Camp, magical, far-fetched or what, I can imagine a mainstream audience getting a kick out of that. It would have a crossover horror audience. There would be great opportunities for gruesome special effects too - Fire! Nightmare-inducing gaze! CGI rapid decomposition! Whoah, that dude just rammed his hand right into/through that guy's chest! It would be talked about, but in a good way if done right.

[weehawk]

I think Mean machine might be doable..

...but probably best avoided, because filmgoers who aren't also comic book readers might feel ripped off seeing exactly the same villains as they got from the Stallone movie.

...but if this new film is successful, I don't think that should be much of a problem. It all depends on how they approach it, imo.

[Steve Green]

It's all very premature - but I'm trying to think how they'd fit in with the world that it looks like they're going for.

I think we'd end up with something more like a deranged MC-1 Judge, who's also a serial killer, maybe an empath who thinks the only solution is to euthanise the population - A Dexter/Jigsaw combo, maybe with a bit of Oona Blint.

A possible way is that the typical Dark Judge appearance is played as a hallucination brought on by powerful psis, in the same way the beginning of Necropolis is. I think that approach wouldn't be a bad compromise.

[SmallBlueThing]

Seriously read that as 'a hallucination brought on by powerful piss' :-/.

There more talk there is about not doing Death like he is in the comics (or at least, how he was at the start, before he became a dentist's son and sang on stage with bloody batman, etc etc) the more i think they really shouldnt bother. If you cant do something properly, dont do it at all. I appreciate what you're saying Steve, but no one who responded to the character in the first place thought 'it'd be better if he was just a psychic serial killer'. Similarly, i dont think anybody (or at least anybody sensible, so we'll discount danny cannon) ever read the first ten years of dredd and thought 'this'd be better if there werent crazy aliens, talking monkeys, fatties and comedy robot sidekicks. It'd be great if it was grim and gritty.' If they're intent on turning Dredd into Nolan's Batman, that's great, it's an interpretation i suppose. But i'd have more faith in the source material, personally.
SBT

[Steve Green]

I'm not entirely convinced a comic-faithful Death would really work on screen to be honest even if the rest of the film was more geared to that look - it may be heresy to some, but there are elements of the design I don't particularly like in Bolland's version - the fingers and bones on the pads feel a bit too "Monster Fun" to me. If he was pushed towards more something where the costume properly looked like it had been cobbled out of body parts, it might work better on screen IMHO.

But I think the gap between the gritty realism of the new Dredd (which I think could be a mistake) and a comic version Death is too large to work in the same movie. Personally, I would avoid trying it, but if they were going to do it, that's the route I'd expect them to go.

[SmallBlueThing]

Yep, definately, tweak the cozzie. But keep the cross-dimensional alien superfiend thing. Ideally, my perfect 'Dredd vs Death' movie would begin with Death warping in and killing, in rapid succession, a fatty on a bellywheel, a man coming out of a face change parlour who looks like tony blair or david cameron, and a talking monkey in a hat.
SBT

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I would finish the first film with Death after the end credits (let's have some belief that a sequel will follow). Have a crime happen in a dark alley, we see it from behind the helmet as he advances. Next thing the perp is dead, close up on the injured victim as she looks up and screams and he says his trademark phrase.  THE END!



Just in case, THE END is not his phrase 

[Mardroid]

I don't necessaries see 'gritty' and 'supernatural' as being a contradiction.  The comic Dredd can be pretty gritty at times. (If that means what I think it does.) And we DO have a psychic as one of the main characters in the film, after all. If Psychics exist I don't see the extra stretch to ghosts, demons and  then on to transdimensional entities to be that great.

I think Death would need to be introduced the right way though. Tone down the cheese, dial up a real sense of menace. Maybe even make him an alternate version of Dredd, i.e. the Dredd of that world, just to show how what could happen if the main one were to go the wrong extreme...

[SmallBlueThing]

Mardroid: that's what they did in the jd:lotf 'death' story, and that worked really well, in my opinion. The fact that the original 'death' stories (death/death lives) DIDNT end with the revelation that he was deadworld's version of dredd is either testament to wagner and grant's innate original storytelling genius, or a bizarre oversight. I wonder if they ever discussed it?
SBT

[Mardroid]

Hmm. I haven't read that. I read a bit of the young Death story in an old Meg story though. The one where he had the improbably name of 'De'ath'. I bought it on ebay back before I got the Prog regularly, more as a taster before deciding to go the full course, so to speak.

[JOE SOAP]

The subtext of who Death was meant to represent is more on-the-nose as it would be for a 'kids comic' which is a bit strange since I was a kid when I read the original Death stories?


Elegantly lovely Alex Ronald art:

[JOE SOAP]

A 'real-world' Death would probably end up looking unfortunately like this: