Dredd Screenplay

[Will I. Cooling]

Reading Marshal Law yesterday (great by the way) and in teh back it says that Pat Mills wrote the screenpaly for the movie that was planned. This got me thinking, Mills always wrote Dredd as a hero which is what is needed in the film so why not get Mills to write it?

Well its an idea.

[Tex Hex]

Boy, you are really living up to your name!

Hex McHexo

[Generally Contrary]

No!  The last thing a Dredd movie needs is him as an unblemished hero.  The guy is a facist working to uphold a facist system - but his actions can have good effects.  However, he is not an unmitigated good.  At best, he is a necessary evil.

For me, a film which could examine this complexity, missing from most Hollywood films, would be better.

That said, I'm not sure that Mill's wrote Dredd as a 'hero'.

[GordonR]

>.That said, I'm not sure that Mill's wrote Dredd as a 'hero'.

He certainly did, in the early days, most notably in The Cursed Earth, when Dredd was proabably at his most human and heroic ever.

That said, the last time I recall Pat writing Dredd was the 'Rico remix' story he did at the time of the movie's release.  IIRC, he seemed to have more sympathy for Rico than Dredd, portraying Rico more as a rebel against the system this time round, and Dredd as the authoritarian stooge.

Thta was eight years ago, and I suspect Pat's feelings on this portrayal of Dredd would probably only have intensified over the years.

Frankly, I think a Mills Dredd screenplay would be an unmitigated disaster.

If you;re going for a droid-written screenplay, John, or John & Alan, would surely be the one to go for.

[Noisybast]

Why Mills? I have nothing against his stuff (well, his earlier stuff...), but if a 2KAD scribe's going to write it, It might as well be Wagner, since he's produced by far the best stuff with the character over the years.

[paulvonscott]

I think that's too simplistic a comment to be honest GC, though it's the easy description everyone bandies about.  One of the reasons that Dredd was changed so much for the first film was that everyone got nervous about it being a movie with a fascist for a hero.

There is no fascist ideology at the heart of Judge Dredd.  There is no political belief system at all.  The laws and all the aparatus of the law exists to protect the city and it's citizens.  Whether you agree with those laws and the system is a different argument.

Yes, there is no democracy, but that also doesn't mean it's a fascist state.  It's a totalitarian state.  Where one party, the judges, allows no other parties (yet) to govern, and protects it's own position (rightly or wrongly) to protect the city.

[Generally Contrary]

++That said, I'm not sure that Mill's wrote Dredd as a 'hero'++

That comment was based on my muddled understanding of Pat's confusing political standpoint expressed through his writings.  Next time, I will make reference to the source material.

I'd go for Wagner and Grant, as those stories are, to me, the quintessential Dredd.

Or Oliver Stone.

[paulvonscott]

Yeah, I think it's a real shame that Wagner and Grant can't be paid to have a go.  At least on one of the movies.  You can't help but feel there'll be another of those screenings where they sit down and point out all the mistakes they made.

[Oddboy]

To not get Wagner/Grant to write it (or at least plot it) is just shooting themselves in the foot.

[judge dreddd]

i think the emergency government of the judges has being going on too long BUT when the people voted they voted to keep the judges so its an elected dictatorship really... init ?

[Proudhuff]

++ so its an elected dictatorship really++

Gordon Bennett! Jason you could get a job with Glasgow Labour Party/ City Council PR unit,

Welldone to The General C and Oddboy! its a worry cause they make sense to me...

Helpful Huffy

[Matt]

Do you reckon the mills fan is really Mr. Mills himself? I've noticed a bit of Mills promotion on the board recently, and that letter in this weeks prog was down right suss, "oh i'm trying to remember a Slaine story that featured Cythrons & the Guildig, is it available as a Graphic novel as I haven't seen it reprinted" Nice timing Tharg!

[Generally Contrary]

Yes, that was a pretty simple analysis of Judge Dredd, glossing over a lot of stuff.  Still, I feel that Fascism is the closest analogue for the government of Mega-City 1.  All the governmental structures are highly militarised, with no democratic oversight.  The population is very tightly controlled and scrutinised.  They even expelled the mutants.

I do want to be corrected, with regards to the appropriate analogue for Dredd's system.  Though they lack motives beyond the security and well-being of the city and people, isn't this what the public face of Fascism presents?

This is a bit off thread.  Sorry.

So, Oliver Stone for Dredd screenwriter/director.

[Quirkafleeg]

It's not fascism...

Fascism is a far right political viewpoint that stresses the binding of individuals into a state that enfources the needs of the state over the needs of the individual ('together we are strong'). It also has strong roots in the history of the state ('It was much better in the old times when men were real men women were real women and we did not have all those filthy degenerate (insert hate group here)'). Citizens are encourage to join the 'party' and take their place in a well-ordered society were the trains run on time.

MC1 is ruled by an elite self-electing group

MC1 was a year zero where the old times have been rubbed away.

MC1 is a totalitarian Police State, rather appropiatly

[Slippery PD]

Erm Gary your description of Fascism, could easily by Communism!!  

Yer two sides of the same coin Slippo