Why so few 2000 AD fan films?

[Steve Green]

I've been pondering the lack of 2000 AD related fan films recently.

Considering the supposed impact of the comic, it doesn't seem to have jumped into other forms that much.

Having done 2 of the things, I know it's a bit of a slog and potentially expensive compared to fanzines/art but surprised that relatively few have gone the same route in any form, either before or since we did ours.

After 2012 there were a few 'yeah we'll make a Dredd short', but nothing really materialised aside from that Cursed Edge series.

Maybe they have more sense, or anyone serious about it considers that sort of thing slumming it.

I get that some strips would be a challenge, but there's been very little overall...

Thoughts?

[Colin YNWA]

The creative brilliance of Minty set the bar too high?

[Steve Green]

Pahahah!

Bit off more than we could chew maybe...

I could quite see a Dredd story just in an interrogation room.

Or a Nemesis World story where it's just an alien and Torque's terminator stuck together, a sort of Hell in the Pacific/Enemy Mine type thing except the human reverts to being an arsehole.

[matty_ae]

I think we all take our hats off to you.

The amazing 'Slaine: Horned God" trailer was also incredible and I never heard any more about what it was intended for or if it achieved its aims.

I think the work both have done is utterly beyond the old definition of fan film but then I guess cosplay has made a massive leap forwards as well.

Rogue seems the obvious one both for a fan film or a feature.

[Steve Green]

Cheers, yeah the effort put into that Slaine trailer is pretty astonishing.

Rogue definitely has some advantages over other strips - uniforms/clones means you could potentially use fewer costumes and digitally duplicate people (although it really slows down filming and is a slog for the actors)

But it's still expensive for costumes, even if you wanted 5 norts and 5 southers at (generously) £100 a pop it's already adding up before you even start with Rogue or locations/equipment.

[The Adventurer]

Because Sci-Fi is expensive to shoot?

[Steve Green]

Because Sci-Fi is expensive to shoot?

I don't think it necessarily has to be.

You could probably do a simple Slaine story for example, or pick a future shock/time twister that's doable.

With the 2012 costumes knocking around, you could do a movie Apocalypse War stor where it's just a siege story in a bunker, holding out against the invading sov army.

More a case of working with the limitations of budget.

[sheridan]

Definitely need to wade in to this when I get home - starting with a list of what's already out there!
The ones I know of, roughly in order of release:

   
• Tony Luke's home-made Nemesis film (which got broadcast on TV in the 1980s)
• something from the mid-1990s which I can't remember any details about...
• The Horned God 'trailer' (Spanish or Italian?)
• Judge Minty
• Cursed Edge, however many episodes, though the first one didn't appear to be very Dredd-y
• Search/Destroy, A Strontium Dog Fan Film

[sheridan]

Definitely need to wade in to this when I get home - starting with a list of what's already out there!
The ones I know of, roughly in order of release:

   
• Tony Luke's home-made Nemesis film (which got broadcast on TV in the 1980s)
• something from the mid-1990s which I can't remember any details about...
• The Horned God 'trailer' (Spanish or Italian?)
• Judge Minty
• Cursed Edge, however many episodes, though the first one didn't appear to be very Dredd-y
• Search/Destroy, A Strontium Dog Fan Film

I quickly took to youtube to try to find out more about the very vague one from the list above, and (without my typing or searching anything) it was already at number one in my 'recommended for you' list at the top of the page, weird...
The Body Shop (1992 fan film).

[sheridan]

Two more:

   
• Superfiend
• Dredd: the Payback, a Stop Motion film

[Steve Green]

A few more from the masters of CG contest


Rogue Trooper by Clement Lauricella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O52wKX2Mig0



Rogue Trooper by Invisible Darkness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvoQFwl6jlY


Rogue Trooper by Dukes Court Studios

https://vimeo.com/102670686

[Professor Bear]

Fan movie culture tends to be about high-profile things of the now or evergreen cultural juggernauts like Batman or Star Wars, while 2000ad really had it's pop-cultural heyday in the 1970s and 1980s.

[Steve Green]

It's a shame - the availability of decent cameras, drones, digital effects, 3D printing and distribution platforms like youtube would have had 80s fans drooling at the possibilities.

Obviously I'm biased, but it seems a bit more interesting to adapt something osbcure, than a karaoke version of whatever's hit the multiplex in the last six months.

[Professor Bear]

Likely the higher the profile of the source, the easier to find others who'll contribute time and effort purely because they're young and enthused about it, but there's probably also a conversation about quality over quantity to be had.  I've watched quite a few fan movies now (certainly enough to ruin my Youtube recs forever with fan movies about whatever a Spider-Gwen is), and usually they tend to be isolated vignettes, fight scenes, SFX showcases, or fodder for an actor or cosplayer's showreel.*  It's pretty rare to find fan movies with a complete story and the whole "beginning, middle and end" thing.


* strange but true: one of Black Widow's MCU fight doubles got her on-camera start doing dodgy cosplay/apartment wrestling fetish vids as a springboard to becoming a legitimate thespian in serious cinema

[sheridan]

It's a shame - the availability of decent cameras, drones, digital effects, 3D printing and distribution platforms like youtube would have had 80s fans drooling at the possibilities.

Obviously I'm biased, but it seems a bit more interesting to adapt something osbcure, than a karaoke version of whatever's hit the multiplex in the last six months.

My vote is for Meltdown Man!  A 50-prog storyline in a post-[spoiler]magnetic pole-flipped Earth[/spoiler], populated by humanoid animals clustered around towering futuristic towns and cities wouldn't cost a lot to make, would it?