Judge Dredd TV Series

[JOE SOAP]

How about an animated series about the academy? Might be more likely to sell, Judge cadet uniforms for christmas kids? You could even have a Dredd clone as the main character and as many established characters as you wanted as protagonists.

an animated Dredd world series without the real Dredd being the main character is pointless, how do you market that, especially to non Dredd fans? Watch this, it's Dredd but not.

[Kerrin]

How about an animated series about the academy? Might be more likely to sell, Judge cadet uniforms for christmas kids? You could even have a Dredd clone as the main character and as many established characters as you wanted as protagonists.

an animated Dredd world series without the real Dredd being the main character is pointless, how do you market that, especially to non Dredd fans? Watch this, it's Dredd but not.

 That's pretty much it. You're going to have trouble selling an adult version of Dredd to any market other than the U.K due to lack of awareness of the character other than that bloody Stallone film. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a properly done Dredd series with decent writing, classy acting and mind blowing effects, but any production company who managed to get the money to try would be taking a hell of a risk. If you had Dredd as the main character you'd have to either have to have a narrative voiceover from himself( like in Dexter or the original Bladerunner) or a separate narrator, otherwise nobody would know what was actually going on with him due to the fact he's not exactly what you'd call chatty. He's also not a particularly sympathetic character as a grown man, we all love the shitkicking old bugger but any new TV audience would need a lot of background and flashbacks to get his softer side (he's just a pussycat really, who never sleeps and executes the guilty with a cheery "I AM THE LAW"). There's such a massive amount of Dredd world storylines that you could start anywhere, but "Origins" would be a good call I reckon as Tomascahill said at the start of this thread, end series one with the Apocalypse War. Then you get the young Joe and Rico and build from there.
  The point I was trying to make with the animated academy idea was that you could still have Dredd (a young cloned version) and you could still have Dredd (the scarred,battlehardened, crim stomping older version) but you could aim it at an audience more like 2000AD's original target. You'd still have old stoneyface but you'd also have a young version who you could follow through stories at the academy and on the mean streets of MC1, just not with the need for a massive bodycount. I was kind of going with the idea Tomascahill put forward in his original post,
     
           "Hell the series doesn't even have to center around Dredd, he could be a main recurring character ready to stomp his boot on any law breaking drokker"

  That said, I'd love to see a pure Dredd series with a soaring MC1 and a giant chinned Judge blowing the guilty to bloody chunks with bike cannon. Proper Muties, fatties, uglys and simps in a fantastic seething post apocalyptic city kept in line by the fear of one man, Judge Dredd.
 But I bet the bastards don't make it.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Yep, the sad truth is it's too expensive to make and I think the world of Television production tends to be slightly more liberal in their policies unlikely to warm to a brutal, male authority figure.

 'Judge Anderson Psi Judge' now that might interest them as she would be an empathetic figure (female in macho male world) who has a special talent that leaves her open to prejudice from both fellow Judges and the public she's sworn to protect. This is ripping off stuff like 'Prime Suspect' ,the 'No 1 female detective Agency'  plus 'CSI' and it's clones etc I admit openly but these shows  have a strong track record of success so that might be a better pitch.  

'SCi-FI meets CSI' is my sales patter so if your a TV production type give Rebellion a call ! God I 'm doing their work for them!!

[Keef Monkey]

Anderson's also got more sex appeal than an old man with a big chin, to the telly bigwigs tits mean ratings.

[JOE SOAP]

'Judge Anderson Psi Judge' now that might interest them as she would be an empathetic figure (female in macho male world) who has a special talent that leaves her open to prejudice from both fellow Judges and the public she's sworn to protect. This is ripping off stuff like 'Prime Suspect' ,the 'No 1 female detective Agency'  plus 'CSI' and it's clones etc I admit openly but these shows  have a strong track record of success so that might be a better pitch.  

'SCi-FI meets CSI' is my sales patter so if your a TV production type give Rebellion a call ! God I 'm doing their work for them!!

It's still a diversion from doing an actual Judge Dredd programme, in other words, how do you market something that's Judge Dredd, but not, without having set up the whole background. First you'd have to explain what a judge is then basically say "but the main character is this weird kind of judge with special abilities that's not exactly like this judge called Dredd who is the main character really but we can't really get into that". It's a weird pitch and doomed to fail. It's like saying your main draw is defective.

[Mardroid]

First you'd have to explain what a judge is then basically say "but the main character is this weird kind of judge with special abilities that's not exactly like this judge called Dredd who is the main character really but we can't really get into that". It's a weird pitch and doomed to fail. It's like saying your main draw is defective.

Not really. If it was about Anderson, you'd just introduce people to the judges from her perspective. I.e. an officer in the Psi-division of a fascist police force (ok I know the judges are more than that, but that'd be the parallel. The judges full powers made apparent (powers in this case being their role of police, judge jury and executioner I mean, not psi powers) during the episode.  Dredd would appear of course as an iconic figure  in the main force to which she is attached, but I don't think that cause confusion. Not when you consider all the psychic-attached-to-police stories that have gone around.

Anderson would still be central, but there's no reason Dredd couldn't take a centralish role too, albeit it would be in the same way the Scooby gang characters are central in Buffy. Sept, more laconic. And more, head cracky than wise-cracky. If that makes sense.

[Kerrin]

Wonder if Rebellion have ever approached a production company about this?

[JOE SOAP]

First you'd have to explain what a judge is then basically say "but the main character is this weird kind of judge with special abilities that's not exactly like this judge called Dredd who is the main character really but we can't really get into that". It's a weird pitch and doomed to fail. It's like saying your main draw is defective.

Not really. If it was about Anderson, you'd just introduce people to the judges from her perspective. I.e. an officer in the Psi-division of a fascist police force (ok I know the judges are more than that, but that'd be the parallel. The judges full powers made apparent (powers in this case being their role of police, judge jury and executioner I mean, not psi powers) during the episode.  Dredd would appear of course as an iconic figure  in the main force to which she is attached, but I don't think that cause confusion. Not when you consider all the psychic-attached-to-police stories that have gone around.

Anderson would still be central, but there's no reason Dredd couldn't take a centralish role too, albeit it would be in the same way the Scooby gang characters are central in Buffy. Sept, more laconic. And more, head cracky than wise-cracky. If that makes sense.

What would be the point though?, Dredd is the popular character and Anderson is even more obscure, it makes less sense to even attempt an Anderson series as there is less of an audience even at the core. Fans would be asking "well if you made an Anderson series, why didn't you make Dredd?" Many -mostly fans- would be wondering where the hell is Dredd and why isn't he in it more. I guarantee that such a series would never get off the starting block at any production company, no matter how radical.

[Mardroid]

Oh, I wasn't necessarily  saying that Anderson is the way to go. Just that if such a decision was taken, it needn't be viewed as an indirect way of introducing people to Dredd.

As to whether or not people would be more likely to back a Dredd film, again, I suppose it depends on how much the film has turned people off. I.e. Dredd is better known, but that considering the association, that might not be a good thing. A sci fi show with a completely different character might spark interest.. (but then again, it might not as you say.)

[JOE SOAP]

A sci fi show with a completely different character might spark interest.. (but then again, it might not as you say.)

as in Strontium Dog or Robo Hunter, just not someone in a judges uniform.

[Kerrin]

A sci fi show with a completely different character might spark interest.. (but then again, it might not as you say.)

as in Strontium Dog or Robo Hunter, just not someone in a judges uniform.

 Strontium Dog would be a good bet I reckon, genetic mutants as Heroes meets Dog the bounty hunter in space. Who wouldn't buy that.

 Jimmy Nesbitt is Johny Alpha, or not, as the case may be.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

First you'd have to explain what a judge is then basically say "but the main character is this weird kind of judge with special abilities that's not exactly like this judge called Dredd who is the main character really but we can't really get into that". It's a weird pitch and doomed to fail. It's like saying your main draw is defective.

Not really. If it was about Anderson, you'd just introduce people to the judges from her perspective. I.e. an officer in the Psi-division of a fascist police force (ok I know the judges are more than that, but that'd be the parallel. The judges full powers made apparent (powers in this case being their role of police, judge jury and executioner I mean, not psi powers) during the episode.  Dredd would appear of course as an iconic figure  in the main force to which she is attached, but I don't think that cause confusion. Not when you consider all the psychic-attached-to-police stories that have gone around.

Anderson would still be central, but there's no reason Dredd couldn't take a centralish role too, albeit it would be in the same way the Scooby gang characters are central in Buffy. Sept, more laconic. And more, head cracky than wise-cracky. If that makes sense.

What would be the point though?, Dredd is the popular character and Anderson is even more obscure, it makes less sense to even attempt an Anderson series as there is less of an audience even at the core. Fans would be asking "well if you made an Anderson series, why didn't you make Dredd?" Many -mostly fans- would be wondering where the hell is Dredd and why isn't he in it more. I guarantee that such a series would never get off the starting block at any production company, no matter how radical.

I think we have to be harsh and look at what the current successful trends in tv shows have been and that would excempt any authorititive male figures who tend to be cast either as evil, incompatant or both. Your quite right garageman to feel miffed at what seems to you and to me, long time fans of the DREDD series as a sure fire winner but we're seeing it as fans and not like hard nosed television producers for whom the bottom line is usually all. No Media group would commision an expensive series like JUDGE DREDD without the input of their 'focus groups' who are unlikely to be fans of J.D. The trend seems to be for female leads 'THE TERMINATER CHRONICLES' 'MEDIUM' and 'superteens' 'HEROES' and it's enivatable clones.
Realities a bitch I'm afraid.

[JOE SOAP]

I think we have to be harsh and look at what the current successful trends in tv shows have been and that would excempt any authorititive male figures who tend to be cast either as evil, incompatant or both. Your quite right garageman to feel miffed at what seems to you and to me, long time fans of the DREDD series as a sure fire winner but we're seeing it as fans and not like hard nosed television producers for whom the bottom line is usually all. No Media group would commision an expensive series like JUDGE DREDD without the input of their 'focus groups' who are unlikely to be fans of J.D. The trend seems to be for female leads 'THE TERMINATER CHRONICLES' 'MEDIUM' and 'superteens' 'HEROES' and it's enivatable clones.
Realities a bitch I'm afraid.

Yeah, but where does the Dark Knight fit into that equation?, he's half villain. I know Batman is uber popular and an icon but there is a thirst for harder edged antiheroes, they're still churning out Punisher films and wanting to remake Dirty Harry, of course Dredd is a lot more expensive than either and that's the risk with an already besmirched character, but it would just take a producer with balls to do it.

As for the trend of female leads, I think that is balls, sorry, but there are still way more male action/serious roles especially in cinema. I think the truth is that both men, and women, prefer to see men in those type of roles than women. Lost being a slight exception with equal standings at times but the men in that series are still the more compelling, interesting characters that drive the series.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

I think we have to be harsh and look at what the current successful trends in tv shows have been and that would excempt any authorititive male figures who tend to be cast either as evil, incompatant or both. Your quite right garageman to feel miffed at what seems to you and to me, long time fans of the DREDD series as a sure fire winner but we're seeing it as fans and not like hard nosed television producers for whom the bottom line is usually all. No Media group would commision an expensive series like JUDGE DREDD without the input of their 'focus groups' who are unlikely to be fans of J.D. The trend seems to be for female leads 'THE TERMINATER CHRONICLES' 'MEDIUM' and 'superteens' 'HEROES' and it's enivatable clones.
Realities a bitch I'm afraid.

Yeah, but where does the Dark Knight fit into that equation?, he's half villain. I know Batman is uber popular and an icon but there is a thirst for harder edged antiheroes, they're still churning out Punisher films and wanting to remake Dirty Harry, of course Dredd is a lot more expensive than either and that's the risk with an already besmirched character, but it would just take a producer with balls to do it.

As for the trend of female leads, I think that is balls, sorry, but there are still way more male action/serious roles especially in cinema. I think the truth is that both men, and women, prefer to see men in those type of roles than women. Lost being a slight exception with equal standings at times but the men in that series are still the more compelling, interesting characters that drive the series.

Er, the Dark knight .....oh yeah ? ! Aha ,but that's cinema not Tv and it's the goggle box we're thinking about here. Yep your right about the action hero for cinema but try to think of a recent sci fi Tv series about a tough, authority figure and not a lot leaps to mind. I can only think of The Dresden Files on sky (on bloody Virgin till the media swine fell out over money, so much for choice) and he was a wizard who did weird shit.
The Sopranoes was about Mafia families and it might be worth considering why a Tv series about amoral, violent crooks did very well both commercially  and critically while say something like JUDGE DREDD doesn't seem to get a look in ?
Why did it do so well ? The Mafia aren't excactly 'heroes' to me and brilliant though the writing in the Sopranoes was it was still amoral crooks with family problems a novel twist on the 'Godfather'.  
Authority figures are out as far is Tv is concerned -the crooks are preferable. Sad but true.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Damn I did the wrong thing with thiss ...AAAIEEEE !