Judge Dredd: Mega-City One - TV show announced!

[sheridan]

I totally agree that it's getting silly how many times nay-sayers have whined about it - development hell isn't called that for nothing - plus you can't announce things when contracts still need to be signed.





Oh, and there is this thing called a global pandemic happening right now.  Don't know if it's made the news or anything?

[IndigoPrime]

Tales from Development Hell by David Hughes is well worth reading if anyone wants insight into the process of making movies. TV is a bit different, but not entirely. Dredd is a risk and a niche property. It doesn’t have the backing of a Disney or even a Netflix. So it’ll take as long as it takes—and that could be years.

[Jim_Campbell]

Tales from Development Hell by David Hughes is well worth reading if anyone wants insight into the process of making movies.

Complete tangent from the "it's a small world" department. I worked extensively for Dave's Intellect Devourer and Skeleton Crew* fanzines in the late 80s and got quite savagely drunk with him a couple of times. Dave also edited the features for the Dark Horse International repackaging of the US Aliens material and wrote the alien biology articles for him that ended up (largely uncredited) in the Aliens Technical Manual book. I moved with Skeleton Crew when it turned into a pro magazine, and then Dave managed to get himself fired from his own magazine, then sacked from another one for (I believe) transcribing other people's movie reviews for his own column.

He seems to have found his way back to respectability after a number of wilderness years that began in the mid-nineties and seems to have his shit together these days, which I'm very pleased to see.

*Both the fanzine and pro incarnations of Skeleton Crew used 'The Creep's Kevin Cullen extensively for spot illos in text features, if you want a House of Tharg link in this otherwise pointless digression.

[Professor Bear]

With my old man memory that extends past 2015, I recall being slightly more burned over the years by productions with a quick turnaround.*  Don't get me wrong, though - if anyone wants to make "they should just make the MC1 show more quickly like they did with Rise Of Skywalker" a thing, I am totally there for it.



*And before any of you bitch-ass mother fuckers bring it up again, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze was the exception.  Just let it go already.

[JOE SOAP]

I don't entirely blame some fans for having the expectation it would be 'made by now'. Not everyone pays attention to the details, or lack of, in announcements; or are aware of the very, very small percentage of projects that ever crawl out of the dark days of Development and into the green-light of Production.

Apart from the public announcement in May 2017 – which many fans would simply take to mean 'it's happening'– some of the language used in subesequent press statements implied things were in place and it was going into Pre-production – when as far as I can tell it has never left Development:

“It’s been really exciting to be working with Rob on the pilot,” Jenkins said in a statement. “We have a really talented team here at Rebellion Productions and I’m really proud of them. Jason and I have been busy looking at locations and laying out season one as we gear up, to move forward into pre-production.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/heat-vision/comic-writer-rob-williams-has-completed-judge-dredd-pilot-script-comic-con-1128980

After that there was the collapse of their Mega-City One Production partner, IMGlobal, and Rebellion's own focus and mission has altered/broadened since then as they became facilitators of a large studio space and bought a distribution servicing company.

With an ambitious creation like Judge Dredd it was always, and still is, a matter of 'who pays for it?'

[The Legendary Shark]

Personally, I'm content to wait. It's better for them to take their time rather than wasting it.

[GordonR]

Tales from Development Hell by David Hughes is well worth reading if anyone wants insight into the process of making movies.

Complete tangent from the "it's a small world" department. I worked extensively for Dave's Intellect Devourer and Skeleton Crew* fanzines in the late 80s and got quite savagely drunk with him a couple of times. Dave also edited the features for the Dark Horse International repackaging of the US Aliens material and wrote the alien biology articles for him that ended up (largely uncredited) in the Aliens Technical Manual book. I moved with Skeleton Crew when it turned into a pro magazine, and then Dave managed to get himself fired from his own magazine, then sacked from another one for (I believe) transcribing other people's movie reviews for his own column.

He seems to have found his way back to respectability after a number of wilderness years that began in the mid-nineties and seems to have his shit together these days, which I'm very pleased to see.

*Both the fanzine and pro incarnations of Skeleton Crew used 'The Creep's Kevin Cullen extensively for spot illos in text features, if you want a House of Tharg link in this otherwise pointless digression.

Confirmation:

I remember Dave.  And I remember him getting fired from a magazine I was doing bits and pieces for when they found out he was just verbatim copying his movie articles from daily newspapers etc.

It was probably easier to get away with this stuff before the interwebz.

[Mister Pops]

I for one am shocked that they have yet to release even a single teaser image so that we all may have another spirited and completely reasonable debate over helmet sizes* and wheel diameters.





*stop it you

[Professor Bear]

I've been waiting on the CW's Mars Project for five years.  The title is short for Untitled Mars Project because they haven't even given it a name yet, and for two years before that it was just a boardroom brain-fart from execs who saw The Martian had done well and reckoned they should cash-in... "somehow".
So, you know, seven years and counting for a Martian cash-in show that will undoubtedly be long past its window of opportunity to cash in, and no-one in the industry is even batting an eyelid.  Maybe it'll happen one day, maybe it's been cancelled already, but no-one in the know about such things seems bothered by the production cycle.

[Jim_Campbell]

I remember Dave.  And I remember him getting fired from a magazine I was doing bits and pieces for when they found out he was just verbatim copying his movie articles from daily newspapers etc.

ISTR hearing that he lived on the South Coast at the time and was cribbing them from the Bournemouth Echo, assuming that no one on-staff would be reading the Echo… just goes to show how seemingly reasonable assumptions can still bite you on the arse.

[Funt Solo]

I for one am shocked that they have yet to release even a single teaser image so that we all may have another spirited and completely reasonable debate over helmet sizes* and wheel diameters.





*stop it you

I can honestly say that a lot of my focus has been on Karl Urban's helmet. I mean, it's a great helmet, don't get me wrong - but there's something just not quite right about it at the same time. It just doesn't quite fit. Now, Stallone's helmet is something I could never get to grips with - mostly because it was removed, how shall we say, early in the production. It's difficult to deal with a non-existent helmet, I think we can all agree. Great codpiece, though.

Imagine tackling Urban and Stallone's Dredds at the same time, back to back. Double whammy!

[IndigoPrime]

I guess at least you didn’t say: "Imagine tackling Urban and Stallone's helmets at the same time, back to back. Double whammy!"

[sheridan]

"I knew you'd say that"

[judgeurko]

plus you can't announce things when contracts still need to be signed.

There should have been something more concrete in place then before the initial announcement.

[Jim_Campbell]

There should have been something more concrete in place then before the initial announcement.

And yet, somehow, now you're demanding news even if there's none?

I have a suspicion that there was a Night of the Long Knives at IMGlobal (there was certainly a major management reshuffle) and whoever was on the inside and enthusiastic for the MC-1 series was suddenly on the outside, replaced by someone with literally no motivation to make their predeccesor's projects a success.

If that's what happened (and, as always, I have no inside info) and Rebellion took on good faith the enthusiasm of a senior exec to make the series happen, only for that exec to be unceremoniously ousted, then surely you can understand the added caution over announcing any developments after that?