The storylines of these new films then...

[Oddboy]

'Old stony-face becomes disgruntled with the corrupt judicial system he works for...' or something along those lines..?  The whole Democracy Now! story was amazingly deep & complex & built up over many years. It scares me to think that they're going straight into that in the first film - people who haven't read the last thousand progs should have the chance to get to know Dredd & the Justice Dept. before this kind of story.  That was one of the main problems (other than Sly's acting) with the original film - TOO MUCH BACK STORY!  Dredd finds out he was a clone!! So what!!  We all knew that already & those who didn't won't care because they don't know who he is to start with.
They should either have a brand new story (hopefully written by TB Grover) or pick a storyline with less background.
So there!

[Leigh S]

Dredd definitely needs introducing in a "street level" story - Just Dredd cracking heads.  

IMO, a series of interlinked stories would work best - something like the 'Graveyard Shift' stury, that introduces us to MC1, the way the Judges operate, and has both funny and serious plot lines. Think "Hunter's Club" as the main plot thread (as its a solid but accessibly "normal" thriller"), with lots of other more amusing subplots going on to show the weirdness of the Big Meg

[paulvonscott]

Gasp.. gasp...

I've just been reading SOME of the comments on the old Judge Dredd movie on IMDB.  I had to stop, really, I was that fecking annoyed.

Grudd, just go and read them (especially if you liked the movie ya freaks).  You'll be spitting feathers!  I think it's www.imdb.com, tap in Judge Dredd and look up the comments.  I'll go back when I've calmed down a bit.

I mean, Grudd knows it's just a comic, but it's got half a brain.  Most of the posters seem to have had their brains upgraded to half a housebrick.  It's annoying seeing the people with a brain, write off Dredd due to their contact with the movie, which is admittedly a pestelance.  

One guy thought Mega City was set 4000 years in the future and it was still unbelievable.  How he knows what he's having for dinner confuses me.

[uncle fester]

I just hope it won't follow many another good idea down the "Original concept from the UK, piss-poor end product brought to you by the USA, complete with t-shirt, toys range and bubble bath" path.
Have you read that of the awaited summer 'blockbusters' in the offing, 16 will be sequels?????!!!!

[Oddboy]

I always thought Raptaur (Megazine Volume I) would make a good film - shows off MC1 through the eyes of Cheever Mahoon (if I remember correctly) via MCTVX (?) & has lots of Mega City madness & Dredd in mortal combat against a nasty armour-plated brain-eating alien killer.
Thing is = why bother with writing scripts when there are already 25years worth of storyboards ready to use?  Drawn a lot better than most Hollywood storyboards'll ever be to!

[paulvonscott]

I dunno, do we just want a comic story translated to the screen?  Personally if they are I'd like them changed or new material added, because I want to watch a film where I don't know the end, and I don't know all the details.  Treat it as a starting point and see what works in a film and doesn't.

I probably could have lived with all the background changes in the old film if it had been any good.  Though why they did it is still beyond me.

This is a film, we should be hoping for something exciting and original.  There's a fine line bewteen wanting Dredd to be exactly what we expect
and having a film that lacks any life of it's own.  

Raptaur always seemed to be Giger's Aliens redesigned so they would work in a story set in Mega City One (because even though there is a crossover in the works, it will have to be pretty contrived to contain the Aliens).  It would be best to avoid it as a first film unless you wanted people to lump it in with Species and other bug hunting rot.

[Oddboy]

Fair enough.
Still I'd rather have a good film of a story I know than a butchered attempt at Dredd which ends up looking like a turd in a bright blue plastic bucket.
Fellowship of the Rings made a good film - almost everyone's read that one & everyone I've spoken to about it likes & approves of the film (as long as they can complain about 2-3 little things).
But they stuck pretty rigidly to the story of The Philosopher's Stone (although having to cut loads to keep it THAT short) & (while it looked fabulous) it totally lacked the power of the books..

[paulvonscott]

Yeah I saw Harry Potter, I hadn't read the books but the film was as dull as dishwater.  I grew to loathe Harry's suprised open-mouthed wonder by the end of the movie.

I think we'll get a Dredd from the late eighties in eerily familar scenarios.  I'd like Dredd to start as a young guy, rather than the later old bloke.  That way Dredd can develop throughout the movies (well hopefully).

So if they were going to do familar stories then I'd like them to do a Cursed Earth Movie and then Judge Cal.  

I wouldn't automatically equate filming an exisiting Judge Dredd story with a good film.  To get them to work you'd have to change them quite a bit, and I just think it's a great opportunity to do something different.  Do things in film that couldn't be attempted in a comic.  Add new stories to the world of Dredd (which has been a bit stale for fifteen years).

I'm happy for Rebellion just to do what they feel like, they are clued up, involved and know the mistakes of the previous movie.  As it's beyond my influence, that's as much as I can hope for.

[paulvonscott]

One thing I forgot to say is that if they do use an exisiting story, they should maybe ignore the epics for now (what does the apocalypse war matter if you don't know the city) but should take a short story, expand it, change it, mess with the ideas.  The Barry Kurtzen/Diablo story would be better than seeing Dredd as an outlaw again.  You'd need to really change it, but the potential in the story is great.

[Oddboy]

Yeah...
At best: the most amazing film ever, turns the world into 2000AD fans & makes our back-prog worth billions.
At worst: well we've been there a few years back already.  We coped.

[Thread Zero]

Hello I am scojo mark 3 here. The old scojo has gone forever so I'm not back you see. I am merely his clone.

Or it is a clone of a clone?

Anyway regarding the new Dredd films.

I agree that any new Dredd film(s) should add to the character. Embellish is the word I think we are looking for.

You see Dredd in its pure form isn't suited to the movie format. Dredd is episodic in nature. Bar the odd mega epic of course.

So you really want to avoid this episodic storytelling approach.

I don't think any of the mega epics would work as the first film. Besides I'm sure John Wagner and Pat Mills will be a bit annoyed if another writer plagiarises their stuff!

Take the best bits from Dredd's world and create a new story. Something that fans haven't seen before.

Re: Possession

Death in itself is not suited to a full length film.

Why you ask?

Well think about it. Death comes to the city, kills a few people and er..that's it. Death will get shot, go into spirit form, escape, possess someone else, continue killing then get caught..er and so on.

Look at Necropolis. Wagner wrote it in such a way that we never actually saw the cits being judged. There was a jump in time.

Now to make a great Death film you need to add another dimension (forgive the pun) to it.

More plot. You can add the other dark judges but a film of Death and co just teleporting throughout the city may get dull after a while. 2 hours of killing?

So you have to add something else. I sure ain't gonna tell you what it is!:)

scojo

[paulvonscott]

Ah the lure of the movie discussion.  It always works :)

The thing is with Death is that we are all a bit jaded, I'd say since his fellow dark judges arrived.  I think film goers would find it more refreshing than most readers.  And if it could be done as horror rather than camp frights then it could work for us too.

They are doing it as the second film which is a good idea.  There isn't any point in inculding an anti-judge until you've explained the judge concept itself.

"You see Dredd in its pure form isn't suited to the movie format. Dredd is episodic in nature. Bar the odd mega epic of course."

Well if by pure, you mean comic book then you are right.  The problems come when the comic is translated to other mediums film/audio/novel rather than Dredd and the City.

In it's pure form, Dredd would be outside of mediums and their constraints.  You need to take it out of the comic, hold it in your hand and take a good look at it before you put it back  into a film.

A Dredd film shouldn't be a series of linked episodes or set pieces.

ANyway, sorry Scojo, I interrupted your advert for your script ;)

[Thread Zero]

If you imagine Daeth more powerful than in comic form , you just enhance the character.

That's how to do the new movies. Add to what was great in the first place!

As for Anderson giving birth to a mutant, well it sounds like a good idea to me!

scojo

[paulvonscott]

I've been thinking about this Anderson pregnancy and why I intitially disliked the idea so much.

If it's one of these dreadful sf pregnancies where the kid grows to the age of 12 in a few hours, I will have to kill something.  

Or another super foetus.  "Mother, the oxygen content of this room is diminishing by 23%, I suggest we vacate immediately" Ack!  ACK!

If it's a normal pregancy, by someone Anderson was genuinely involved with, I could handle that.  How far Anderson strays from the model judge mold is pretty open.

Not sure how I'll feel if she gives birth to a judge child though.

[Thread Zero]

Set pieces?

Hmm. Don't agree with you there. All action films use set pieces to some degree. As long as they are part of the plot, I see no problem with them.

After all, Dredd killing every one in one minute is kinda dull.

Dredd is spectacular. If the budget can cover the cost, spectacular action is what we want!

Here's a sly way of doing Dredd. Have him a little more heroic. If most of the perps he busts are bad in the first film, you can portray him as more of a bastard in the second. Dredd will look saintly next to Judge Death!

IMHO, I don't see why it's so difficult to bring Dredd to the screen. I really don't.

scojo