Dredd (2012)

[Jim_Campbell]

In ten or twenty years someone might have a go again.

That's what I took away from Garland's comments, hence my own 'detoxifying' comment — someone who picks up that hypothetical baton X years down the line will be building off the back of an excellent, but unsuccessful, film rather than a bloody awful, but unsuccessful, film.

Cheers

Jim

[Bubba Zebill]

I will still offer to bankroll this if I win a stupid amount on a Euromillions roll-over...

Still not good odds...

Me too.

[Teivion]

No ad campaign budget could generate anything like the 'following' Dredd has now built ( for good or bad).

The format DNA films worked with was distant from the comic visual but was a stroke of genius in building a world that was achievable in pretty much all potential budgets.

The bottom line of the film was it lost money in the short term return, but with an establishd fanbase you'd think it'd be a more bankable market with less risk than backing a new film project with no track record whatsover.
Hopefully they'd have seen DREDD as a loss leader ?

But hey, we got two films in our lifetime, thats good.

[Teivion]

Actually, come to think of it-

I wonder when the rights IMG/ DNA own to DREDD would run out ?

Maybe they'll try to keep the rights in the same way the Fantastic Four movie rights were.....

[Steve Green]

I've no idea how long they've got it for - I've heard so many different things from different people...

There are 2 sides to it that I can see...

The DNA version of Dredd has a fanbase - but whether they'd just let the option lapse, or sell their version on as a base for someone else to have a go, whether that's as a film, DTV or something else....

I'm not sure if that kind of thing ever happens, even if someone showed an interest. I guess the closest equivalent would be something like Starship Troopers, and that didn't work out brilliantly...

The other thing, is that there is a slight risk to sticking with the realistic version, in that fascistic ultra-violent cops in body armour might be too close too home (depending on what's happening in the real world) to be marketable, compared to something more overtly science-fiction, and being able to distance itself a little.

[Theblazeuk]

Word of mouth is the best PR but in my experience, Dredd was out of the cinemas by the time it built a buzz - and prior to that, it had a buzz only amongst the initiated.

[IndigoPrime]

The bottom line of the film was it lost money in the short term return, but with an establishd fanbase you'd think it'd be a more bankable market with less risk than backing a new film project with no track record whatsover.  Hopefully they'd have seen DREDD as a loss leader ?

That's not how the industry works. You're still having to convince people that Dredd 2 might make money, mostly off of fairly good shiny disc sales and a vocal but relatively small fan-base. The next move would also probably have to up the ante, so you're talking a punt of, what, $50–60 million plus marketing costs?

[Steve Green]

I don't know how much more you'd need - bearing in mind that 3D isn't the big draw.

So you could knock off the post production costs for any stereo shots, or the overhead of experimental 3D rigs that Dredd had for starters.

You'd get more for the equivalent production budget, and a smoother production in general if you're not worrying about 3D at all.

It depends whether you stay to the near future route (contemporary vehicles etc) or not.

[radiator]

Also worth pointing out that even if a sequel were greenlit tomorrow it wouldn't make it into cinemas until at least 2017/8, which would make it 5+ years since the release of the original, and belated sequels to even successful films can be very risky as Sin City 2 proved this year.

Maybe they'll try to keep the rights in the same way the Fantastic Four movie rights were.....

I don't think they're that valuable a commodity that someone would make a film purely to hold onto them.

My hope would be that they have some kind of deal in place to prevent some third party making a crappy two-bit DTV sequel - I personally would rather have no sequel at all than something that would cheapen the brand a la Starship Troopers.

As for Garland, he seems to be very much in demand now and is clearly busy with other projects. And good on him, it's very well-deserved.

My one last iota of hope for a live-action continuation of Dredd is if someone like HBO or Netflix picked it up as a TV series, which is something Garland discussed at the time of the film's release, ISTR even to the point of saying there had been actual discussions about seriously pursuing it (but don't quote me - or him - on that). Dredd's adult tone seems a much better fit for the small screen in the current climate. I think if the film had fared a little better this could be a realistic possibility but as things stand the chances of something like this happening are vanishingly small. I suspect the Euromillions option is more likely.

And while a Kickstarter-funded sequel is totally pie in the sky (such a venture could probably raise enough to cover some of the preproduction, if that), I suppose it could theoretically be possible to get an official short film (ie 5 mins) crowdfunded, but I doubt there'd be the will of the creators to do so.

[Rusty]

Looking at the amount of so many terrible films getting sequels (Taken is on it's 3rd for fuck sake *sigh*), hearing words like those from one of the men responsible for the film is a hammer blow. It's disgusting, but what can you do in a world that laps up one forgettable Marvel/DC comic film after another? There's just no justice in the world.

Even if in 10 or 20 years someone else does have another crack at Dredd, I really couldn't care for the prospect of that. As far as I'm concerned, the foundation were laid down with Garland's 2012 version's vision. I wanted to see more of that world, and more so, I wanted to see more of Karl Urban's Dredd in THAT uniform, in THAT Mega City. Anything else will just feel like a reboot that isn't needed, and that's the big shame of it all.

[Steve Green]

It's academic now, but I saw that as a starting point - and would have been happy to have seen it evolve.

There were a lot of concepts in the book that I would like to have seen make it to screen.

[DKCX]

Hopefully they may grace us with a special edition DREDD bluray at the very least for 2015. This would surely  sell given its cult status.

[Steve Green]

Who knows?

They've got a steelbook Zavvi limited release of 2500 in the offing, but if it's that small a run, I imagine it will be the same content.

The UK EiV release has been pretty poor.

Someone like Criterion picking up on it is probably your best best, but even then, there's not a whole lot of material that hasn't been seen online - would be nice to have it all in one place though.

[Bubba Zebill]

Word of mouth is the best PR but in my experience, Dredd was out of the cinemas by the time it built a buzz - and prior to that, it had a buzz only amongst the initiated.

Didn't it get a great reaction at one of the cons before general release?...maybe too little too late.

[Steve Green]

Yeah, at San Diego.

It's not the first time that sort of buzz hasn't materialised into something bigger though.