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At least there's the knowledge that for every Supernova there's a Superman II!

.....as well as The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Despite all the craziness during production and post-production, it was well-recieved critically.

[I think Dredd would quite suite the 70s action Grindhouse feel]

I was watching Death Wish 3 the other day (awesome film) and it got me thinking, I think Dredd would quite suite the 70s action Grindhouse feel. It could justify having countless instalments too!

Death Race 2000 comes to mind for that.   John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 does too.

Fassbender would indeed be a pleasant casting choice for Robo, just as Karl Urban was one for Dredd.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/168468-jose-padilha-wants-michael-fassbender-for-robocop

Director José Padilha appeared on Brazillian TV channel Globo 1 to discuss Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within and talk turned to his upcoming remake of RoboCop. Thanks to Bleeding Cool, here is a translation of what he said about his plans as well as his mention of Michael Fassbender ( X-Men: First Class, Inglourious Basterds) for the role:

I'll film Robocop. I'm indeed writing the script, the writer is here with me in Rio, we've spent over the last 15 days working together, refining the script.

I'll be traveling this friday back to LA, bringing this new version to discuss with the studio, and maybe begin with the casting, selecting actors... and the idea is to begin filming in February – February or March. That's the idea, y'know, we never know in the american movie industry. We're just delivering the project, but also we depend on the schedule of the actors... it's tough.

I can't talk yet, it's too early to speak, but there are some actors I like. I really like the Fassbender, I'd like to talk to him - I'll talk to him. There's a possibility... and there's a lot of other great actors that would play RoboCop. But that's the idea, to film around January, February, March.

Padilha also confirmed that the film would be set in Detroit, as in Paul Verhoeven's original.

The interview is available on Globo 1's site here.

Fassbender can be seen in the upcoming A Dangerous Method and Shame and he's playing one of the lead roles in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, opening next June.

Here's an image from the new "Total Recall". Could this be the look/vibe we should expect from "Dredd"?

Check this out, found it on Jock's Twitter account- pretty amazing- http://www.taringa.net/posts/arte/10608045/Judge-Dredd---Terminado_-paso-a-paso.html, enjoy...

Very cool model! Wow!! Joe Dredd unmasked looks alot like Frank Castle!

The idea of a pared down introduction which introduces the character to a wider audience seems hamstrung by the fact that Dredd is such an unmitigated cunt. I can't imagine wanting to spend an hour in his company unmediated by the comedy, horror, humanity and infinite scope of Wagner & Grant's Megacity One and its population. The desire to make a Dredd film at any cost without making a serious attempt to analyse the unique appeal of the strip and reflect that on screen seems like a waste of time and other peoples money.

Generalising what people will watch is a bad idea, 'most' won't be interested in seeing Dredd -not his one anyway- and the film I believe is not intended that way, it'll likely be R-rated/18 for a start, hardly the average cineplex fare so the 'expectations' will be in a certain remit.

The history of film is stewn with such cunts, never stopped anybody likin' 'em or the films or sequels. Snake Plissken comes to mind, a character who didn't go through any character 'change' in Escape from New York, he went out the same way as he came in. Lee Marvin in Point Blank another- unredeemable. No one in Sergio Leone's spaghetti films were particularly cosy either or subject to 'change'/'character arcs'. There's something to be said for such characters in films and Hollywood's fear of portraying them in recent years and playing 'safe'. Dredd has never been a mass audience character nor do I think he needs to be to be successful unless they want to attract the Sex & the City audience too. The other elements in Dredd's world can come later and not be contradictory, why rush?


I've argued this in previous posts:

If they get the tone right, it's going to be an even harder sell.

Action fims require a hero, if they are to follow the general action film template, and Dredd isn't one.

Was Dirty Harry a hero, was he sympathetic?, not in any substantial terms he wasn't. I've said this before and I still think it's true: If you want people to support a certain character, make those/the antagonists he is against, be worse -maybe morally- than he, that way you can establish certain moral parameters in the film which you can stick to and bend as you wish with substantial reason.


Antoher great recent example is the Way of the Gun, two completely amoral characters -with no back stories presented- are the centre of the film. There are very few 'likeable' people in it yet you know who to get behind and there's a point to all the violence to boot. The same holds for all Sergio Leone films and most of Pekinpah's too. Who in the Wild Bunch is the average hero? The 'sypathetic hero' concept is a hangover from bad/dated 80's Hollywood bullshit peddled by unsuccessful writers and execs who know fuck-all but wish to force their demographic formulas on the industry. Amoral central characters are a film staple going back to film noir and before. That's what an anti-hero is. It's just people have forgotten that such films have been made and were successful before the 80's, the conservative American mainstream does not decide what people 'like'.

Dredd will be going around with his motivation being upholding a police state and maintaining a status quo that keeps the citizens firmly in their place.  That's quite a hard sell, for a movie audience expecting a sci-fi costumed superhero type cop film, as there won't be any movement towards making the City or the Judges more humane - which would compromise the character and make a sequal more difficult.

Considering the amount of dystopian sci-fi films and amoral cop films that pepper the history of film, the only hard sell will be if Dredd is a bad film, if it's not, it'll hold it's own. Trying to make Dredd a 'hero' in the '95 film was a complete disaster, there is plenty of room for a real character like Dredd in film-space. Serioulsy, at least in 'comic' terms, was Dredd a hard sell for young 'uns back in the 70's/80's when we all hardly understood the concept of hero types and what Dredd meant? No because it was still entertaining seeing Dredd do what he did every week.

The notion of Terry Gilliam directing a Dredd film -though I know why people would suggest such a thing- I find slightly bizarre and more than likely wouldn't work nor do I believe would he be interested in doing it. Dredd ain't a typical Gilliam character and Gilliam ain't a one-size-fits-all fantasy/sci-fi film-maker, he's quite specific in how he treats his stories and what he expects to get from them.

It would be a nice touch for "Dredd" to have some scenes that are inspired by "Brazil"(like "Watchmen" did), but yeah, this type of genre isn't quite Gilliam's "thing". Shoot em' up-type films of this sort aren't his bag.

Rather have Fink than Death,more believable.Few Skysurfers won't go amiss either.

I wouldn't mind if we get Fink instead of Death.

I think Mean machine might be doable..

...but probably best avoided, because filmgoers who aren't also comic book readers might feel ripped off seeing exactly the same villains as they got from the Stallone movie.

...but if this new film is successful, I don't think that should be much of a problem. It all depends on how they approach it, imo.

Escape from New York always springs to mind when I think of 'anti-heroes' in movies.

...and that one is a film that I wouldn't be surprised if it was used as a model for "Dredd" in some way.

  Oh, as for "unsympathetic heroes", there's also Judge Dredd's other originator; Frankenstein from "Death Race 2000".

[My predictions are it won't be stellar at the box office, but will do pretty well in the rental/sales area.]

I'm pretty confident that it'll do reasonably well.. Considering the swathe of marginal Marvel characters that're getting their own movies these days, Dredd can't do much worse, though it's Robocop level of violence will probably make it more of a home viewing movie. My predictions are it won't be stellar at the box office, but will do pretty well in the rental/sales area.

Agreed. Much like "The Punisher"(2004). Because of the dvd sales of that film, a sequel got greenlighted.

[Seriously, the film only finished shooting in March, it's only been two months since for-fuck's-sake, and we got our first picture of Dredd before it ever started shooting.]

You are also missing the point, you are looking at it from a purely commercial viewpoint (and here again you are wrong).Without the fans there would be NO movie,full stop,  so not engaging with us at all is poor judgement and a bit disrespectful.

There is no point to miss, simply beacuse there is enough time to build a campaign 6, even 3 months before release rather than a whole year, which is a long time in the movies. What difference does it make to us when they start that campaign since we are all ready aware of it's existence. Marketing is for those who are unaware of the film and pay no attention to the character. Has the dearth of info killed your curiousity in this film?, your posting on this forum would suggest not. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, familiarity breeds contempt or too much of a good thing... and all that guff.

The YEAR away argument doesn't wash either.I remember LOTR generated a lot of buzz over a year before it was released, a few photos here and there , naturally keeping all the best stuff back till nearer the release date.

and how much of a budget did LOTR have? They had an entire department of people dedicated to that sort of thing and it wasn't just a campaign that had a few photos a year before release it was full blown early fx reels 2 years before release. Just because they are films doesn't make them comparable in every way, It's like comparing apples & oranges, they're all fruit but it's rather pointless. To mount a PROPER campaign you have to spend money to do it. You can't judge 'Dredd' (pun intended) by the standards of mega-budget films.


Seriously, the film only finished shooting in March, it's only been two months since for-fuck's-sake, and we got our first picture of Dredd before it ever started shooting. That's not the norm. Would you not rather wait for a really good teaser to blow you away rather than a few snap-shots. I've seen early campaigns that have been completely detrimental to films where the audience lost interest. Whether the campaign starts now or 6 months from now won't make that much of a difference. An early campaign didn't do anything to save Watchmen from being a flop.


So what difference does it make to Dredd fans, lapsed or otherwise, for the producers to start shelling out stuff now a full year before release. It's not like people won't notice the advertising, old Dredd fans et al when it starts months before release, the web has sped up the dissemination of info. Considering the response of juvenile fan-criticism of the Lawmaters etc from a few guerilla photos can you blame the film-makers waiting to unveil a proper showcase?


When the advertising does start, months from now, this discussion will be completely forgotten.

Very well said. We have to remember that this is not a "mega" blockbuster like "The Dark Knight", "Watchmen" or "Star Trek". This is an independent small film like "Sin City", "Kick-Ass", "Solomon Kane", and "District 9". As I recall, the last 4 mentioned films didn't kick-off their marketing that early.

I remember how more than 4 months ago things were this quiet at the movie forums at conan.com. Now, "Conan The Barbarian" has had two trailers, two posters, and a solid number of production-stills released so far. I really look foreward to the day "Dredd" will start picking up on these things.

Well, speaking of that "one block" in which most of the film will take place, it is that which really I'm actually thinking as to how it will look. Somehow, I think the stark and eerie atmosphere of the John Carpenter films "Assault On Precinct 13", and "Escape From New York" could be something that is given a nod to. 

I don't think it will be that stylised.

I'm thinking Robocop, with some massive skyscrapers in the distance.

Maybe. It could, I suppose, fututristically-wise, look like something in between Robocop and Demolition Man. A little more futuristically-amped than Robocop, but with a more dry, subtle, and gritty feel than Demolition Man.

  Still, I am open to the notion that we could see something of a Blade Runner-type quality. Some fragment, atleast.