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Sequel number one

Dredd judges Rico in a story line lead by characterization and dialog, not violence in a pretty close rewriting of the original Dredd sends Rico to titan strip. (This ties in to the very first film and at the same times allows some exploration of Dredd and the philosophy of the Judges)

Meanwhile Anderson (and maybe another major Judge character) investigate what turns out to be Judge Deaths arrival, al the while bemoaning the fact that Dredd isn't there to help as  Death begins to slaughter people left right and center.

Dredd and Rico get into a very bitter struggle as Dredd realises there's actually something more important to deal with and contemplates just killing Rico before doubling his efforts to arrest him. However this delays Dredd to much and he arrives at the Anderson crime scene to see Death nearly kill her before he makes his escape. Film ends with all the Judges standing around going erm, this is bad, how the hell are we going to deal with that thing.

Which leads on to, sequel number 2 (oh hell yes it's a trilogy) which is basically NECROPOLIS!

And that makes the films in order A hi action, a gritty action, a drama action and an outright horror action, which at the end of the day reflects Dredds strips in 2000AD and the Meg pretty well. Plus it means I managed to tye in the Stallone flick to make a quad despite the fact I don't like it all that much.

Ohh, something else I should say. I have never been to see the same film twice in a cinema, no film has ever appealed to me so much I couldn't wait for the video/dvd release.  But that might be about to change, no sod it, it is going to change, I'm going again on Wednesday.   

Back to the whole slo mo thing at the end, apart from the fact it acts like a time stretcher, which Judges are allowed to do if the crime is serious enouth, if slo-mo where a real drug then it would have to be sime form of neural and nerve dampener, which means there's a chance the trigger wouldn't have picked up that she was dead after she hit the floor because her nerves would still be trying to process the information from the fall and she'd still be twitching and trying to breath. It all buys them a few extra seconds to get off the top floors.  And that is another point, only the top floors where rigged, Dredd must know that radio waves propigate best outwards and down. (I do and it was only wifi that taught me that.)  Throwing her off the balcony with her nerves all glued up was almost logical and likely only option he had at that point.  But I dont get why he didn't just blow her hand off at the wrist, we know he a good enougth shot to do it and has done it before infront of rookies and then turned round and told them to go for the chest shot because they don't have the experience at snap aiming like he does.  But then again, I've already said I think this is young, pre apocolypse/necropolis war Dredd, maybe he's not that experienced yet.

Who ever made any Dredd film was always going to have to be very careful of putting any real strip style satire, A lot of Dredd's humor is political in nature, it takes pops at 'fatties' and 'juves', takes ethnic stereo types and just runs at brick walls with them. It portrays the police as tyrants and fascists and outrightly paints the military and politicians as insane.  The first film just avoided this entirely and replaced it with a comedy sidekick.  This one keeps it low key but it is there and it deffinately doesn't do it just for the laughs.  Anyone notice that the only real 'fattie' in the film is one of the first to be shown lying on the floor bleeding out while no one tries to really help, did it need a quick one liner to under score just how brutal that was.  Same goes for when the blast door descends on the homeless guy after Dredd told him to move or when the gang opens up with the rotary auto cannons.  They didn't need witty sarcastic comments, the surreal horror and shocking irony of the situations was written all over everyone's faces, and in the case of the homless guy, most of the way up the wall. 

[Thankyou for making an awesome film that made me feel like I was reading the comic!]

I've kept my mouth shut this time round mostly cause I feel that trying to please the fans and squeeze everything cool in is partially what spoilt the first film.  But now I've actually seen the second one there's just one thing i want to say.

Thankyou for making an awesome film that made me feel like I was reading the comic!]

It was low key and dark and the only point where my focus on the story was distracted and I thought hang on a second was when one of the 3D elements drifted in to the black line a the bottom.  So thankyou again for finally making a proper Dredd film.  Have to say I left the cinema thinking, "Well take it for what it is, a decent Dredd film."  But now, the morning after I'm thinking, wait a sec, did they deliberately leave it so 20th century not only cause of budget constraints but because the Apoc war hasn't happened yet and MC1 hasn't been properly rebuilt. Did they deliberately push that Anderson is a mutant and clamp down on that Dredd is 'something else' so that they can tell a more complex story later on? It's definitely a film that has left me wanting more, and what else could I ask for.  So, once again, thankyou to everyone involved in the making of this film, feel free to keep doing it.  

Good luck in whatever you do next and thanks for all your hard work here.   

Thanks for the heads up on this, it's fascinating not only to have a artists thought processes and methodology explained but also to see how they work together with an editor and publication.

Given the state of the US and UK justice and security systems at the moment the film makers have the opportunity to do a really dark critique of modern day culture, something Dredd has always excelled at, and given that all the names involved so far have a history of doing really cool intelligent sci fi I for one am very hopeful. I'm going to treat this the same way I treat any new artist or writer who's given a crack at a Dredd story, I'm reserving judgment until I've actually seen the finished product. But one things for sure, I'm going to see this film on it's opening weekend. Just do me a favour, don't use this as excuse to fill 2000AD and the Meg with hype and photo's and essentially give away the whole plot before the films even released, play to your strengths, showcase the concept art, keep any interviews or articles within the format that you've already got and keep the mystery of the film intact.   

Is it just me or is there something not quite right with issuing a legal contract on april the 1st? (Subsplots just proved to him self he's way too cynical.)

Chopper, all of it, start witIh the early black ankd whites and  keep goeing to the  end of the  classic supersurfs.

Judge Anderson, Childhoods End

Missionary Man -  Bad Moon Risinmg (I think, the story where the demon falls out of the sky, in fact any Missionary Man by that artist, they all stuck in my mind.)

There's so many random Judge Dredd singles, Freefall, Hot Pursuit and I wouldn't mind rereading any of Rouge Trooper.

Rebooting Dredd's a bit problamatic as Red Razor's gave some major hints to Dredds future which either includes rejuve treatments or the creation of more Dredd clones. Personally I'm all for the clones option as I dont think this has been fully explored yet and lets face it the huge question mark over their moral allignment is going to make for some tense and exciting reading, espeshially when you consider that Dredds just going to be appossed to whole plan.

Wow the thrill power of 2000AD is so strong it crystalises inside any container its sealed in! Best advert for subscribing i've ever seen.  

Forgive me if i'm wrong but have any of the epic storylines ever dealt with something as basic as a full blown war of the worlds, I know it's been covered in long term plots where Dredd has left earth or short stories where the Judgess have foiled plots before they've really begun but all the epic stories seem to revolve around antoginists who are either human or come from alternative realities. I cant seem to remember any that deal with a truely outside and well, alien armies of antogonists. I get the feeling you've avoided this because it's so well covered in other sci fi but for some reason I can't escape the image of Dredd and battilions of Judges going toe to toe with monsters on the streets of the mega cities. Forget Judgement Day where there's hordes of zombies and only one lynch pin that needs killing, or the apocalypse war where the enermy were human (even in Necropolis the bad guys are twisted humans) go for the whole shebang and have hordes of aliens with numerouse leaders who all need judgment passing on them if the earth is ever going to be safe. This way it doen't matter how many you kill there's always going to be some left to star in follow up stories once the initial war has been won.

Take a hint from Hero's and use the idea's of time travel, super powers and people simply having mental problems to bring supossedly dead characters back for cameo's. It's not like 2000AD hasn't done it before so its not as if you'd be ripping of Hero's. Jonny Alpha appearing in Judgement Day was a master stroke and Choppers return in dead mans twist was one of the most emotive pieces I have ever read. Here's an idea, give Dredd a story line that really does mess with his head and then have Rico start appearing to question everything that he does, it doesn't mean that rico has suddenly come back to life, just that Dredd's mind is conjoring up apparitions of him to pose questions that Dredd otherwise wouldn't think of, lets face it with the clone program turning out as many villian Judges as it does (anti)hero's there's always the possabilty the joe would go compleatly schitzo anyway.

All of which has just sparked anougther idea. How about using the clone program to produce a proper hero Judge who keeps to the letter of the law but still manages to stay humane and mercifull ie a Judge who's never accused of brutality and can talk people into giving them selv's up when given the chance. Dredd's never going to see eye to eye with such a character seeing him as soft and pandering to the liberals, and its going to be an intresting clash of personalities as deep down Dredd is quite humain (his recent stance on mutant rights proves that) but if someone else proves to be just as good a leader and street judge and steals Dredds lime light because, shock, horror, the general populace actually like him then intresting things are going to happen. Take into account that Dredds never going to act out of jelousy meaning that all his problems with the hero are going to be geniune and your really going to be able to develop an on going plot line that explores the ethics of justice and it's enforcement through force. Lets face it following events like the Iraq war and the US's war on human rights (sorry terror) this has become a pressing question for western civilisation and I'm not saying you actually have to come up with the answers or push a particular political viewpoint. Just use the whole debate as an emotive theme on which you can base a few ripping stories and darkly histerical kokes. You've touched on it in the past and the best Dredd stories are those that comment on the human condition and the modern world (with the exception of those master peices that seek to reduce the reader to fits of viseral lauther and don't care about reality)

No no no, please don't give Dredd a new design of armour, it's really not nessary beucasue of the following points.

The leather armour worn by street judges is more than adequate, don't beleive me, ask any real biker, leather is much more effective for bike crashes and simple brawls with out being to incumbering.

The Justice Deparment already has heavy drop suits which have been shown in quite a few strips with the varient used by the Halocaust Squads being just awsome, no redesign is needed, it already exsists, only the judges only roll it out when absolutly nessesary.

A redisgn of armour is inevitably going to lead to a redesign of equipment, which again is unnecessary. The Widower assault guns used by the Megacity Judges during judgement day where just awesome and the siloette of Hersley going mental with one in an effort to hold back Sabbats Zombies will be forever etched into my mind.

Please dont add new designs, simply go through the back catalogue and complie a technical manual of all the Judges equipment so the writters and artists have proper material to guide and inspire their futur idea's, this may also help in nailing down a deffinative design for the Meat and H wagon's as these appear to be pretty random at the moment (not that this is a bad thing, the sheer wealth of idea's and design concepts for the judges vehicles has always appealed to my geeky side.)