Judge Death and The Dark Judges in a future film?

[darnmarr]

Death has always been the iconic and most well-known, most recognizable Dredd villain and that is why he should be featured in a movie franchise.

This is where we differ.

[Goaty]

Death has always been the iconic and most well-known, most recognizable Dredd villain and that is why he should be featured in a movie franchise. It is in that sense he is comparable to the Joker.

Just you think that.

[HunterZolomon]

Fair enough darnmarr, but as I asked before, do you think any film adaption could do them justice?

Or is Judge Death a concept that should never make it into the cinema?

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No Goaty, is not just me think that.

[darnmarr]

Well personally, I think Brian Bolland's art has already done the concept justice, and far more justice than celluloid could ever deliver. It's great on paper, that I meself personally don't think it that would transfer well isn't meant to malign Death's status as 'top-villain' or anything: I just feel that most of what made him work was dependent upon him being drawn, like dredd was, in ink on paper and wouldn't transfer.

[SmallBlueThing]

Waitaminute! Are people arguing about whether Death is Dredd's most widely known villain? Of course he is- you dont see giant size pj maybe mugs do you? Or pj maybe candles? Or action figures?

Now, whether he should be in a future movie, and if so how should he be represented is another matter.

Personally, i'd say yes he should, and with as few changes as possible. If the filmmakers are worried the gritty movie Dredd uniform doesnt mirror the iconic Bolland Death, then redesign the Dredd uniform so it looks more like it should do, and stop fannying about trying to turn it into something it wasnt supposed to be.

SBT

[HunterZolomon]

danmarr: That's cool. I was hoping for a good reply to that question. And you're right, we don't agree on that. I think a film version of Judge Death will be difficult to pull off. I still think it could be done well though, even if it would take someone like Nolan to manage it.

Your opinion isn't uncommon in comicbook circles in my experience. I saw a lot of that during Watchmen production, and in that case, it was mostly valid.

[Spaceghost]

Everything about Judge Death is, quite frankly, daft. From his camp costume (would an interdimensional killing machine bother to get tarted up with a model pteradactyl on his shoulder and some 'zombie fingers' stuck on his elbow pads to make them look spooky), to his ineffective method of carrying out his mission, to the ease in which he's defeated and captured.

It worked in a comic when we were all 12 or whatever, but it would look laughably ridiculous on a film intended for adults.

I don't doubt that Judge Death will appear in any Dredd sequel that gets made but you need to start preparing yourself for a version sooooooo very different from the kitschy comic version that it will be virtually unrecognisable to us.

And so it would need to be.

[Steve Green]

I'd like someone to have a go though - it's a lot easier to just go 'fuck it' and change it than to actually make the effort to see if it could work without completely reinventing to the point where it bears about much resemblance as Rob Schneider does to Fergee.

[Dark Jimbo]

I favour the take on Death as done in Lawman of the Future (the first time I actually encountered the character) - a twisted parallel version of Dredd himself who took his desire for justice to the ultimate extreme. I think it offers a lot more story oppurtunities than the prog version, as it holds a broken mirror up to Dredd and forces him to ask some very difficult questions.

[IndigoPrime]

Although that version was pretty much the Judda from the main Dredd timeline, as far as I recall.

[darnmarr]

Your opinion isn't uncommon in comicbook circles in my experience. I saw a lot of that during Watchmen production, and in that case, it was mostly valid.

Well, if I'm to presume there wasn't a lot of people specifically discussing Judge Death in the lead-up to The Watchmen, then I can only infer that you took my comments to refer to 'all circumstances of comic-to-film adaptation'.
Not true, I meant Judge Death in particular. Because if he's based on anything, he is based on a re-drawing of the judge Dredd uniform as it appears in the progs , and apart from that there really aint a whole lot else to him.

[Dark Jimbo]

I suppose it's very similar to the role the Judda filled, aye... but as we'll never get the Judda in a film I don't think it really matters. Plus he had a habit of making his victims into zombie thralls to do his bidding, which is just oodles of cool.

[HunterZolomon]

Well, if I'm to presume there wasn't a lot of people specifically discussing Judge Death in the lead-up to The Watchmen, then I can only infer that you took my comments to refer to 'all circumstances of comic-to-film adaptation'.

"All circumstances"? I certainly did not interpret it like that. Why would you think so? Some comicbooks are considered to be less translatable. And as you confirm in the above post, some fans have certain titles they think would translate poorly, that is all.

[darnmarr]

Oh. Sorry,then.

[Teivion]

I can see Death working in an alternate universe kind of way very easily, and very well.
Death 'maybe' being Dredd in another universe is a nice twist.

But really, aren't we able to suspend some sort of belief for the art of entertainment ?
It seems that everyone wants Death explained down to the last detail, which isn't the point.
[spoiler](In much the same way as the last, overly long fight scene in The Raid would have ended with the first punch in the 'real' world, and not carry on for ages..no one would be able to stand up after much of that ;-)..)[/spoiler]

Death looking silly ? Well, it is a comic.... Swap the US Eagle for a more sinister style of graphic (or bird) along with a set of armour in the vein of Leatherface or cenobites, cannibalised from the spoils of dead Judges and/or the slums of MC1 perhaps ?

Most of the arguments against Death appearing can all be dispelled by some half decent imaginative writing and design, and it'd still stay faithful to the characters core principle and imagery.

But, if taking Dredd's world literally is how its all going, where does that leave the likes of Don Uggie, for example ?