Sunday
21Dec2008
Dreading a New 'Judge Dredd'
Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 6:20AM
Not ten minutes after we posted a story about a new
version of
The Shadow, an e-mail came through with a link
touting a new
Judge Dredd movie. You've got to be kidding
me.
Prohibitively expensive at the time it was released, Judge Dredd cost $90 million in 1995, and somehow the Stallone vehicle based on a British comic book stud was left in the hands of director Danny Cannon, who had never steered a very successful project before that, much less a movie with that kind of budget. And it was a dud in the U.S., earning roughly a third of its budget, primarily because it was lousy. But the international ticket sales were OK.
The story is, more or less, Robocop, minus the robotics: In the future, cops are allowed to be judge, jury, and executioner, and they can render a sentence on the spot. To avoid the comments later, yes, Judge Dredd predates Robocop.
I get why studios might want to re-do these projects that were complete misfires with audiences ten or fifteen years ago. They think there's a little value in the stories and that if given the chance to do it over, they'd all learn from their mistakes. Maybe. But I don't think audiences will buy into remakes of movies they hated or avoided the first time.
As for Judge Dredd, I think it's smart to skip the $90 million budget, about one-fifth of which went to Stallone, and the grittier and tougher you can make it, the better.
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Comic Book Movies, Remakes, Stallone | Print Article | Email Article | 2 Comments | Share Article
Reader Comments (2)
I have to say that I have been a fan of the Judge Dread comics and I remember when this movie came out and the biggest reason I never watched it was because it was Stallone. The comic is a British institution and should be some badass British guy, not Stallone. Plus, the other problem was that was around the time that they were making Batman and Robin/George Clooney comic book movies. I would totally revisit this character if it is rereleased. A lot like Punisher coming out.
"I AM THE LAW!" I never read the comics, but dam it all if it is not a wonderful B movie to watch.