Judge Dredd was a great comic book, and sadly, long before Hollywood took comics seriously, it made an absolutely dreadful movie with Sylvester Stallone.
Like Howard the Duck, I would absolutely welcome a reboot of Judge Dredd, but the next take on Dredd could be in trouble as well.
A report has surfaced on The L.A. Times that director Pete Travis is off the film, and writer Alex Garland (28 Days Later) has taken over in the editing room.
There’s also reports that Garland may seek a co-director credit, which would require a lot of maneuvering with the Director’s Guild to get a waiver on this because he’s not a director.
As Cinema Blend has lamented, it’s disappointing that the latest Dredd has come to this, because it stars Karl Urban, hot off Star Trek, and it also would be nice to see a good Dredd movie after the disaster of the Stallone version.
Getting the boot out of the editing room, the director’s domain, is tough for any helmer to take, and strong armed stars and producers alike have done it to get more of what they want over a director’s objections, often to sloppy, slip-shod, ego driven results. It’s also a major tell-tall warning sign a film’s in deep doo-doo, and someone’s trying to “save” it.
There’s always stories of films indeed being “saved” in the editing room, but having talked to a number of film editors, they’ll usually tell you if you don’t have good ingredients going in, the best chef in the world can’t make a great meal out of it. If the footage is good, but needs tightening and restructuring, the right editor can do wonders. If the footage is no good, you can cut it down to make it shorter and less painful, and that’s about all you can do.
I’m certainly hoping the new Judge Dredd can turn out well. I learned the joys of Dredd from the world of metal, where both Anthrax and Dark Angel did songs about the Dredd comics, “I Am the Law,” and “Darkness Descends” respectively.
The Dark Angel song was especially cool, because it dealt with the Dark Judges that Dredd has battled, like Judge Death, Judge Fire, Judge Fear, and Judge Mortis.
If the movie could have Dredd battling the Dark Judges, it would indeed make a hell of a film, and I’d hate to think we’d have to wait another fifteen or so years before Dredd can be rebooted again.
