Fans of Dredd, the second (and significantly more successful) attempt at bringing 2000 AD's most iconic character to the big screen, received some news this past week. Good or bad, that's hard to say, but following a big campaign orchestrated by the comic publishers and star Karl Urban, people have (finally) been talking about the potential of a sequel. Producer Adi Shankar revealed that "there are conversations going on", but crucially, "there's no script". So...maybe...we'll get a follow up to - arguably - one of the best comic-to-movie adaptations of recent years, one of the best action films of the decade so far, and the coolest film Domhnall Gleeson was in until, y'know, Star Wars VII happens. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes shenanigans that are holding up the sequel to Dredd, but they need to strike whilst the iron's hot. Here's why, creeps.
10. Because Dredd Was Awesome
That probably should have been clear from the off. Dredd the first was a surprise to many, for myriad reasons: the previous and pretty dire attempt to bring Mega City One to life on the big screen, the rumours of drama between the director and producers, and the general populace's growing weariness with comic book movies. So it was pleasant to find that Dredd actually worked, and not only that, was really drokkin' awesome, also for myriad reasons: the uniformly excellent cast, Paul Leonard-Morgan's industrial score, brilliantly shot action sequences - especially the trippy "slo-mo" parts - and a vein of dark humour and fascistic satire carried over from the comics. Most of all, though, Dredd was an intense thrill-power overload of an action movie, with guns and explosions, one-liners and over-the-top bad guys. And it was done well. We need more of those.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
