Some say being a real fan means deeply loving what you love and sharing it with others. And some believe that being a fan means never letting go, even in the face of seemingly certain failure. This is why fans remain gung-ho about the idea of a Dredd sequel, despite the fact that Lionsgate has very few reasons to make it. Y'all just can't let it go: you've seen Judge Dredd twice onscreen, and it's just not enough. Greedy!
Now we've reached the petition phase. At the Emerald City Comic-Con (via Geeks Of Doom), Karl Urban urged fans that if they want a follow-up to 2012's grimy comic book adaptation, they best start signing petitions and liking the Dredd sequel Facebook page. Urban, who is currently in the on-the-bubble Fox series Almost Human, could use a career boost – we're years away from the next Star Trek movie.
Of course, the real problem here is the economics. Dredd reportedly cost $50 million to make, and it made only a $35 million worldwide gross. Compare that to Judge Dredd with Sylvester Stallone, which was considered a flop for making $113 million at the box office 17 years earlier - without 3D prices. The-Numbers.com says that Dredd made another $17 million on Blu-ray and DVD, which doesn't even take the film to the break-even point. Guys, this is not gonna happen, it's really not, no matter how many meetings people have with executives.
It is worth mentioning that Judge Dredd has a rich history in pop culture, and the most recent film generated largely positive reviews. From that angle, it's not hard to see why people are making a case for a follow-up. But if you're the money-men, you have to acknowledge that you'd be making a follow-up on the cheap, because $50 million ain't happening again. Once you start lowering your budget, you probably lose Urban. You lose Urban, you lose the few diehard fans who would otherwise make a return visit to Mega-City One. A cheap direct-to-DVD sequel could be good, but you'll be downgrading from Urban to someone like Craig Fairbrass, and you probably won't be able to actually go anywhere with it, trimming the dystopian-future budget. Basically, another cops-in-an-enclosed-space movie, this time cheaper. Best case scenario is something like the Starship Troopers DVD sequels, which rank from "OK" to "so-so," never recapturing the manic genius of Paul Verhoeven's original.
Wait... Paul Verhoeven's Dredd... well, there's an idea.
All things considered, a real and costly Dredd 2 is something we'd like to see, particularly with a growly Urban in the lead. But we're going to have to settle for short films and other such additions to the canon. But why so glum, chum? There are also plenty of Judge Dredd on the shelves at your local comic book store - literally decades of Dredd storytelling. Hell, one time he fought Batman! There's no shortage of Dredd-action for you, so, really, things could be a lot worse.
