Judge Dredd Comic Book Publishers Back Sequel Petition
Last summer, the film reboot of Judge Dredd, simply titled Dredd, hit theaters to very little fanfare or audience attention. It opened with a disappointing $6.2 million weekend, against a budget of $50 million. The film was dead in the water as soon as it dropped, and only wound up grossing $35.6 million worldwide. This is a shame, because the film is a really good piece of genre fun with hints of social allegory. After the theaters, however, Dredd found a new life, and became a best seller when it was released on Blu-ray/DVD, selling over 300,000 copies its first week of release. Dredd is the type of flick that screams for a sequel. Wouldn’t you love to see the continuing adventures of Judge Dredd.
Last week, an online petition to make another movie emerged on Facebook. At the moment, the page has over 50,000 Likes. According to Comic Book Resources, British comic publisher Rebellion, who publishes the 2000 AD series where Judge Dredd originated, has now offered their official endorsement. Of course, an online petition isn’t legally binding, but it could get the attention of Lionsgate and DNA Films, the studios behind Dredd. Rebellion PR coordinator Michael Molcher said:
Not long after the film came out, this fan-run campaign started up…We’ve watched it and it put us in a bit of a difficult position. Do we step in and try to help out or what? So we’ve decided to officially endorse it as “2000 AD.” We can’t guarantee it’s going to succeed, but we want to say to the fans that your support is appreciated. There’s a massive following for the film, now, who have never read the comic. Perhaps there’s an opportunity for us to help spread the word about the movie and the comic, and down the line it might make a difference to getting a sequel.
It’s cool that Rebellion is fully behind the Dredd sequel campaign. They even plan to go one step further to advertise the petition in the pages of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine. It seems that they’re very serious about getting the attention of the film industry.
The star of Dredd, Karl Urban is taking a look at the Dredd sequel petition “with great interest,” he told Crave Online. He said:
I don’t quite know the full mechanics of how it breaks down in terms of what the real financial reality is to make a sequel to Dredd, but I am really heartened by the fact that just about every day, every single day, people come up to me and tell me how much they love that movie and how much they want to see more.
It’s clear that Dredd has a very vocal audience. There are a few cases of a movie getting a sequel film, despite its original’s box office performance. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery opened with a modest box office, but eventually became a cult hit when it was released on home video, which led New Line Cinema to make two sequels. So it’s definitely possible that the same thing could happen to Dredd.
If you liked Dredd and would like to a sequel, then head over to the online petition and let your voice be heard.
