Judge Dredd TV Show

[mrbadger]

So in that case Judge Dredd the movie (which bombed, it was a box office flop) could have been based on any IP, because it wasn't really true to the Dredd IP. They could have just done what was done with Starship Troopers and Blade Runner, mostly ignored the base IP but still made great movies.

Blade Runner was an amazing movie, not just great, but it barely touches the book.

If they'd gone that route they might have fared better, but they triggered the fanboy equivilent of the uncanny valley instead by staying too close and getting it badly wrong in important places.

Also, Dredd is an unrelatable superhero. He's no Superman, Spiderman or Ironman. To the general public he's just dull.

Dredd needs backstory to let the audience to connect with him. That's why the movie failed so badly, no-one cared about Dredd.

The TV series needs to correct that issue.

I didn't dislike everything about the Stallone movie. The sets were good, often spot on to the look of the comic.

One thing that amused me was LandRover claiming they'd designed a whole new type of car just for the movie. But it subsequently turned out that the car they provided was just their new base design with some extra bits glued on.

[Morkonan]

So in that case Judge Dredd the movie (which bombed, it was a box office flop) could have been based on any IP, because it wasn't really true to the Dredd IP. They could have just done what was done with Starship Troopers and Blade Runner, mostly ignored the base IP but still made great movies.

Essentially, yes, but with a few changes to introduce elements that the fans would have otherwise brought with them into movies about an IP they know something about.

Blade Runner was an amazing movie, not just great, but it barely touches the book.

Agreed. In this case, it may be one of the few crossovers that exceeds its original inspiration.

If they'd gone that route they might have fared better, but they triggered the fanboy equivilent of the uncanny valley instead by staying too close and getting it badly wrong in important places.

A good point and its one every IP/Franchise faces, from the "TNG" Star Trek shows/movies to endless remakes of "King Kong" and "Spiderman." These are the sorts of IPs on which angels fear to tread... unless they think they can make a mint.

Dredd needs backstory to let the audience to connect with him. That's why the movie failed so badly, no-one cared about Dredd.

Agreed. However, "backstory" doesn't even have to be "backstory." In the end, all you're doing is trying to fill in the character so that the audience knows what sort of person they are, how past experiences have shaped who they are at this moment, what some of their traits are, etc... Traditionally, "backstory" is "what has gone on before" in the lives of the characters, setting, etc.. But, it's not necessary that one elaborate on that a great deal for these sorts of movies. But.... for some reason, producers/directors/writers insist on repetitions of origin stories so they can set up the next Big Fail for an IP.

What's Korbin Dallas's backstory?

...

Well, the only thing we know, and it's not because it's "told" to us, is that he was in the military. He works for a cab company that an old military buddy runs or, at least, got him his job. Aaaaand.... boom, we're off with his story. He likes having intimate noodle dinners with a friendly, quircky, noodle-stand owner. He's trying to quit smoking. He's pretty much "overqualified" to defend himself, but he's no bully and only uses force if he has to. His mother is a nag, but he loves her. He's a normal working stiff... That is the end of his backstory and not one bit of film is wasted on needless ramblings about his past. It's all built into the story that the viewer is participating in on the screen. The viewer doesn't have to wait for this information, it's fed to them on the silver platter that is "The Fifth Element." And, what is most important is that all of this information is intrinsic to the story, itself. It flows well. If it was taken out, the movie and the character would be made less. (Plus, the confrontation with the gunman in the early part of the movie, demonstrating Dallas's competence and military background, is something of a foreshadowing for the police search as it sets the scene.)

Now, take how Dallas's backstory and initial character is presented to us and then look at how Deckard's character is built in many of the same ways. We see Deckard's apartment, watch him eating, watch his interactions with the "police" and gain knowledge of his relationships. We see he's something of a loaner, somewhat the worse for wear, vulnerable, etc.. And... that's it. Boom, we're off with the story and Deckard's character doesn't suffer one little bit for a lack of a more complete "backstory." We watch him grow and watch his traits get demonstrated right on the screen.

The TV series needs to correct that issue.

If it does, it needs to do it Korbin Dallas style. No "backstory episodes", no stupid "flashbacks", no endless monologues about "woe is me, I didn't have enough toys as a kid", etc... It needs to be built into the story, perhaps spread over several early episodes and at least marginally linked to the stories those are telling, not focused on "here is the backstory of Judge Dredd." There should also be a bit of mystery... forever. Nobody ever, ever, really wants to know everything. They don't want flashbacks of their hero taking hundreds of dumps on a toilet... They want "just enough" and not one bit more. Seriously - Not one bit more. In the end, this purposeful lack of backstory helps make that character who it is to the person experiencing it.

..
One thing that amused me was LandRover claiming they'd designed a whole new type of car just for the movie. But it subsequently turned out that the car they provided was just their new base design with some extra bits glued on.

Yeah, I remember that bit of hype. A lot of things proposed for movies just don't work, like the motorcycle issues that Jericho mentioned. Maybe they ran into that issue or, perhaps, they took the storyboard props they had and were commenting on them before actually clearing it with the prop department.

[Jericho]

All of this is why the show shouldn't be about Dredd. It should be about a couple of different judges, in the city. Maybe Dredd can be a peripheral character that they all look up to.

Everytime a superhero movie is made/remade, they always do the origins. How many Spidermans have there been now? How many times can that baby crashland into a texas farm? The "hero's journey" is the easiest thing to write and is what the audience exepcts.

Do we really want a 2 hour film of Superman being superman? Endless scenes of him rescuing cats from trees, stopping trains from jumping the tracks, stopping falling helicopters etc etc etc. All those little things you see for a couple of minutes in a superhero movie make it fun. But the whole movie about a super powered man saving people is dull dull dull.

Hence the Hero's Journey.
Even Superman 2 filmed back-to-back with the first Superman (Christopher Reeve I'm talking here), was pretty much the hero's journey, except that he lost his powers and regained them, rather than just gaining them.

60 minutes a week of Dredd just being Dredd and busting skulls will be terrible. Dredd training rookies and watching their fresh-faces getting disillusioned with the city could be interesting.

[mrbadger]

60 minutes a week of Dredd just being Dredd and busting skulls will be terrible.

You are not wrong, but I get the feeling this isn't where they're going.

Dredd training rookies and watching their fresh-faces getting disillusioned with the city could be interesting.

That happened in the comics a few times. It would be fun seeing it in the series.

On the Back Story thing:

I'm pretty certain they didn't bother even touching on Dredds back story for a long time in the comics.

There just wasn't a need, the target audience was young boys who didn't know they would want it, I certainly didn't. Even then it was dripped out over years. Even Dredd himself didn't know some of it.

Honestly you could probably cover a lot of it in a single episode, which indicates a lot of it doesn't matter. Who cares that he was geneticaly grown from Judge Fargo's cells, who was Judge Fargo? He was never in the comic.

Exposition dumps are never a good thing, having Dredds character evolve through whatever story they put in the series would be a much better plan. A second character causing that evolution, like Judge Anderson would be good. That was the role she played in the comic for the most part.