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Official site: http://megacityone.com/

Got an email from 2000AD just now:

The world of Judge Dredd is coming to TV screens thanks to a deal struck between leading independent entertainment studio IM Global and independent UK games developer and publisher Rebellion.

The deal will see development begin on Judge Dredd: Mega-City One, a high-end TV series based on the globally-famous character from the pages of legendary British comic book 2000 AD, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Set in a future where east coast America has become a crowded and crime-ridden megalopolis, the show will be an ensemble drama about a team of Judges – futuristic cops invested with the power to be judge, jury, and executioner – as they deal with the challenges the future-shocked 22nd Century throws at them.

Early development has begun on the show, and talent will be announced at a later date.

Article on Entertainment Weekly: http://ew.com/tv/2017/05/10/judge-dredd-tv-show/

This is....great news!

I hope it all works out, and the effects budget isn't a joke, but I am optimistic!

For those of us who don't watch videos what are the main points?

The usual unhelpful bollocking really.

Was hoping for it to be animated and have Dredd voiced by Urban, but live action? Ehhhhh.

If it is kind of gritty and has similar production to the karl urban movie then i'd be interested.

Fingers and toes crossed that this actually see's the light of day

So, are we hoping for Karl Urban style or something closer to the comics?

Whilst the Stallone version looked a lot closer to the original material, all those shoulder pads were a bit too fabulous, so maybe the new style is the way to go.

This is not allowed to suck.

Dredd was amazing, just under advertised.

Karl Urban or GTFO. It probably won't be Karl, sadly. :(

Judge Minty was an independent fan-production and its excellent, so there's no reason this should be bad.

Would this work anywhere but on something like Netflix?
Karl Urban did Almost Human, which was actually decent but had the usual network dickery and episode re-ordering to guarantee it wouldn't work out. It means he isn't adverse to TV though.
A procedural with an overall arc within a 8-12 episode season could be really neat.

I'll be honest- I would actually get cable again just to support this show.

I would like to see Karl Urban back just because of how good a job he did, but I doubt we'll be seeing him.

I notice that the description doesn't actually state that Dredd is a main character, and if he isn't I think that's actually a good move. I love Dredd but successful TV shows need characters with a little bit more... personality? Like, I can't see Dredd having much of a character throughout a season, for example.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
I'll be honest- I would actually get cable again just to support this show.

I would like to see Karl Urban back just because of how good a job he did, but I doubt we'll be seeing him.

I notice that the description doesn't actually state that Dredd is a main character, and if he isn't I think that's actually a good move. I love Dredd but successful TV shows need characters with a little bit more... personality? Like, I can't see Dredd having much of a character throughout a season, for example.

I get what you mean, but if you don't have Dredd then it's just an over the top gritty crime procedural. Best way to go would be to have Dredd as a secondary character and focus on one or two main characters who play off/react to him (which is kind of the route they took in the excellent 2012 film).

 Jadenim wrote:
I get what you mean, but if you don't have Dredd then it's just an over the top gritty crime procedural.

Considering TV trends, I guarantee that that's exactly what it will be.

 Jadenim wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
I'll be honest- I would actually get cable again just to support this show.

I would like to see Karl Urban back just because of how good a job he did, but I doubt we'll be seeing him.

I notice that the description doesn't actually state that Dredd is a main character, and if he isn't I think that's actually a good move. I love Dredd but successful TV shows need characters with a little bit more... personality? Like, I can't see Dredd having much of a character throughout a season, for example.

I get what you mean, but if you don't have Dredd then it's just an over the top gritty crime procedural. Best way to go would be to have Dredd as a secondary character and focus on one or two main characters who play off/react to him (which is kind of the route they took in the excellent 2012 film).

I disagree. Part of Dredd's success is how they've constructed a cohesive world. We've got dozens of spin off characters in 2000AD and the Megazine. Do we really need Dredd, who lets not forget can tend to be fairly shallow in a given story (characters depth comes when you've read multiple progs and arcs), so perhaps the occasional cameo will be enough?

Might be fun, hopefully they will amp up some of the stranger phenomenon of the city else it's just going to be CSI; MC1 (now with uprated pewpew)

Also at least some of the blocks need odd celeb names, I mean who doesn't want to see a block war between Richard Whitley and Joanna Lumley block

Aye, but a procedural where it's totally cool to kill suspects. I'd love to see normally easygoing judges have bad days, and end up executing a jaywalker, then getting coffee and a donut.

Some of the block name in-jokes would be lost on people today.
Rowdy Yates Block (Where Dredd lives), for example.

It's named after the character Clint Eastwood played in the western series "Rawhide." (relevance to dredd? His chin and general manner was taken from "Dirty Harry", also played by CE.

Crock-blocks (OAP homes) should still be named after superannuated celebs or has-beens (or who would be has-beens by then).

My body is ready for this.

While I imagine unlikely, I would be thrilled at Karl Urban reprising the role.

YES YES!!!! YEESSS! I hope Urban is in it. I normally don't pay for any TV of any kind, but I might have to make an exception. If the US wants my money they do make it so hard sometimes with what Canadians can and can't pay to watch.

CSI:MCO ?

Urban's done TV before, I believe he's expressed interest in reprising the role, movie stars are generally more willing to do TV these days now that the high budget & production value shortform season drama shows are more common, and a fourth JJTrek film is looking less & less likely all the time, so I wouldn't completely discount the possibility we'll see his Dredd return.

That said, I wouldn't bet on it either. We'll see if whatever they come up with ends up being any good; I suppose the question is what direction they'll go. Reprising the gritty-ultraviolence take on the IP without Urban so soon after he nailed that version of the character will be a hard sell. They could try and push more towards the darkly cynical humour you find in a lot of the comics, but the danger there is they go Full Stallone and make something hideously camp - something about that style of humour just doesn't seem to translate properly to Hollywood films & non-British TV.

Still, I'd give either of those a try, for my money the worst angle they could take would be yet another cyan-orange filtered plodding "procedural with a sci-fi twist" show - that would be a hard pass for me unless somone I know shares my taste recommended it.

 Alpharius wrote:
This is....great news!

I hope it all works out, and the effects budget isn't a joke, but I am optimistic!

I actually don't think you'd need much of an effects budget to make this work.

I'd like to see this. I enjoy the concept of Dred. I'd just worry the series might end up dragging itself into myth arc territory with nonsensical twists that quickly stop making sense. I consider the later a bane on modern television at this point XD

They could make this work as a police procedural, but with a unique setting that hasn't worn itself out on TV yet that has a lot more opportunities for interesting mysteries and crimes.

Hoping they get Urban back.

The man, the chin, the leg-end.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
This is....great news!

I hope it all works out, and the effects budget isn't a joke, but I am optimistic!

I actually don't think you'd need much of an effects budget to make this work.

I'd like to see this. I enjoy the concept of Dred. I'd just worry the series might end up dragging itself into myth arc territory with nonsensical twists that quickly stop making sense. I consider the later a bane on modern television at this point XD

They could make this work as a police procedural, but with a unique setting that hasn't worn itself out on TV yet that has a lot more opportunities for interesting mysteries and crimes.

One of the things I really liked about the 2012 film is they didn't go full-on sci-fi city; aside from the Blocks, the rest of it looked like a mosaic of current deprived urban areas (part UK council estate, part downtown Detroit, part Mumbai slums). Even the Blocks were just 1960's brutalist tower blocks ramped up to 11. If you kept that style you could do a lot of filming on location, save the effects for background dressing. Should make the whole thing much more feasible.

Those are my thoughts as well. You don't need a lot to pull off a good dystopia. A good panoramic shot with some cgi, and all you need for the rest is good set work in any one of the many cities across the US and Europe that have blighted urban areas. Props I suppose to, but I've never thought of basic props as being a huge price tag outside of stuff like Lord of the Rings where they had to make hordes of fakemail coats XD

*looks at above post*

But you know. Good special effects can be cool too XD

Id love to watch that! I just hope they get it right. I also agree that making Dredd the main character would get a bit stale for tv. Having him there but focusing on other main charaters reacting to his insanity could and would be a great watch. Id compare it to me when Im attempting to fix my truck and struggle, then my Dad shows up and while chewing the fat easily fixes said issue. Like that, but super violent cop stuff

I agree with all the posters that said Judge Dredd should be a support character (like Wolverine, Brienne of Tarth and Darth Vader).

I am looking forward to this, but I do hope that above pic is just the richer part of Mega City One, because I really liked the look of the 2012 Mega Blocks.