Variety reported today that Shoreline Entertainment has struck a deal with 2000 AD to produce two new feature length Judge Dredd movies.  The films will be shot back-to-back, an increasingly popular ploy with effects-laden film projects.  The rights to all the 2000 AD properties were purchased earlier this year by Rebellion, a UK-based game developer, and Rebellion's Jason Kingsley will co-produce along with Shoreline's Morris Ruskin and Vicki Pike.

 

The first film is entitled Judge Dredd: Dredd Reckoning and reportedly involves Dredd losing confidence in the legal system he serves, while the second film, Judge Dredd: Possession will mark the screen debut of one of the classic characters from the Dredd saga, Judge Death.  The good news is that the producers of these films want nothing to do with the lame Sly Stallone Judge Dredd film from the 90s.  Ruskin told Variety, 'We are reinventing the franchise by taking it back to the edge and style of the original comic book.'

 

Let's hope that don't repeat Sly's mistaken idea that Dredd could appear bareheaded.  Dredd should always wear his helmet -- it's part of the essential fascistic nature of the character, who is, after all, in addition to his policing duties, judge, jury, and executioner.  Also we can only hope that the producers of this futuristic saga will recognize and recapture the over-the-top humor that made the comic so much fun.  Judge Dredd is 'Dirty Harry' on steroids -- the concept of the rogue cop reduced to absurdity and pitted against a wonderfully whacked-out gallery of villains, who fully deserve the harsh measure of justice that Dredd provides.  Let the parade of pasty-faced perps commence.  Now does any modern actor have the guts to strap on a belly wheel and join the League of Fatties?