Ollie Dennis

Media Essay

Dredd started off as a comic book character known as Judge Joseph Dredd created by John Wagner in 1976. The storys were first published by IPC media until 1999 when Rebellion Developments took over, judge dredd appeared in his own strip in the popular British comic book anthology 2000 AD where he was the main judge in a futuristic world where judges were law enforcers who had the right to arrest and execute criminals at the scene of a crime. Judge Dredd made his first appearance in a self titled film released in 1995 directed by Danny Cannon. The film was an American adaptation of the original comic but did not meet the expectations that were set by the public. The comic was not very well known in America at the time therefore Danny Cannon had to find an A list star who would get more people to watch the film, so he managed to get Sylvester Stallone to play the lead role as Judge Dredd, this managed to obtain a few more followers and made the advertising a lot easier however the storyline of this adaptation did not follow the comic for example when Sylvester Stalone removes his helmet to prove to the audience that its him whos playing the role of Judge Dredd was criticised because he never revealed his identity in the comic so was disliked by many fans. The fact that the film went horribly wrong ruined judge dredds reputation in all types of media, this meant that if anyone was to make another film starring the character it had to be good or else Judge Dredd will have lost nearly all followers. In this day and age, superhero films are incredibly popular, you would rarely walk into a cinema without seeing a superhero film being advertised on posters or the trailers before a film. This is due to CGI which is the fact that we now have the technology that can meet the expectations of the special effects that are critically important in any good action film. So, Pete Travis thought it would be a good idea to have another go at making a film starring Judge Dredd and use the new and exciting technology that we have today. In the year 2012 Dredd was back in the film industry, with a mainly English crew but a very American cast this was because they wanted to expand their audience to americans as well as English and at the same time keep the film faithful to the original comic book. Once again though this adaptation of the comic did not

Ollie Dennis

Media Essay

meet expectations for a number of reasons, the first was because the film was made with violence and bad language which meant they had to make it an 18+ this lowers the amount of people who are going to watch the film to people over 18 who like comic books and were willing to give Judge Dredd another chance in the cinema. The second reason and probably the biggest reason was the fact that they spent most of their $35,000,000 budget on high tech state of the art Red X 3D cameras ignoring the publics views on 3D in the first place which was that most people would rather see a film in 2D. Due to them wasting millions of dollars on these cameras the special effects in the film had to be cheap and they looked very tacky indeed. This lowers the amount of people who would watch this film even more to people who are over 18, like super hero films and are willing to give Judge Dredd another chance, and finally people who actually like 3D therefore the film flopped horrendously and Judge Dredds reputation went down the drain in both America and the UK. Due to the limited budget they decided to film it in South Africa, this is because it is cheaper than other countries as its willing to charge little money. The South African government charge less than other countries because they are trying to redeem themselves from their background of discrimination. After the film had been completely created, the makers decided to have the premiere at the San Diego Comic Con where true followers of the comic books came from thousands of miles to witness the first glimpse of the reborn film starring Judge Dredd. It received a large round of applause from the audience which must have made the cast and crew believe the film was a success be it was not to be.

In 2012, another superhero film was released which contained most characters from the Marvel comics including Spiderman, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and Captain America. They called it The Avengers, this was the first film where lots of superheros were involved and working together instead of focusing on just one hero. Iron man was created by Stan Lee and appeared in the series of Marvel Comics Tales of suspense in 1963 and has had 3 films made since then, all very successful. The same applies for the other superheros involved in The Avengers, their films have been very successful.

Ollie Dennis

Media Essay

Due to the success of their individual films, the director of The Avengers Joss Whedon must have seen the benefits of creating a film involving all of the Marvel heros. It had everyones favourite heros in it therefore more people would see it rather than creating a film of just one super hero where only the fans of that hero would pay to see it. This was a blockbuster as it had an estimated budget of $220,000,000 US dollars which meant money could be spent on lots of things unlike Dredd where they concentrated solely on high tech 3D cameras. Now we have the technology to make super hero films even more realistic, it was the perfect time to bring out the hugely awaited blockbuster. Although there was a considerate amount of violence in the film, there wasnt as much as there was in Dredd, also Dredd contained foul language which is what rated it as an 18+ as I previously mentioned, doing this reduced the amount of people who would go to watch it however The Avengers was rated a 12A which meant younger people could enjoy it aswell and would have to bring their parents with them to the cinema which meant the film would receive even more money from their tickets. Nearly all of the scenes were filmed in the USA which saved money rather than having the whole cast and crew flying around the country, this is similar to Dredd because they filmed Dredd in south Africa which was low cost as they are trying to rebuild their reputation as a country. The Avengers world premiere was held in Hollywood where only the biggest of films usually hold there premiere, this would make the public think it was going to be an iconic film so would go and see it / buy the DVD. On the first weekend which the avengers was released in the USA it made $207,438,708 which means it nearly made a profit in the first 2 days it was released. The film was also converted to 3D in post production, this is a cheaper way of keeping the people who prefer 3D happy as well as people who prefer 2D, unlike Dredd where it was made in only 3D, this lost a lot of money because the majority of people would rather watch a film in classic 2D.

Ollie Dennis

Media Essay