JUDGE DREDD (1983)
"He's Judge, Jury... AND EXECUTIONER!"
Produced by Roger Corman
Directed by Joe Dante
Screenplay by George Miller (from a treatment by John Wagner & Alan Grant)
In the nuclear hell of 2099, the crime-ridden Mega-City One is ruled by the fearsome Judges: police with the power of instant justice! Toughest of all of them is Judge Joe Dredd (Michael Ironside), more machine than man. The unfortunate Cadet Judge Giant (Forest Whitaker) is stuck with Dredd as his examiner when the two of them encounter a drug deal in poverty-ridden Geoffrey Howe Block. Now they have to fight their way out, pursued by brutal drug lord Mama (Dee Wallace)...
TRIVIA
* The film was a big break for both Ironside and Whitaker, who were cast due to Corman enjoying
Scanners and
Ridgemont High respectively. Both men were headhunted for
The Terminator on the strength of
Dredd, which Ironside turned down - "I was already playing the Terminator!" as he jokingly told SFX in 1997 - while Whitaker won the role of Kyle Reese. This left him absent from the 1984 sequel,
Judge Death, and meant Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson (Phoebe Cates) supplanted Giant as the sidekick from then on. (Whitaker reappeared as Chief Judge Silver in Darren Aronofsky's reboot
Dredd: Year One in 2001)
* Paul Verhoeven made the move from the Netherlands to Britain after seeing the film. "The satire was brilliant, nothing like what you saw in Hollywood's usual fare. I wanted to know why and that led me to the original comics and
that led to Nemesis." (
Thrillpowered Overload! by David Bishop) While
Nemesis The Warlock barely broke even - but is now a cult hit - it opened the door for
Flesh and Blood,
Basic Instinct, and his remake of
It Happened Here.
* Early treatments had monkey mobster Don Ugglioni and the Ape Gang as the bad guys. Corman advised that to be changed to a human villain and toned down some of the absurdism.
*
Judge Dredd was a financial success for both New World and publishers IPC, but neither Wagner or Grant, nor Dredd artist Carlos Ezquerra, saw any royalties. This sparked a revolt in the UK comic industry over pay and conditions, with IPC, Marvel UK, and Quality Communications agreeing to creator co-ownership and royalties in 1985. (This would impact on the US industry when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons published their blockbuster
Watchmen through Eclipse rather than DC)
Technically this should count since the series was made into films IOTL too. I really hope this isn't too silly.
"Messengers from Space" (1974)
GLORIOUS