“There isn’t, as far as I can tell, going to be a Dredd sequel. The basic mechanics of film financing say that if you make a film that loses a ton of money, you’re not going to get a sequel. And that’s basically what happened.”

– Alex Garland, March 18, 2015

That, right there, is what we call sad news. Alex Garland produced the little-seen but much-beloved Dredd in 2012. Starring Karl Urban, the film was a violent, gritty, cinematic reboot of the Judge Dredd franchise. It had nothing to do with the 1995 turd that starred Sylvester Stallone, and it was much more faithful to the comic books that introduced the character to pop culture. The reviews for it from critics were fairly strong, and the response from the fanboy community was a resounding “YES! YES! YES!,” but the modestly budgeted film ($50 million) only managed to scrape up $35 million at the box office.

Still, many fans have held out hope for a Dredd 2. Garland says it’s just not feasible, but that he appreciates the outpour of support from the fans:

“And I understand and appreciate the support the film has had, and the campaigns that have existed for it, and it’s really genuinely gratifying — I love it in all respects except one, which is when I hear about people buying copies of the DVD in order to boost sales and to change the figures. And what I want to say to them is, “Don’t do that. Keep your money.” Because the people that are making the decisions are much colder and harder than that. And the graphs they’re looking at are not really going to be sufficiently dented by that.

So the support for the film is truly appreciated. But if there is going to be a sequel, it’s not going to be me and the team of people who worked on the previous film, it’s going to be another bunch of people. And good luck to them, and I hope it happens. I really do. I hope they do a better job than we did.”

What a bummer. 

That film put Urban right at the top of my Batman Casting Wishlist when Zack Snyder was looking for someone to wear the cowl for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. 

Oh, well.

SOURCE: io9