Bloody Dreddful

I was recently reading about filmmaker Danny Cannon, and I found something that completely baffled me.

When Cannon was a teenager, he entered a contest in the comic 2000 AD to design a poster for a possible Judge Dredd movie. Inspired by Blade Runner, his poster said it would be directed by Ridley Scott, have Harrison Ford playing Dredd, and have Daryl Hannah playing Anderson. I saw the poster itself, and I found it rather underwhelming. I was expecting to see a drawing or painting of Ford as Dredd. Someone who's good at art needs to make a new version of that poster. I can't because I suck at art. Anyway, I'm way more interested in the concept. It sounds like it would have made an awesome movie. Harrison Ford playing Dredd? I never say this, but... Shut up and take my money!

Now here's where it gets confusing. Cannon went on to direct the 1995 Judge Dredd movie starring Sylvester Stallone. Why didn't he try to make it like a Ridley Scott movie and cast Harrison Ford? How could the guy have that vision and then make that sub-par Stallone movie? I'm so confused. I'm guessing it was studio interference or something.

I was thinking about it, and honestly, that recent Dredd movie with Karl Urban sounds a lot more like Cannon's original concept to me. It's got Anderson, it has a Dredd who is probably about as intense as if Ford had played him, and it definitely has a Blade Runner feel to some extent. Now that I think about it, it seems to me like the people who made 2012's Dredd must have been like "Hey, remember that poster Danny Cannon made for that 2000 AD contest before he made that mediocre Dredd movie? Yeah, the poster was underwhelming, but wasn't the concept cool? Let's make our movie like a modern equivalent of that."

I feel like maybe this post makes me sound like a dick. If for some reason you actually read this, Danny, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be mean. If it wasn't for you, maybe "Dredd Song" by The Cure wouldn't exist, and I like that song. Let's get FroYo sometime.