Judge Dredd
London, Pinewood Studios - 1994
Chosen in part for his accomplished 1993 crime drama, 'The Young Americans', Dredd was directed by the diminutive Danny Cannon, whose stature disguised his gravity defying inflated ego. It was based on the titular comic book character featured in British comic, AD 2000, it tells the story of a dystopian future where justice is delivered by Judges who are Police, Jury, and executioner. Rumor has it that the part of Dredd was originally offered to Arnold Schwarzenegger, although I was happy Sylvester Stallone got the part after enjoying earlier great times on, 'Cliffhanger'. Hate to say it though, Arnie would have made the better Judge.
On day one of the studio shoot, director Danny Cannon asked the crew to gather round. I assumed this would be a rousing, 'commander-in-chief' style bonding speech, so I rolled the camera in anticipation of some documentary gold. Instead, with face contorted, he bellowed at the crew;
“There's just one thing I have to tell you all…”
“FEAR ME!!!”
I thought there was more to come and this was the warm up so kept rolling, but no, that was it, Napoleon had spoken. Graveyard stillness disturbed only by a few muffled titters from the stoic British crew engulfed the sound stage; all uphill from here I thought to myself. In reality I think Danny was just referring to a line from the comic when Judge Dredd says, “ Let only the guilty FEAR ME”, but the crew, including myself failed to get the reference, sorry for that Danny.
The unit sound recordist related a story of an earlier encounter with Danny, which amused me. It was only his first or second day on the film as he was prepping for production, working with probably the best boom operator in the business, a real character called Colin Wood. Colin knew Danny's father, Mickey who had been a prop man in the business when Colin was a keen amateur footballer, and was also the manager of their team. When he introduced Danny to Colin for what he thought was the first time Colin said: "You don't remember me but I knew you when you were only so high; mind you your not much bigger now are you?" It didn't go down at all well with the vertically challenged director and you could have heard a pin drop. That said he admits they got on well with Danny throughout what was a tough shoot (his words) and would often see Colin and Danny chatting about their shared interest in football. So the guy retained a sense of humor amidst the Himalayan climb he endured on the shoot.
Can't say I'm a fan of the comic book hero except maybe Peter Parker and Sam Raimi's, 'Spiderman'. After reading the script it was my opinion poor Danny was handed the task of unfortunately polishing the proverbial turd. The Judge's uniform was virtually out of the hands of costume designer, Emma Porteus, as the look had been indelibly etched on the pages of the Comic book, AD 2000. Sly was given an extra 3 inches to his frame by thick soles to his boots, in keeping with his character rather than a vanity request. The rest of the look was, well, full on comic book colors decked out with additional dressing hewn from plastic. I'm not sure if Dredd's bike was a real motorbike with a bit of pimping, but apparently they were so unstable to be virtually unrideable which made for some less than dramatic entrances.
One particular sticky moment I witnessed, and witnessed all too close, was Sly angrily confronting the Cinematographer Adrian Biddle after viewing the shots from the previous day (known as, screening the dailies). Clearly unhappy with what he had just see Sly approach Biddle, stood in the middle of a relatively small set, pushed his face menacingly towards Biddle and said: “If you EVER light me from the wrong side again it’s WAR!”. I was only a few feet away to the side of this ear bashing and slowly tippy toed back into the shadows cringing, and hoping they had not seen me witness this as I had the camera on my shoulder. Clearly Sly had not given the same lighting tips to Adrian that I got on Cliffhanger? Eventually Adrian Biddle had the electricians build a shelter out of polystyrene boards, used as light reflectors usually, then installed his chair in it facing away from the set, and sat reading the paper after finishing lighting. Clearly he had switched off from any enthusiasm for the film. Images still looked good though?
Ultimately the polished turd that came out the other end just failed to connect with an audience who were the ultimate Judge. Stallone laid the blame for the poor critical response to the film and it's relative financial failure on the shoulders of the director. I think this unfair; Danny worked long and hard with what he had. It probably needed another $30 million to take the film outside the claustrophobic Pinewood sets and add some sorely needed expansive spectacle.
While Danny may have been removed from Sly's Christmas card list, he went on to have an extensive career producing and directing American TV series. I heard from a friend in LA that Danny turned up at one of the locations for, 'Demolition Man' and Stallone gave strict instructions he should not be allowed anywhere near the shoot! Not sure it's fair to put the entire blame on the relative failure of the film on his shoulders.
Production Budget $90 million
Worldwide Box Office $113 million