2000AD announced on their main news page yesterday (Wednesday 27th March) that the team behind the wonderful Judge Minty fan film would soon be online. To herald the arrival a new trailer has been released.
The film is a ‘not for profit venture’ and has received a lot of kind support from Rebellion, the publishers of 2000AD. Everyone involved gave their time for free.
The script was written by Written By Steven Sterlacchini & Michael Carroll. Directed by Written By Steven Sterlacchini with Stephen Green as Director of Photography and Digital Imagery. Storyboards by Barry Renshaw.
I’ve already done two reviews of this excellent short film and I’ve put up several sets of details of screenings of the film. This version however, the online version, will be the final cut. As you can read over on the 2000AD there are extra scenes in this final cut that haven’t been seen in any of the screenings at Comic Cons & Film Festivals.
I first saw this film at the Leeds Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, and then at Thought Bubble comic festival in Leeds a few days later. Since then the film has toured the UK, premiered in USA and in April will be seen in Athens, see here for a current list of upcoming screenings.
Unlike the recent Dredd movie starring Karl Urban (reviewed here) this film has a look much more like the world seen in the pages of the comic. There are several great shots of the city created by Steve Green, for example in the trailer you see the Hall of Justice.
The Judge uniforms, created by Daniel Carey-George of Custom Creations, citizens and vehicles all look very much as they do on the pages of 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine.
The film is based on a character created by John Wagner and Mike McMahon in Prog 147 of 2000AD. Minty is an aging Judge who is starting to question his role, here portrayed by Edmund Dehn. Edmund narrates much of the film giving us Minty’s inner dialogue and gives a real weight to the character.
This story re-imagines that comic strip and follows the character to see what happened to him. No longer fit to serve on the streets of Mega City One but unable to take a meaningful role in the city either he faces a decision on his future.
Rather than take a place as a Tutor at the Academy Minty decides to take the ‘Long Walk’, a kind of retirement for a Judge. There are several options but the one Minty takes is to take law to the lawless in the radioactive wasteland outside the city. The Cursed Earth, famous for the first mega-epic in 2000AD (The Cursed Earth Saga).
In the Cursed Earth he comes in conflict with a group of misfits. Outlaws and mutants led by the enigmatic Aquila. The Cursed Earth scenes are wonderfully presented and the rag-tag band are very reminiscent of the denizens of that area seen in The Cursed Earth Saga.
There are numerous Easter eggs throughout the film that fans will enjoy spotting. It has been very hard keeping quiet about many of them since November last year but I personally hate spoilers, so most of my reviews are very spoiler light.
One cool aspect of this film I can tell you about is that Judge Dredd is played by 2000AD artist Greg Staples. Greg has also drawn for DC, Del Ray, Wizards of the Coast among others. He also did work for the films Solomon Kane and Doomsday. 
The uniforms and props for this film, designed as I said above by Daniel Carey-George, have led to a fully licensed line from Planet Replicas.Their Judge Anderson has a part in this film. All images reproduced by kind permission of Steve Green, who as you will see on the picture on the right also does photography for Planet Replicas.
I’m looking forward to seeing this film online. Given the standard of You Tube and Vimeo if you have an up to date system you’ll be getting a fully HD experience. which will thrill any fan of Dredd I am sure.
Happy viewing!
Judge-Tutor Semple 