Troubled Judge Dredd Set: Stallone’s Regret, Script Chaos, and Fans’ Fury Over the Film’s Choices

“Judge Dredd” is a 1995 dystopian view of the future — and most everyone from star Sylvester Stallone to director Danny Cannon to comic book creator John Wagner dreaded the finished film!

Stallone plays the title character, a police officer with the judiciary powers to serve as judge, jury and executioner on the spot in a Mega-City One set in the 22nd century after Earth is destroyed by an unnamed catastrophe and survivors live in mega-cities plagued by rampant crime. Dredd is framed for a crime he didn’t commit by his psychotic half-brother (Armand Assante) and accompanied by sidekick Fergee (Rob Schneider).

The star-filled cast includes Diane Lane, Jürgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow, Joanna Miles, Scott Wilson and James Remar.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was first considered as the lead until producers settled on Stallone. The star and director butted heads almost immediately. Stallone felt the movie was going to be a comedy-action film, while the director sought a darker approach.

“The whole project was troubled from the beginning,” Stallone recalls. “The philosophy of the film was not set in stone — by that I mean ‘Is this going to be a serious drama or with comic overtones’ like other science-fiction films that were successful? So a lotta pieces just didn’t fit smoothly. It was sort of like a feathered fish.”

In the end, Stallone regretted being involved in “Judge Dredd,” calling it his “biggest mistake.” Cannon described Stallone as a “selfabsorbed actor” and vowed to never again work with another star like that. Ironically, he turned down the chance to make “Die Hard With a Vengeance” to direct “Judge Dredd.”

Cannon blames Stallone. He claims that the script changes the actor demanded ended up creating a final movie that was much different from the original version.

The comic book’s character creator Wagner says that “the story had nothing to do with Judge Dredd, and Judge Dredd wasn’t really Judge Dredd. The film told the wrong story because it tried to do too much.”

Avid Judge Dredd comic fans were furious that the movie character removes his helmet a bunch of times — something that happened only once in the comic books, and even then, the Judge’s disfigured face was covered with a censor bar!

But producers didn’t want their big name star Stallone to cover his well-known mug for an entire movie.

In a 2012 remake, there was a scene where Dredd removes his helmet — but Karl Urban, who starred in that version, refused to shoot it. In one scene, Fergee makes fun of Dredd. The hilarious dialogue was improvised by Schneider and was so funny that they kept it in the film.

Schneider says Stallone personally called him to offer him the role after Joe Pesci turned it down. But there was no doubt who the star was — in one scene involving flames, Stallone was given extra fire retardant on the back of his costume … and Schneider says he received none at all!

In fact, Schneider fell down a flight of stairs and got banged up on his first day of filming.

The film gives a nod to a pair of famous comedy duos: The police announcer calls out the locations of “Corner of Abbott and Costello” and “Corner of Burns and Allen,” alluding to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and George Burns and Gracie Allen.

“Judge Dredd” was a box-office flop, attracting just $34.7 million in North America against an $85-90 million budget. Only a $78.8 million international box office put the movie in the black. Most Judge Dredd fans consider the 2012 Urban remake, titled “Dredd,” to be better and more faithful to the comic books, and it has developed a cult following.