Dredd Essay Improved

When remaking a film, many factors are taken into consideration to determine the possibility of losing or gaining money. In attempts to beat the original film, or even widen the audience, film companies follow the same formula; however they add diverse features to make it as unique as possible. Sometimes remaking a film can cause a large loss of money, and an example of this is DNA Film's 2012 remake of Judge Dredd.

Dredd is a 2012 British-South African science fiction action film directed by Pete Travis and written and produced by Alex Garland. Originally it is based on the 2000 AD American comic strip 'Judge Dredd' and its eponymous character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. Karl Urban stars as Judge Dredd, a law enforcer given the power of judge, jury and executioner in a vast, metropolis called Mega-City One that lies in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Originally being a British comic strip, this British remake was not as well known to British audiences due to their lack of knowledge about the origin of Judge Dredd. The ‘Dredd’ remake earned $23,153,028 internationally consisting of 6.9 million dollars earned in the UK. However, with an overall film budget of 45 million dollars, the film makers lost over 22 million dollars after 6 months of the film’s release. Over 25 million dollars was spent on marketing for the film, in attempt to reach a wider audience.

The major marketing consisted of film posters, film trailers and frequent TV spots, which a few of these received awards (E.g. Golden trailer award and Best action TV spot) The film makers aimed to be nothing like the 1994 version of ‘Judge Dredd' and this was reflected in the marketing, however they seemed to aim the marketing strategies more towards Judge Dredd comic book fans. Also, with the high content of violence in the film, they’re restricting the audience again by only aiming it at adult, even though super hero films are usually aimed towards younger generations.

In an attempt to boost the potential of a film, well-known actors are used to gain interest of potential audiences. This is one of the crucial steps that Mark Kermode (British film critic) believes that could make or break a large blockbuster. The nationality of an actor can help to gain the interest of a certain country, and in this case Karl Urban was used as a leading role. He is famously known for being in films such as; The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Trek, The Bourne Supremacy, and RED, and this has caused him to become recognisable well known worldwide. However, in these films he is not the leading role, unlike Dredd. This can help gain potential audiences internationally; however more famously known actors could have been used to star in the film to boost audience potentials even further.

The use of advance filming equipment can increase a films budget dramatically, and this is why critics believe that 'Dredd' flopped at the box office. The film was shot digitally in 3D using RED MX, SI2K and Phantom Flex high-speed cameras. Certain 2D elements were converted to 3D in post-production. Filming in 3D is a very expensive process and watching films in 3D in not always a popular option for potential audiences.  This lost a large amount of possible viewers, and also affected the overall budget of the film dramatically. The film was given an 'R' rating; this limited the age of viewers especially as comic book films are mostly appreciated by younger generations, and also affected the performance in cinemas. By aiming the film towards adults, this further decreased audience potential by at least half. The adult targeting was also show by the wide use of violence, and violent references.

The fact that most of the production team, and a large part of the cast are of A British nationality, this film is seen as being ‘British’. This 'British' film can be widely compared to many 'American' blockbusters as the approach towards marketing, casting and overall appearances are very different. The Dark Knight Rises is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan and the story with David S. Goyer. Featuring the DC Comics character Batman, the film is the final instalment in Nolan's Batman film trilogy, and it is the sequel to Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). In comparison to 'The Dark Knight Rises', Dredd’s budget was very limited as the Batman film had a budget of around 250–300 million dollars. At the box office, the third part of the Batman trilogy made over a billion dollars ($1,084,439,099), making over 834 million dollars in profits. The scale of the film required such a large budget, and to entice a wider audience in, the film makers wanted to put the money on the screen and make the visual elements the key aspect for the viewers. The success of this blockbuster was due too many aspects. Firstly the casting used a wide range of internationally known actors who all have large followings. Christian Bale stars as the batman, and as a world renowned actor, contributed to the films massive audience following. The film makers elected not to film in 3D, but instead stated that they intended to focus on improving image quality and scale using the IMAX format, also saving money.

In order to reach a larger audience, the marketing campaign for the film started earlier than normal, and was a contributing factor of the film’s success. The most successful aspect of the films marketing was the trailer, which reached over 2 billion views worldwide. Also, actors starring in the film were frequently interviewed about the film on international programs, and this helped to boost worldwide interest in the film. The films world première was July 16, 2012 at the AMC Lincoln Square Theatre in New York City. In comparison to Dredd, the films run in cinemas worldwide lasted nearly three times as long, and with no extra charge to view in IMAX, unlike 3D. This was a major downfall for Dredd. On average, 'the Dark Knight Rises' was shown in at least 4 screens in every cinema, whereas 'Dredd' was only shown on average of one screen in every three cinemas.

In conclusion, 'The Dark Knight Rises' was without doubt more successful than the remake of 'Dredd' because of overall attention an audience’s need, and the film makers ability to draw in a large potential audience. The 'Dredd' remake did not target the correct audience, or consider aspects that could have saved the overall budget and this is evident in the substantial loss of money. Unlike the success of The Dark Knight, Dredd did not reach such a successful standard, as it was both financially and critically at a loss.

In order to improve my original Dredd essay, I was given the following targets:

• Use more reference to Mark Kermode (British film critic)
• Make a tighter comparison between the Dredd and The Dark Knight
• Be more specific about audience
• Define what makes the film 'British'
• Make direct contrast to Dredd

Kill List Production Companies

Kill List is a 2011 British horror film directed by Ben Wheatley, starring Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley, and MyAnna Buring.

When a British soldier returns home from Kiev, he joins an old friend as contract killers. His disturbed past surfaces as he spins out of control during jobs and ominous employers raise the stakes. It was filmed in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in England.

Warp X is a British film production company, sister to Warp Films based in Sheffield, UK with further offices in Nottingham and London. The company was founded in 2005 and produces feature films.

Warp X was founded in 2005 and produces feature films. It is a digital film studio that produces feature films in the UK with budgets usually between £400,000 and £800,000. The studio serves as a format for new film directors to create movies for the first time on a lower budget scale with less expectation for high box office revenues on their initial feature foray.

The film studio began with support from organizations including Warp Films, Film Four, the UK Film Council, EM Media and Screen Yorkshire. The intent of the film studio's creation was to add energy and vitality to the film industry in Britain.

Films include:

·        -For those in peril

·        -She, a Chinese

·        -Hush

·        -Donkey punch

Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982.

Prior to 1998, the company was identified as Channel Four Films or FilmFour International. Later, the outfit was re-branded as FilmFour, to coincide with the launch of a new Digital TV channel of the same name. The company cut its budget and staff significantly in 2002, due to mounting losses, and was re-integrated into the drama department of Channel 4.

In 2004, Tessa Ross became head of both Film4 and Channel 4 drama.[1] The name "Film4 Productions" was introduced in 2006 to tie in with the relaunch of the FilmFour broadcast channel as Film4.

Films include:

·      - The Iron lady

·      - Slumdog millionaire

·      - Shaun of the dead

·      -127 Hours

The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 by the Labour Government to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and was funded through sources including the National Lottery. John Woodward was the Chief Executive Officer of the UKFC. As at 30 June 2008, the company had 90 full-time members of staff. It distributed more than £160m of lottery money to over 900 films. Lord Puttnam described the Council as "a layer of strategic glue that's helped bind the many parts of our disparate industry together."

Screen Yorkshire has been running for over ten years, with an aim to not only provide support for Britain within the film industry, but to make Humber and Yorkshire the most sought after destination for productions in the UK. Investments made by Screen Yorkshire are purposely made to develop talent and content in specific films they target. This is the largest organisation in the UK that invests in content (£15 million). Investments are made on market rate commercial terms with an intention to make sure investment returns are going to produce a legacy fund to support the development of content and production for TV and Film in Yorkshire. 
Screen Yorkshire also run highly regarded talent schemes, such as 'The List' and 'Triangle'. The idea behind these schemes is to encourage national and regional talent to progressively excel in the TV and Film industries. 

Films include
-Wuthering Heights
-Kill List
-A Passionate Woman
-The Damned United
-Tyrannosaur
-Red Riding
-This is England '86

THE 'BIG SIX' RESEARCH

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American film production and distribution studio that is part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film studios in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

The studio, founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924 and went public two years later. The name is derived from "Columbia", a national personification of the United States, which is used as the company's logo.

In its early years a minor player in Hollywood, Columbia began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra.

With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbia's major contract stars were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant (who was shared with RKO Pictures). In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio's premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio.

In 1982, the studio was purchased by Coca-Cola; that same year it launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia, which merged with Tri-Star to create Columbia Pictures Entertainment. After a brief period of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining a financial interest, the combined studio was acquired by Japanese company, Sony in 1989.

Films include:

·         21 Jump street

·         The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

·         Men in Black

·         The Amazing Spider-Man

·         Total Recall

·         Skyfall

·         Django Unchained

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., formerly known as Warner Bros. Studios, commonly referred to as Warner Bros. (spelled Warner Brothers during the company's early years), or simply WB is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment.

One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Bros. has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Entertainment. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network.

Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America

Films Include:

·         The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

·         Gangster Squad

·         Jack the Giant Slayer

·         42

·         The Great Gatsby

·         The Hangover Part III

·         Man of Steel

·         Pacific Rim

·         The Conjuring

·         Prisoners

·         Gravity

Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and division of The Walt Disney Studios, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1950 as Walt Disney Productions, the division is based at the Walt Disney Studios and is the main producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit. It took on its current name in 1983. Today, in conjunction with the other units of The Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Pictures is classified as one of Hollywood's "Big Six" film studios. Nearly all of Walt Disney Pictures' releases are distributed theatrically by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, through home media platforms via Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and through television syndication by Disney-ABC Domestic Television.

The studio's predecessor (and the modern-day The Walt Disney Company's as a whole) was originally founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, by filmmaker Walt Disney and his business partner and brother, Roy, in 1923.

The creation of Mickey Mouse and subsequent short films and merchandise generated revenue for the studio which was renamed as Walt Disney Productions at the Hyperion Studio by 1928. The studio's streak of success continued in the 1930s, culminating with the 1937 release of the first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which became a huge financial success. With the profits from Snow White, Walt relocated to a third studio in Burbank, California.

Films Include:

·         Toy Story 3

·         The Sorcerer's Apprentice

·         Tangled

·         Tron: Legacy

·         Mars Needs Moms

·         Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

·         Cars 2

·         John Carter

·         Brave

·         A Wreck-It Ralph

·         A Monsters University

 The company divided motion picture productions within the studio as two units; one for animation and another for live-action. The latter division began producing live-action films in 1950 with the release of Treasure Island. By 1953, the company ended their agreements with such third-party distributors as RKO Radio Pictures and United Artists and formed their own distribution company; Buena Vista Distribution. In 1983, Disney underwent a corporate restructuring resulting in the renaming of Walt Disney Productions as The Walt Disney Company and the studio itself as Walt Disney Pictures.

Universal Studios Inc. (also known as Universal Pictures), is an American motion picture studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBC Universal, and is one of the six major movie studios. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City.

Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour, it is the oldest movie studio in the United States of America. It is also the fourth oldest in the world that is still in continuous production; the first being Gaumont Pictures, the second oldest is Pathé, the third is Nordisk Film, and the fifth oldest is Paramount Pictures. On May 11, 2004, the controlling stake in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. In addition to owning a sizable film library spanning the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBC Universal Television Distribution. It also acquired rights to several prominent filmmakers' works originally released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years.

Films Include:

·         Snow White & the Huntsman

·         Ted         

·         The Bourne Legacy

·         Pitch Perfect

·         Les Misérables

·         Mama 

·         Jurassic Park

·         Fast & Furious 6

·         Despicable Me 2

·         R.I.P.D. 

·         Kick-Ass 2 

·         The World's End

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, with hyphen, from 1935 to 1985)—also known as 20th Century Fox, or 20th Century Fox Pictures, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it's currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. The company was founded on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck.

20th Century Fox has distributed various commercially successful film series, including Star Wars, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four, Alien and Predator. Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, Family Guy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Modern Family and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.

20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Films Include:

·         Rise of the Planet of the apes

·         We Bought a Zoo

·         Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

·         Titanic

·         Prometheus

·         Abraham Lincoln: Vampire hunter

·         Ice Age: Continental Drift

·         Taken 2

Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount) is a film and television production/distribution studio, consistently ranked as one of the largest (top-grossing) film studios. It is a subsidiary of U.S. media conglomerate Viacom, Paramount is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It has distributed various commercially successful film series,

Films series include:

·         Shrek,

·         Transformers,

·         Mission: Impossible, 

·         Cinematic Universe (2008-2011),

·         Indiana Jones,

·         Star Trek,

·         Jackass,

·         Beverly Hills Cop,

·         "Crocodile" Dundee,

·         Madagascar,

·         Kung Fu Panda,

·         Paranormal Activity,

·         G.I. Joe,  

·         Friday the 13th.