'Dredd' Sequel Talk Was "Blown Out Of Proportion," Says Producer

That the first Dredd was a big fat flop at the box office hasn't stopped its fans from clamoring for a sequel. And star Karl Urban has been all too happy to keep hope alive, promoting petitions and teasing conversations with the studio.

But don't start lining up for tickets just yet. Producer Adi Shankar brings the Dredd 2 buzz back down to Earth, pointing out that there isn't even a script at this point. Hit the jump to read his latest update on the possible sci-fi sequel.

I'm going to tread lightly here. I feel like Karl made a small statement that got blown way out of proportion by news sites. Yeah there are conversations going on (about making Dredd 2), but I wouldn't automatically go like, 'Oh there's conversations going on, so when's the release date?' When there's no fucking script.

Which isn't to say that Shankar wouldn't like to see a script and eventually a sequel. "I'm kind of the one freaking out and leading the charge, I think," he admitted. But as for whether we might see Dredd 2 in the near future, he responded, "Big question mark. TBD."

Part of the difficulty with making a Dredd 2, Shankar pointed out, is that the first "wasn't a studio movie, it was an independent movie." That meant every market had a different distributor, which in turn means "every one of those distributors has to sign off" for the sequel.

Shankar's comments are disappointing, but not surprising. The first Dredd made just $35 million worldwide in its entire box-office run — not even enough to cover its modest (for this kind of movie) $50 million production budget.

Dredd has fared somewhat better on home video, and it does have strong critical buzz on its side. Still, it's going to take a lot of convincing to get financial backers to open their wallets for a sequel.

On the bright side, Shankar does at least seem slightly more optimistic about a Dredd 2 than he did last year. During a Reddit AMA, he told fans flat-out that Dredd would "probably not" get a sequel because the first one "totally bombed."

Watch the full DweebCast interview below.