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Speaking at London Film and Comic-Con this weekend, Dredd screenwriter Alex Garland revealed his basic vision for the film as part of a trilogy, as well as the box office target it would have to hit in order to set in motion concrete plans for a sequel.

And that target is a charming figure of $50 million.

Hit the break to read Garland’s assessment. 

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Garland had the following to say about the $50 million target, as well as possible future film installments:

“We’ll see a sequel if the gross is above $50 million in the US. It’s a simple financial equation. We’re an independent movie… In terms of Dark Judges, I wrote Death into this script, but it didn’t feel right for the first film. I thought it felt right but after about 16 drafts and it really didn’t work out.

I needed to have set up the city and Dredd first before taking on what is essentially a riff on the Judges. You need to know what the Judges are before you can subvert them.

I wrote a second script which was about Dredd going out to the Cursed Earth. That was rejected for similar reasons.

If they want to make sequels, I’ve got a story that goes from this one into the origins of Dredd and the city. Then the third one has would have a strange, existential attack from the Dark Judges.”

I can see why the Cursed Earth would be rejected for a sequel, considering that despite the mass scale of Mega-City One, I doubt much will be explored in Dredd. Expanding and exploring the city, leading to setting things up for a possible third film with the Dark Judges seems like a fantastic way to go – just imagine if they could pull off an attack of similar scope from the Dark Judges to the one launched in the classic “Necropolis” storyline…

Dredd opens in the UK September 7, and two weeks later on September 21 in the US. 

[BleedingCool]