Keep up the pressure for Dredd sequel, says Karl Urban

'Dredd' star Karl Urban has called on fans of the film to keep up the pressure to try and get a sequel made.

The film, released last year, flopped at the box office but has consequently found itself a cult following on DVD.

Speaking at Comic-Con, Urban, who also plays 'Bones' McCoy in JJ Abrams' 'Star Trek' movies', said that he and the filmmakers are 'doing everything' to make a second film happen.

[Dredd pulls back from flop with DVD win]

“It's certainly my hope that we get to make more… clearly it has found an audience,” he said.

“I think the more people that campaign for it, the more people that email, Twitter and write into Lionsgate and say 'We want to see more of this', then the more likelihood is that we'll get to see that.

“We certainly are doing everything we can to ensure that happens.”

[Urban: I am open to Dredd sequel]

The film, which was directed by Pete Travis and written by Alex Garland, was adapted from the classic 2000AD comic strip, Judge Dredd, and starred Urban alongside Lena Heady as drug lord Ma-Ma and Olivia Thurlby as fellow Judge, Judge Anderson.

But it failed to take off despite decent reviews from the critics and some heralded special effects, and only recouped $36.5 million (£23.7 million) of its $45 million (£29 million) production budget.

Yet the film rallied when it was released on DVD, selling 650,000 units last year, almost half of which were on the more expensive Blu-ray format, making it the best-selling new release of the year.

Whether that would be enough to persuade a studio to embark on a sequel remains vague, but it was sadly not the first film based on the comic strip which underperformed.

Sylvester Stallone's 1995 incarnation of Dredd also tanked, hated by critics and fans alike.