There’s no way around it: The 2012 film Dredd was not a successful movie. Against a reported budget of $50 million, the pic only grossed $35.6 million worldwide. But despite this fact, the Karl Urban-fronted comic book adaptation has amassed a bit of a cult following since its release, resulting in a vocal community of fans demanding a sequel be made. Urban has previously expressed his willingness to return, and producer Adi Shankar is also enthusiastic about making Dredd 2 happen. But the road that leads to the sequel being made is a much more complicated one than people might think.

Shankar—who also produced that Power/Rangers short film that took over the internets last week—has created a new video in which he explains why Dredd 2 hasn’t happened yet, and what needs to take place in order for it to become a reality. One of the main issues is that Dredd was an independent film. It wasn’t backed by some studio like Warner Bros. or Paramount Pictures that can be convinced of putting in money for a sequel to a movie that lost money. Because of that, financing needs to be acquired independently once again, and since the investors that bought into Dredd didn’t see a profit, that’s particularly difficult. Shankar explained us in a statement his reasoning behind making this video:

"My hope is that this video demystifies the film financing process for public. In the brave new world of the Internet, trade secrets need to become a thing of the past."

Indeed, Shankar provides fascinating insight into how the moviemaking business works in this video, and hopefully this clears up some of the confusion (and frustration) from fans about why there's been no real updates on Dredd 2 in some time.

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