Taika Waititi Attached To Direct New Judge Dredd Movie
Thor: Love and Thunder and Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi is reportedly attached to direct a new Judge Dredd movie.
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Along with Waititi directing the film, it has Drew Pearce, the writer of The Fall Guy, Iron Man 3, and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, attached to write the script.
A report about the film from The Hollywood Reporter claims the script “is said to take inspiration more from the comics than the previous screen iterations, leaning into the world-building and dark humor. It is also meant to be a fun sci-fi blockbuster that nonetheless speaks to this moment in culture.”
Additionally, the hope is that the film could launch a Judge Dredd universe with additional movies and TV shows.
There has been demand for more live-action Judge Dredd from fans of the 2012 Dredd film that starred Karl Urban since that film hit theaters. However, nothing has come to fruition. Judge Dredd IP owner Jason Kingsley, who is the CEO of Rebellion, explained why back in 2023 to Sports Illustrated, “I have been working for years on trying to find the right business partner for that. We’ve had conversations with all the big players. Conversations are still ongoing. But the terms that we’re being asked for, we can’t support. They’re not how we want to work.”
“So we’re getting there. We’re making progress. But it’s slow, slow, slow. So yes, I want to get some more of it done. Obviously, I want to do cool stuff. There’s nothing to announce yet,” he concluded.
Later in his interview he shed more light, “One of the things I think sometimes the general public doesn’t understand is how much work goes on behind the scenes, how many false starts, and how many hours you spend negotiating with somebody only to reach a point where you actually can’t conclude a deal.”
“You can’t agree because it just wouldn’t work for the legacy that is the archive of material we’ve got. We’re not going to sell Judge Dredd to people basically, and people want to buy it. That’s what it comes down to. I’m afraid that won’t work for us. No, we’re the guardians of this IP,” he explained.
Given Taika Waititi’s track record with Thor and Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s probably best that Rebellion take some more time and find a better partner.
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A Judge Dredd: Mega-City One TV series was in development back in 2018 with Variety reporting Rebellion had purchased a new warehouse and was planning to convert it into studio space for the series at the time.
In fact, Urban was in discussion to reprise his role as Judge Dredd in the series, During the Star Trek Las Vegas Convention in 2017 he shared, “I am in discussion with them about that. I told them if they write the material and give Dredd something to do and give him a function, I will be there. I would love to.”
Series producer Brian Jenkins also expressed his desire for Urban to return to the character, “We have had many conversations prior to this, about all sorts of things. He’s also very busy, a full-time professional actor. So we’re going to have some long and complicated conversations I would imagine, and we’ll see where we go. It’s too early to tell yet, but if we can use him and he’s available to us, then I think that would be absolutely brilliant. There’s always a possibility he will be busy, or that his schedule for other movies won’t allow- Basically, we don’t know at this stage.”
The series was eventually put on hold in 2020 due to the pandemic. Kingsley informed the Radio Times, “I want there to be a sequel [to 2012 movie Dredd]. We’ve got the rights back so we can do it, we’ve just got to get rid of this virus thing that’s going on at the moment, and then hopefully things can kick off in all sorts of different areas of making film and TV, it’s just– it’s all very messed up at the moment for everybody.”
“A lot of work as been done on all sorts of different scripts actually, so Mega-City One the TV show,” he added. “Basically we can’t go into production because of the [coronavirus pandemic] and we’ve got scripts and everything is ready to go but the problem is, because of the pandemic and everybody’s funding changes and everybody’s shifting around.”
What do you make of Waititi being attached to a Judge Dredd film?
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