Director Taika Waititi and screenwriter Drew Pearce are developing a new movie outing for the ultraviolent lawman of the future, Judge Dredd. Little specifics are known, but it is believed that it will adhere closely to the source material. The news broke via The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie’s producers include rights holders at Rebellion Developments, Chris Kingsley, Jason Kingsley and Ben Smith, along with Jeremy Platt, Natalie Viscuso, Drew Pearce, and Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee.
Beyond the announcement, the Hollywood Reporter piece has very little to go on, so an actual film outing could be a long way off. If it happens at all, it does have some interesting snippets that could indicate the direction of travel:
“Sources say Pearce and Waititi both grew up with the books and are friends who have been trying to find a project to work on together for years.”
And:
“The logline is being kept under the visor, but the pitch 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. The desire is to see the movie launch a Dredd universe that could be explored with additional movies and shows across various platforms.”
Judge Dredd, created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, is an interestingly flexible comic. Since its inception in the pages of British weekly anthology 2000 AD in 1977, the series has developed into a full-blown off-kilter future world that enables the creators to tell any genre of story. The heyday of the comic in the late 1970s and 1980s, when John Wagner and Alan Grant were co-writing, was awash with action and biting satire. It is not unlikely that this may be the direction in which Waititi and Pearce would want to take their proposed movie outing.
Judge Dredd has been adapted to the big screen twice before: the first time in the Danny Cannon-directed, Sylvestor Stallone-starring 1995 adaptation and later in 2012’s Dredd. While fans and critics panned the 1995 iteration, the Pete Travis-directed 2012 outing—written by Alex Garland and starring Karl Urban—received critical and fan favour but didn’t light up the box office.
Despite fan efforts and petitions, it seems that any hope of a sequel to the acclaimed 2012 movie might indeed be dead and that the rights holders at Rebellion are seeking to do a reboot. In 2017, it was announced that there would be a Judge Dredd: Mega City One TV series, which was planned as an ensemble show linked to the 2012 movie. It came about after a deal was struck between Rebellion and IM Global. Rumours claimed the show came close to happening but that the onset of the pandemic scuppered plans. And Karl Urban is a busy guy.
New Zealand filmmaker Waititi is probably best known to comics fans as the lauded director of Thor: Ragnarok (and the less-lauded director of Thor: Love & Thunder). Judge Dredd is not the only comics adaptation he has been attached to. In 201,9 he was attached to a Flash Gordon projec,t and in 202,1 he was announced to be directing abig-screenn adaptation of Alejandro Jodorowsky & Moebius’ The Incal. He also reportedly still has a Star Wars project still in the pipeline. None of these havebeen released atthe time of writing.
Drew Pearce is a British screenwriter, director and producer. His screenwriting credits include Iron Man 3 (2013), Missio:n Impossibl-: Rogue Nation (2015), and The Fall Guy (2024). He is also slated as the screenwriter for the forthcoming remake of the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair, to be directed by Michael B. Jordan.
2000 AD owners Rebellion are currently in the midst of ramping up promotion for another of their properties – the Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons created Genetic Infantryman Rogue Trooper. A fully CGI movie written and directed by Duncan Jones is slated to hit screens next year with more information (and hopefully a trailer) expected to drop at San Diego Comic Con.
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