Taika Waititi Is Working On A Judge Dredd Movie

the Jojo Rabbit Oscar winner will shepherd the future lawman’s third film to the big screen.

Taika Waititi will reportedly direct a new adaptation of Judge Dredd, the UK’s most famous comic book character. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-winning filmmaker will direct a script by Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, The Fall Guy). And other than a note that the film is likely to be lighter in tone than the previous two efforts, that’s all we know at this juncture.

But this is an interesting development, nonetheless. If you’ve never encountered the darkly satirical joys of Judge Dredd, the character was created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra for the fledgling sci-fi anthology 2000 AD in 1977. A none-more-tough fascist cop policing the mean streets of near-future dystopian metropolis Mega City One, Dredd is the most popular comic book character ever to come out of the UK, appearing in almost every edition of 2000 AD since the second issue, and Grudd knows how many spin offs and ancillary titles.

He’s struggled in other media though. Dredd has twice made the trip to the big screen to mixed results. The first time was in 1995’s Judge Dredd, which saw Sylvester Stallone grunt his way through the lead role, with a gurning Rob Schneider along for comic relief. More a Stallone vehicle than a Dredd adaptation, it’s generally regarded as a complete misfire, the odd decent supporting performance or nice bit of production design aside.

Round two came in 2012 with Dredd, a stripped down, more brutal, and more modestly-budgeted take on the material, with Karl Urban fully committing to the bit in the title role, Game of Thrones‘ Len Headey as sadistic drug lord Maw-Maw, and a lean script from Alex Garland (Civil War, 28 Years Later). The general consensus on that one is that it knocked it out of the park, but it didn’t do as well at the box office as everyone involved would have liked.

Still, follow ups to the 2012 film did seem to be the way 2000 AD and Judge Dredd owners Rebellion wanted to go up until recently, with both feature film sequels and a streaming series expansion mooted at various times. Rebellion never wound up pulling the trigger on those, but then Rebellion has been weirdly reticent to adapt their 2000 AD IP, despite owning it all outright and announcing a $100m studio complex specifically for such adaptations in 2018. Sadly, the only production that’s seen the light of day so far is Duncan Jones‘ upcoming Rogue Trooper animated movie, and while that looks the business, it’s not much to show for the last 13 years.

So, Taika Waititi making a Judge Dredd flick is welcome if unexpected news. Waititi is a comedy guy, and there’s been some pushback re: how his sensibilities may or may not suit the subject matter, but fully half of all Judge Dredd stories are ironic little comedies of the absurd, so it strikes me as wasted air. Better to wonder if Taika still has the juice; the much-delayed Next Goal Wins was okayish, but Thor: Love and Thunder was a complete disaster. Sure, Waititi’s done well on the small screen with stuff like Our Flag Means Death and Reservation Dogs, but he’s not the key creator on either of those.

Of course, whether or not this thing gets made is anyone’s guess. For now, I guess the best response is a thoughtful “Hmmm… interesting.” beforre waiting for further details.