Plans are underway for Taika Waititi to direct what sounds like a goofy Dredd movie. The online reaction to the news has been overwhelmingly negative, to say the least.
What are the details?
Via THR, A new Dredd movie is being shopped around, which has Taika Waititi directing and the script by Drew Pearce, who wrote The Fall Guy, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and Iron Man 3.
According to the report, Waititi and Pearce are friends who have been looking to work together on a project for years. It’s said they’re both big fans of the original Dredd comic, so they decided to do the movie.
While plot details are being kept under wraps, the new Dredd movie is said to be going in a different direction than the cult-hit 2012 movie starring Karl Urban.
This one by Waititi and Pearce is said to take inspiration more from the comics rather than the previous versions on the big screen, which also includes the Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd film released in 1995. It will also focus on world-building and dark humor.
It’s added that the new Dredd movie is “meant to be a fun sci-fi blockbuster that nonetheless speaks to this moment in culture.”
The goal is also to launch a larger Dredd universe with potential for spinoff movies and series across multiple platforms. A recent rumor has said a Karl Urban Dredd series is in the works at Amazon.
What is the difference between the Dredd comics and the 2012 movie?
The 2012 Dredd movie captures the gritty violence and stripped-down action of the comics but leaves out much of the satirical edge and expansive world-building that define the source material.
While the film focuses on a grounded, almost claustrophobic story set entirely in a single block, the comics paint a much larger picture of Mega-City One and its bizarre, dystopian society.
The tone in the comics leans heavily into dark satire, often poking fun at authoritarianism, consumerism, and American culture, whereas the movie plays it more straight, gritty, and serious, with little of the over-the-top absurdity or black comedy that fans of the comics would recognize.
“Dredd: Love and Thunder”
Waititi is known for directing Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok and Love and Thunder. The former was a big hit and well-liked; however, the latter has been heavily rejected by the fandom. It’s thought that due to Love and Thunder bombing so badly with the fans, Waititi’s Star Wars movie is no longer happening. He’s also not returning to Marvel to direct Thor 5.
Fans are already referring to his new Dredd as “Dredd: Love and Thunder.”
