There are two kinds of people in this world: those who think Judge Dredd should never smile, and those who think he can’t, which makes Taika Waititi an interesting choice. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Waititi is quietly shopping around a new Judge Dredd movie. Not at a Comic-Con panel. Not with some flashy viral campaign. Just the old-fashioned way: meetings, scripts, and hopefully a studio that doesn’t panic halfway through development.
Drew Pearce (Fall Guy, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) is attached to write the script. Pearce and Waititi have long been looking for a project to work on together, and landed on the third attempt to launch a successful Judge Dredd franchise.
Producers include Chris Kingsley, Jason Kingsley, Ben Smith of Rebellion Developments, Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, Jeremy Platt, Natalie Viscuso, and Pearce.
What a Taika Waititi Judge Dredd Movie Would Look Like
Waititi is no stranger to turning sacred pop culture cows into oddball art projects. He cracked open Thor like a piñata and let the glitter fly. Some fans cheered. Others muttered about tonal whiplash. So the idea of him helming Dredd, a character known for his grimace and his enthusiastic enforcement of fascist order, is, at best, a creative gamble. But it might actually pay off, assuming the story leans into the biting satire of the original 2000 AD comics instead of just going for surface-level brutality.
This isn’t the first time Dredd has circled the cinematic drain. Stallone’s 1995 attempt was a neon mess of missed opportunity. The 2012 reboot, simply titled Dredd, was critically praised but buried under weak marketing and an R rating that scared off the multiplex crowd. Since then, fans have been left in a kind of cursed limbo. Always hoping. Always let down. So when someone like Waititi shows interest, it matters. Even if you’re rolling your eyes.
The thing is, Waititi actually gets dystopia. Jojo Rabbit danced on a razor’s edge of satire and sincerity. If this new Dreddfinds the same balance, using humor to point at horror without flinching, it could be the version we’ve been waiting for. Or at least one that doesn’t get pulled after two weeks in theaters.
For now, the project is still looking for a home. No green light. No cast. Just a filmmaker with a script and a very tall order. But if anyone’s going to take a boot to the face of modern comic adaptations and do something unexpected, it’s probably the guy who once gave Hitler imaginary best friend status.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s what the law needs right now.
