Alex Garland Writing 'Judge Dredd', Danny Boyle to Direct?

Less than a year ago it was made known that a new adaptation of the ongoing dystopian action comic Judge Dredd was in the works, which I think is fair to say came as a surprise to most everyone. Not that the comic property became a poisoned well to return to after Dredd's first trip to the big screen, the bulky 1995 critical and commercial flop starring Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider in arguably his most annoying role ever. But you gotta admit it takes cojones to willingly associate millions upon millions of dollars with a title that is most often remembered in jest. Yet comic owner Rebellion and the production company DNA Films exhibited no signs of embarrassment in making the announcement last December that they were bringing the lawgiver back.

Now, thanks to the planet's newest and most reliable source of unimpeachable news, Twitter, we know just why those two British studios are comfortable wrestling Dredd's film credibility away from the lampooning panelists of an I Love the '90s VH1 special. Comic artist Mark "Jock" Simpson laid out the good news quite simply in a tweet, "working through script visuals for JUDGE DREDD movie. Alex Garland writes a great script."

Sure, it's just a tweet, but it's still bellied with information. One, it implies the script is not only great but completed. Two, the film is in active pre-production/pre-visualization, which is farther along that most thought. Three, with The Beach, 28 Days Later and Sunshine screenwriter (and DNA Films co-founder) Alex Garland on writing duties, there is a high chance that Danny Boyle (another DNA founder) will be the director bringing the police-state vision of Judge Dredd back to life. Four, with Garland involved there's an even higher chance that, if there is an annoying Rob Schneider sidekick character, they most likely will die an agonizing death.


Obviously Boyle's directing duties are hypothetical at this point, but considering he has directed three of the five feature films Garland has written, statistically speaking he's likely to take command here as well. Plus, Garland's involvement shows that DNA Films is not merely bankrolling the production, but their principal talent are getting their hands dirty as well.

So sayeth The Twitter, and Twitter is The Law!

(Via Empire Online)