As we've opined before, Dredd was a tough, sinewy sci-fi thriller that didn't get half the credit it deserved when it originally landed in cinemas and is only now being appreciated for what it was.
Karl Urban gave one of his most compelling performances as Judge Dredd, and although the film did share some glancing similarities with Indonesian actioner The Raid, it was pretty unique. How often did you see a sci-fi film that was this angry, this brutal and this entertaining? Anyway, in a recent interview with JoBlo, Karl Urban spoke about the film and admitted one of the most open secrets of Hollywood in quite a while - namely, that Alex Garland directed Dredd.
"I would love to have the opportunity to play Dredd again, but if it doesn’t happen then I’m happy with the fact that we’ve made a film that has become a cult classic and that people have discovered over time. A huge part of the success of Dredd is in fact due to Alex Garland and what a lot of people don’t realize is that Alex Garland actually directed that movie."
Garland's official, credited debut was the brainy sci-fi chamber drama Ex Machina with our Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander, but Dredd was in fact his first foray into directing - just without his name attached. The story goes, according to Collider, that the credited director on Dredd - Pete Travis - was effectively locked out of the editing suite for the film over disagreements with the studio and producers.
By the end, Garland and Travis released a joint statement which said that the film was a collaborative effort, but stopped short of Garland getting a co-director's credit. So, what does this all have to do with the price of tea in China? Not a whole lot, really. It tells us, obviously, that Garland was a talented director from the start and we knew that already. Other than that, all this does is make us pine for a Dredd sequel, or failing that, a Dredd TV series with Urban in the helmet and Garland behind the camera.
Via JoBlo / Collider