Before making his directorial debut Ex Machina, which was followed by this year’s Annihilation, Alex Garland wrote a handful of notable films, including the badass 2012 version of Dredd. Garland was also a producer on the film, and we had heard in the past that he was heavily involved during filming. But did Garland… direct?
Speaking with Joblo, Dredd star Karl Urban held nothing back, dropping the bombshell that Garland actually directed Dredd, not credited director Pete Travis.
“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,” Urban told the site.
He continued, “I just hope when people think of Alex Garland’s filmography that Dredd is the first film that he made before Ex Machina. You think about it in those terms; it goes Dredd, Ex Machina, Annihilation.”
Urban also told the site that he still hopes to reprise the role of Judge Dredd in the upcoming live-action television series “Judge Dredd: Mega-City One.”
“There’s so much interest in that particular character and I would dearly love to have the opportunity to get in there and play that again,” said Urban. “There are so many wonderful stories in the 2000 A.D./Judge Dredd canon that we’d be remiss not to have the opportunity to tell them. If it were up to me personally we would have been making Dredd 2 two years ago.”
“The rights holders are in their process of developing their show called Mega City One and we’ve had many discussions and the ball’s in their court,” he added. “Hopefully, they get it together and are able to deliver more of what the audience wants and it would certainly be a privilege and a pleasure to be a part of it.”
