Dredd 2 probably won’t happen as screenwriter Alex Garland reveals he’s not expecting to be approached for the sequel.
It’s the film Dredd fans have been waiting for. Dredd 2 has been the focus of huge fan campaigns after the suggested sequel was reportedly canned. But while Karl Urban has been enthusiastic about the prospect, it seems that screenwriter Alex Garland isn’t quite as hopeful.
And he thinks it probably won’t happen.
During an interview with Collider, the Ex_Machina director admitted that he isn’t expecting to make the much-anticipated (but very much dead-in-the-water) Dredd sequel.
“The thing people want, which is a sequel, I don’t think is going to happen,” he said. “I think it will happen (let me rephrase that) I don’t think it’s happening with me and the people who made the last one.”
The Dredd sequel has been the subject of a strong fan campaign over at Make A Dredd Sequel. There are currently over 100,000 Facebook likes, prompting enormous sales of the film’s DVD and Blu-ray release.
But Garland has urged fans that this isn’t going to change any minds at the studio…
“I also feel a sense of responsibility because I know there are these people who do this stuff like they’ve got money and they spend money on a DVD to try and up the chance of a sequel getting made,” he said. “Because I don’t have an online profile or persona or anything like that I can’t speak to these people directly, but what I want to say is that’s so good of you, and thank you, but keep your money because the people who make the decisions don’t get moved by that kind of thing. They’re moved by other stuff, other equations, other algorithms.”
Unfortunately, it looks as though a Dredd sequel is off the table. At least, for the time being. But then, Garland isn’t exactly very positive about the original film, either.
“The Dredd thing is a surprise,” he said. “It’s a really complicated set of emotions. I have a lot of regret about how things worked out with Dredd, but it’s very gratifying. The regret it—you do a kind of transaction, particularly with the creators of it, which is that we want to do this thing and honor what you did, and try to do it properly, and then the film will reward that trust. That act of faith and trust and decency. And I think that the film rewarded them in one sense, but not in another. I do believe it rewarded them creatively, unless they’re lying to me about that.”
“I think it has created this thing of this movie that fails,” he added. “The story of Dredd is that of a failed movie. Both times, for f**k’s sake. And to be party to that, when that was exactly the intention—to not do that—is kind of difficult.”
Of course, to many fans, Dredd did exactly what it set out to accomplish. After all, it brought the much-loved 2000AD comic book into a far grittier world than the original Stallone movie. And if you ask me, it really wasn’t as bad as Garland seems to think.
Will a sequel eventually happen? I’m starting to doubt it. But part of me still wants to see Karl Urban pick up his lawgiver and don the iconic helmet once more.
Would you like to see a Dredd sequel? What did you think of Karl Urban as Dredd? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
