Taika Waititi is heading to Mega-City One.
The filmmaker behind Thor: Ragnarok and Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit has signed on to direct a new feature film adaptation of Judge Dredd, the iconic and ultra-violent British comic book antihero.
Teaming up with Waititi is screenwriter Drew Pearce (The Fall Guy, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation), who will pen the script. The duo, longtime friends and lifelong fans of the Dredd comics, have reportedly been looking for the right project to collaborate on—and now they’ve found it.
The film is being produced by Dredd rights holders Chris Kingsley, Jason Kingsley, and Ben Smith of Rebellion Developments, alongside Roy Lee (Vertigo Entertainment), Jeremy Platt, Natalie Viscuso, and Pearce.
Created in the late 1970s by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, Judge Dredd first appeared in the British weekly anthology 2000 AD. Set in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One, Dredd is part of a brutal law enforcement system that gives officers the authority to act as judge, jury, and executioner. The character was conceived as a satire of authoritarian justice and has since become a pop culture phenomenon, spawning countless comics, novels, games—and even commemorative postage stamps. To date, over 100 million Dredd comics and graphic novels have been sold worldwide.
Hollywood first brought the character to the big screen in 1995, with action legend Sylvester Stallone in the lead role. That version, however, was panned by critics. A more grounded and faithful 2012 reboot, Dredd, starring Karl Urban and written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later), was far better received and has since gained cult status.
Plot details for the new film are being kept tightly under wraps, but sources say the approach draws heavily from the original comics. Expect an expansive vision with rich world-building, biting dark humor, and timely cultural commentary—all wrapped in a high-energy sci-fi blockbuster package.
The project is also being developed as a potential launchpad for a larger Judge Dredd universe, with ambitions for spinoff films and streaming series to follow.
SOURCE: THR
