Alex Garland Once Pitched a Judge Death Movie Script to Fox
While we wait with baited breath for a Dredd sequel, John Wagner, who co-created the character, had some interesting things to say at the 2000 AD 2000th Issue Celebration event. Speaking to Screen Geek, he was optimistic that a sequel will happen, and also revealed that Ex Machina director Alex Garland had actually written a screenplay for a film focusing on Judge Death. He pitched it to 20th Century Fox, who unfortunately passed. Wagner was quoted as saying:
I wouldn’t mind seeing that. That was actually the first script that Alex Garland did was a Judge Death script but Fox, who they were dealing with at the time, turned it down. They wanted more nuts and bolts before they went into the [metaphysical].
The leader of the Dark Judges, Judge Death is essentially the Joker to Dredd’s Batman. Evil and sadistic, he believes that life itself is a crime, the penalty for which is death. He eventually uses dark magic to transform himself into a hideous, nearly immortal creature in his quest to eradicate life as we know it.
Whilst it’s unfortunate that Garland’s script wasn’t picked up, we’re hoping that he shows up to menace Dredd if a sequel does indeed go into production. He was also the focus of Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe animated spinoff film Superfiend, which you can enjoy below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usKo1IaTHjA]
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