Fans of the comic book character Judge Dredd just can’t win. They already had to suffer through the 1995 Sylvester Stallone version (which was garbage… and I tend to like even Stallone’s worst movies), and now it seems that the upcoming reboot starring Karl Urban (simply titled Dredd) by director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) is facing drama of it’s own. According to the Los Angeles Times, though shooting has been completed producers Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, and Allon Reich have removed Travis from the film and Garland is now editing the movie and will possibly seek a co-director credit.
The Times article says that the fallout has come out of “creative differences” but doesn’t elaborate. Obviously whatever the disagreement was over was significant enough to squeeze Travis out though. If Garland does put in a bid to be billed co-director he’ll likely have to reshoot a significant portion of the film in order for the request to be seriously considered (think Richard Lester refilming scenes already shot by Richard Donner for Superman II in order to receive directing credit).
Curiously the original Judge Dredd also featured behind-the-scenes drama as the studio pushed for a PG-13 rated film — to maximize toy sales, what else? — but the film was complete so late in the game that there was no time to trim it from its R rating. Whatever the producers of this version might be feeling, I certainly hope it’s not along the same lines. After all, Judge Dredd — a character which has existed since the late 1970s — definitely deserves better.
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