After the immense success of his feature debut “Moon” and his anticipated follow up in “Source Code” around the corner, Duncan Jones is already making his mark in the world of science fiction.
The director now adds that he was interested in helming the forthcoming 3D “Judge Dredd” film but passed due to the inability to tackle the character in his own unique way.
“I would have loved to do the ‘Judge Dredd’ movie that is underway,” Jones told his ManMadeMoon blog. “I was in fact sent the script to look at. It’s a great script, and I hope I will not rue the decision of passing on it. Thing was, I had such a strong idea of what I wanted to do with a Dredd movie, I could not bring myself to take it on and not do it my way!”
The current project has Pete Travis (“Vantage Point”) at the helm, who recently offered the titular role to actor Karl Urban and already has an action-heavy, intense script by Alex Garland (Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” & “Sunshine”) in place that’s reportedly “100% faithful to the source material” created by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra and Pat Mills for 2000AD. You can read our review of the script, which drew comparisons to “Die Hard” and “Blade Runner” right here.
Jones’ take on the character? “My Dredd would have been really weird, and dark and funny, but not your traditional introduction to a hero character. I don’t even know if I could have made my version of the film pitch-able. It was maybe too off the wall.” We’re kind of glad Jones didn’t take this up though — if he’s going to do retreaded sci-fi, we’d probably prefer his original “Blade Runner”-inspired tale “Mute,” which was one of the contenders to follow up “Moon.”
