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Taika Waititi to take on new Judge Dredd movie

Taika Waititi to take on new Judge Dredd movie

The Guardian6 days ago
Oscar-winner Taika Waititi is set to take on a new Judge Dredd movie.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the writer-director will take the reins of the latest attempt to bring the comic book character to the screen with Drew Pearce set to take on the script.
Pearce's credits include Iron Man 3, Hobbs & Shaw and The Fall Guy. He has also written the script for a new take on The Thomas Crown Affair led by Michael B Jordan.
Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that both Waititi and Pearce were childhood fans of the character. In a 2022 interview, Waititi name-checked Judge Dredd as an influence on his Marvel films.
Judge Dredd is a law enforcement officer working in a dystopian society who first appeared in British publication 2000 AD in the late 70s. In 1995, Sylvester Stallone played him in a film that underperformed at the box office and received negative reviews. The character was brought back in 2012 and played by Karl Urban in the Alex Garland-scripted Dredd which received stronger notices, but was also a commercial disappointment.
The new version is reportedly more faithful to the original comics and will lean into dark humour. The aim is to kick off a new universe that could expand to both the big and small screen.
New Zealand-born Waititi won the Oscar for best original screenplay for his second world war comedy Jojo Rabbit and has also directed two Thor sequels.
His last film, fact-based football comedy Next Goal Wins, was a critical and financial failure. His next is an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun starring Amy Adams and Jenna Ortega. Last year saw reports that he was looking to team up with Steven Spielberg for an adaptation of Percival Everett's Pulitzer prize-winning novel James.
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Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer Roy Black dies after illness at age 80
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Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer Roy Black dies after illness at age 80

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Ozzy's unforgettable prediction to me about life after his death
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time11 minutes ago

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I was a late-night writer. Colbert's cancellation hurts American comedy – and sanity
I was a late-night writer. Colbert's cancellation hurts American comedy – and sanity

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time11 minutes ago

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I was a late-night writer. Colbert's cancellation hurts American comedy – and sanity

Last week – just a few days after Stephen Colbert called out his parent company for paying Donald Trump millions of dollars – CBS canceled the Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Maybe now people will finally stop saying Trump is good for comedy. In this latest Trump administration, I often joke that I'm just not cut out for being this furious all the time. I'm a comedy writer. I'm built for naming dogs Doctor Reginald Pancakes and writing sentences like 'Every woman's deodorant is called Delicate Whisper and every man's deodorant is called Beef Shazam!' I get that there's nothing more annoying than a comedian getting all serious, and yet here we are. So first, let's address the obvious: was the cancellation for political reasons or, as the network claims, for 'purely financial' reasons. My answer? Yes. The problem is we keep treating those like they're separate things. CBS isn't ending the show for 10 months. They could have made the announcement whenever they wanted. But they chose to tell Stephen Colbert, host of the highest-rated network late night show, just 48 hours after he called Paramount's payment to Trump a 'big fat bribe'. They chose to cancel the Peabody award-winning show in the midst of an attempt to sell Paramount to a company called Skydance, a merger that has to be approved by the Trump administration. They chose to tell Colbert they were canceling his show, one day after the CEO of Skydance met with the FCC and discussed 'CBS's editorial decision-making'. Basically, if the decision wasn't political, then Paramount sure is happy to let it look political, and at that point there's no meaningful difference. Whether the network canceled the Late Show to appease Trump or not, they did it knowing he'd think so. CBS wants it both ways. They want the viewers to believe they're an unbiased network and they want Trump to think they'll do anything he wants. So that's what I think as a human being who lives in this world right now. But, as a comedy writer who wrote for late night TV for almost a decade? Well, I can't stop thinking about the jokes. This cancellation is really sad to me because I believe in the power of jokes. True story: once a guy was mugging me and he started punching me in the face. I told a joke and he STOPPED PUNCHING ME. That is the power of jokes. (No, I will not tell you the joke. Because I'd say it and then you'd be all 'C'mon, it's not that funny' and then I'd have to be all: 'No, you had to be there. It's not as funny when you aren't punching me in the face.') The thing about jokes is that they require a shared base of knowledge. A shared reality. If I tell a joke about a commercial and you've never seen that commercial, the joke isn't going to go over very well. Losing late night shows is one more step toward losing a shared reality, and that to me is terrifying. There is a moment every New Yorker knows. 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And for our leaders? The ability to take a joke matters. If our corporate overlords and representatives in government can't handle being joked about on late night TV, we don't need new shows. We need new leaders. In this current system – with a Congress and a supreme court who want nothing more than to cater to Trump's every whim – we don't have a lot of options to hold our leaders accountable. In a free society, joking about our leaders isn't just helpful or fun, it's vital. For me, this isn't just about Colbert. (I met him once. In 2014, the day Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was set to tape our first show, Colbert came to our office and went from room to room to congratulate each member of the staff and to wish us luck. It was a kind gesture that I'll long remember.) It's not just about his staff – a couple hundred people who in my experience are thoughtful, hilarious, ridiculously competent people at the top of their game. It's not even just about the humiliating weakness the television networks continue to display as the president sues them into silence. It's about the jokes. We need the jokes. Because this country could really use a break from getting punched in the face. Jill Twiss has won multiple Emmys and Peabody awards as a senior writer on HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and a staff writer on The Amber Ruffin Show

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