Earlier this month DREDD producer Adi Shankar explained what needs to happen in order for a sequel to get made, but screenwriter Alex Garland doesn't believe DREDD 2 is going to happen. Garland's first film as a director EX MACHINA opens next month, and during a conversation with Collider said if there is going to be another DREDD movie it is very unlikely he will be involved.
How can I say this without being soppy? It’s touching. It means something that these people support the film in that way, but the thing people want, which is a sequel, I don’t think is going to happen. I think it will happen (let me rephrase that) I don’t think it’s happening with me and the people who made the last one.
Alex Garland went on to thank DREDD fans campaigning for a sequel, however he wants them to stop wasting their money.
And I also feel a sense of responsibility because I know there are these people who do this stuff like they’ve got money and they spend money on a DVD to try and up the chance of a sequel getting made. Because I don’t have an online profile or persona or anything like that I can’t speak to these people directly, but what I want to say is that’s so good of you, and thank you, but keep your money because the people who make the decisions don’t get moved by that kind of thing. They’re moved by other stuff, other equations, other algorithms.
Garland also talked about his overall feelings concerning DREDD.
The ‘Dredd’ thing is a surprise. It’s a really complicated set of emotions. I have a lot of regret about how things worked out with ‘Dredd,’ but it’s very gratifying. The regret it – you do a kind of transaction, particularly with the creators of it, which is that we want to do this thing and honor what you did, and try to do it properly, and then the film will reward that trust. That act of faith and trust and decency. And I think that the film rewarded them in one sense, but not in another. I do believe it rewarded them creatively, unless they’re lying to me about that. But I think it has created this thing of this movie that fails. The story of ‘Dredd’ is that of a failed movie. Both times, for f**k’s sake. And to be party to that, when that was exactly the intention—to not do that – is kind of difficult.
Although DREDD 2 is probably dead, Alex Garland's EX MACHINA looks fantastic, and I think that he has a very bright future ahead of him behind the camera. Still sucks we won't be getting a DREDD sequel from Garland, but it is what it is, and I'm ready to move on.
EX MACHINA will be in theaters on April 10, 2015.