28 Days LaterwriterAlex Garlandhas revealed that his first directing job was notEx Machina, but a 2012 sci-fi movie that he ghost directed. Garland rose to fame with his 1996 novelThe Beach, which was adapted into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and directed by Danny Boyle. Garland also achieved prominence through his collaboration with the latter, writing two ofBoyle’s best movies,28 Days LaterandSunshine. He has also scripted the movieNever Let Me Go, and re-teamed with Boyle for the upcoming28 Years Later, and its sequel.
Garland made his directorial debut with 2014’s science-fiction filmEx Machina, starring Alicia Vikander and Domhnall Gleeson. He also wrote and directed the science-fiction horrorAnnihilation, the folk horror movieMen, and the two acclaimed war moviesWarfareandCivil War. However,Garland had directing experience prior toEx Machina, when it was revealed that he ghost directed a critically acclaimed $41.5 million 2012 sci-fi action movie for which he also wrote the screenplay.
Garland Cut His Directing Teeth With Dredd
The Karl Urban Comic Book Adaptation Was Plagued With Post-Production Problems
Dreddwas the second movie adaptation of the Judge Dredd comics, following the much-maligned 1995 Sylvester Stallone movieJudge Dredd.DreddstarredThe Boys' Karl Urban in the titular role, and was directed by Pete Travis, from a screenplay by Garland. However, post-production was a fraught process, with Travis reportedly frozen out of the editing process, following alleged disagreements with the producers.
In an interview withGQ,Garland reveals that he ghost directed onDredd, taking over from Travis, and discusses how the influence of showrunners in TV was impacting filmmaking at that time. While this was an important experience for Garland,he was weary of the chaotic process that came from switching directors, calling it"ridiculous.“He praises Travis, who he says was put in an"impossible situation.“Check out Garland’s comments below.
In truth, what happened, just to be candid about it, look, a lot of time has passed, I did end up on some films essentially doing ghost-directing. In TV, the writer/showrunner has the kind of authorship button handed to them, and in film, it’s the director who has that. They can’t both be true simultaneously.
Television is not so much different from film that magically it’s the writer/showrunner and now magically it’s the director, and some people I’m working with, their principle was ‘Well, why don’t we take that concept from television and use it in film.’ For complicated reasons that just didn’t work. It just created a bloody mess.
Within this is a disservice to Pete Travis, who is the credited director, who did some fundamental/crucial things, and he deserves that title. He was put in an absolutely impossible situation, and retrospectively, the longer I’ve worked, the more ridiculous I think it was. After the experience of making ‘Dredd’, what I said is I’m not doing that again. Just let me do that job, let’s simplify this.
What This Means For Garland’s Future Filmography
The Experience Paved The Way For Garland To Become A Writer-Director
The chaotic and muddled process ofDreddcould well be what inspired Garland to become a writer-director. Since his work on that movie, he has directed every film he has written to this point, andGarland’s strong filmographyshows that his decision to move into directing his own scripts was the right one. The experience with ghost directing onDreddprobably showedGarlandthat he could protect himself creatively by directing his own scripts, and helped ensure that he wouldn’t find himself in a similar situation toDreddagain.
Dredd
Cast
Based on the comic character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, Dredd is a sci-fi action movie that stars Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, a law enforcement officer who can commute sentences as quickly as he issues them. Set in a dystopian New York-like city called Mega-City One, Dredd is tasked with hunting down a drug lord who controls a massive 200-story apartment complex named Ma-Ma, pushing a new addictive drug called “Slo-Mo” that has become widely used in the slums.
