Pete Travis On Dredd Controversy

Listen up perps, **Dredd **is returning to Mega-City One with a tower block full of crims to deal with and a Stallone aberration to erase from the public consciousness. Happily, rumblings of a troubled collaboration between director Pete Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland on the production have been laid to rest, stopping that famous jaw from clenching just a notch tighter.

For a film with the shooting title 'Peach Trees', things were rumoured to have been pretty drokkin' far from peachy in the editing suite, but the filmmakers are now keen to set the record straight. **Empire **follows the story in the new issue, speaking to Travis, veteran of **Endgame **and Vantage Point in recent years, and producer Andrew Macdonald to get the skinny.

"It was all bollocks, really," Travis explains. "**Dredd **was always an extraordinary collaboration between lots of different people. Alex's interpretation of Dredd's world was the inspiration for me to get involved."

While Travis and Garland collaborated more closely on set than a tradititional director/writer pairing, the film's producers refute rumours that the former was given his marching orders in the editing suite. "I have no idea where that came from," says Macdonald, drawing a parallel with the TV paradigm of writer-as-showrunner. "We stand by the unusual collaboration. Everything was built around the script and the character."

Garland, meanwhile, shares some pointers on where, should **Dredd **do the requisite box office, a possible trilogy might take Mega-City One's finest. Short answer: outside Mega-City One, because "outside is this desert terrain, The Cursed Earth". And could there be a place in the story for the don of dark judges himself, Judge Death? Find in Empire's September issue.

**Dredd **slams onto our screens on September 7. Read Empire's review here.