News on the new Judge Dredd film has been quietly building momentum for the last few months.
Now it appears Star Trek and Lord of the Rings star Karl Urban will be offered the title role of Dredd in the forthcoming film.
Pete Travis is scheduled to direct the $50 million movie this fall, so they do need to start casting soon – and Urban definitely has the build and acting chops to play the gritty anti-hero.
According to Bleeding Cool, one major contract provision is that Dredd will not take off his helmet – the entire film. Considering Urban isn’t a huge star, though he’s been in plenty of huge franchises, there’s a good chance he’ll be fine playing a helmeted-Dredd (unlike the 1995 Sylvester Stallone film).
Though Urban will be offered the role, it’s unknown whether he’ll take it. His duties as Bones McCoy in the Star Trek sequel may just take him out of the running. Trek 2 which will be filming next summer, if producer Bryan Burk is to be believed. However, a summer Trek shoot might be perfect for Judge Dredd with Urban.
The Play List recently reviewed the Judge Dredd script, penned by 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland, and said the film sounded like a “vertical 16 Blocks” or “Die Hard taking place within the world of Blade Runner.” While the script isn’t perfect, it succeeds in one of the most important aspects of any good Dredd story – its gritty and violent.
Will Urban take the role if his schedule permits? In my opinion, he’d be crazy if he passes. The Judge Dredd reboot could provide Urban with his own headline franchise (something that Star Trek isn’t).
We’ll have more on Judge Dredd as we get it.
Sources: Bleeding Cool
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good casting choice here
He’d be great in the role, however, if this in anyway might affect his screen time in Star Trekm, then I’d rather he didnt accept the role. Everybody in Star Trek was great, but he really knocked his performance out of the park.
Yeah.
Interesting choice.
I had been thinking of Aaron Eckhart for the role (because of the chin ;P) but I like Karl Urban as an actor…
Can I see him as Joe Dredd though? Well no, but he got Bones bang on and I couldn’t imagine that prior to seeing it either. Really interesting…
Well my wife salivates every she sees him so if he does there is another fan roped into Comic movies.
Until she finds out he doesn’t take his helmet off…. bwahahahaha.
Good choice IMO he is big he can act (enough for the part) and was his screen tim ereally that much in ST? Not that it wont expand in ST2 just saing he would ahve time to hopefully do both.
Love him but he’d need a prosthetic chin.
Really that’s what I was thinking. I also wonder though if you have to go that far, what does Urban have to offer the role, and by extension the audience? A lot of what he can do will be relied upon to be carried out by his voice and whatever physical character he can interject to flesh out Dredd. While I respect Urban’s talent I hope they test a few young Shakespearian actors, just to get a read on what he’s going to do for us…
Isn’t the comparison to 16 BLOCKS a bad thing? I thought most poeple did NOT like 16 blocks.
I quite liked 16 Blocks apart from the whiny character, very annoying. If I was Willis I’d have let him get fragged…
If the helmet stays on (and it should) then why bother with a well-known actor at all? Find a good unknown actor who fits the role instead of shoehorning it around a famous actor.
Urban’s not exactly famous. The only people who actually know his name are LOTR and Star Trek fans, so I’d say he fits the bill. He’s certainly got the acting chops.
Semi-famous then (Pathfinder, Chronicles of Riddick, Doom etc) so high-profile enough to cost a bit but not enough to open a movie…
The point being that his fee will still be in the (high?) millions but all you’ll see of him are his chin and his posture. I’m sure they could get an actor of equal ability who isn’t as well known (not famous though
) and since you bring up LOTR there were a lot of less well known actors (such as Urban) who were excellent and I think that is the way forward. There is a mass of talent out there that never gets used because it’s easier (and safer) to just attach an established actor.
Don’t get me wrong, I like him and he’s a good actor but to play Dredd I don’t think he’s necessary. That’s all citizen!
“I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground. ”
Love that line of his from LOTR : TT . I like Urban and think he is underrated in action roles.
I do not doubt his heart…only the reach of his arm
Great film and actor. I believe Karl can do this; he has the acting ability, build and can definitely do gritty roles.
Another great line … he is a bad@$$ in most of his films..If he does this I will definitely watch..
Dont know much about Urban but he needs to take this role
Yeah I like this.
wow…great casting choice. Im game. To be honest i knew very little about Judge Dredd before the movie came out in 95…truth be told dident the movie make Dredd more popular? I thought for early comic book movies it wasnt bad at all…especially when Dredd fought the cannibals lol.
Yup Urban would do well in the role, so long as the movie does good.
I disagree with this choice. Look he was great as Bones in ST because he was only on screen for about 11 minutes. How hard is it to nail the one dimensional Bones character anyway? I think this is one time (mainly cause they want to keep the helmet on) where you need a well known actor with a personality that “bleeds” through the visor. I would go with an older actor on this one. I totally think Peter Weller or Michael Madsen could pull this off.
Bones is hardly a one dimensional character!
Madsen is too old and fat, Weller’s too old as well (but could do a mean Chief Judge Griffin or Volt).
Anyways, someone (relatively) unknown with a great chin and a good voice will do.
All depends on WHEN the movie is supposed to take place though.
Sounds good!!!!
I’ve read story outline and it sounds pretty awful.
The plot sounds like a rip-off of Escape From New York. Dredd has to find a perp, escape block before the gangs and warlord kills him. That’s more or less identical to Escape From New York. That was a great film back in its day but Dredd doesn’t need to copy that.
Slo-mo sounds like bullet time from The Matrix. Again, rip-off.
Ma-Ma sounds a terrible name for the villain. The Dredd comic strip has had great bad guy names: Judge Death, Father Earth, The Angel Gang, Sabbat, Orlok the assassin, Trapper Hag etc. But the main perp in the film is called Ma-Ma. Is this some bad joke?
We’ve also got the comments “video game simplistic” and “generic.” Hardly positive terms! Who knows, maybe the action will be good but the storyline sounds very unoriginal and not worthy of Dredd. I’d like to see something more original like Dredd’s Graveyard Shift story or The Hunter’s Club. That would be amazing.
As for Urban as Dredd, well if the story is generic and video game simplistic, who cares who plays Dredd? The film will suck no matter who has the role.
Don’t forget Captain Skank and Call-Me-Kenneth, dreddhead! On a similar note, “Peach Tree Block”??? What happened to naming them after people (Burt Reynolds/Charlton Heston/Roddy McDowall Block etc etc)?
Also, the Psi-Judges are a separate division altogether and a breed apart. Judge Anderson as a female sidekick with a few “special abilities that the Chief Judge thinks could be very useful”? Seriously? This is the equivalent of the 1995 movie missing the whole point of the SJS as an elite Gestapo-type outfit, and instead just making them stormtrooper/drone/cannon-fodder “Judge Hunters”. Which was both lazy, idiotic AND confusing for anyone unfamiliar with Dredd before they saw the film.
Not to mention Dredd’s own quarters in Rowdy Yates Block!
“Don’t forget Captain Skank and Call-Me-Kenneth, dreddhead! On a similar note, “Peach Tree Block”??? What happened to naming them after people (Burt Reynolds/Charlton Heston/Roddy McDowall Block etc etc)?”
The whole project sounds lame. John Wagner (creator and writer of Dredd) should write the screenplay. Why not use The Mega Rackets storyline? Dredd vs mobsters. That would have lots of weird crimes. All Garland has done is shoehorn Dredd’s world into Escape From New York – which was spoofed by Wagner in a Dredd story called ‘Escape From Kurt Russell Block’.
The latest script review says (direct quote)
“”the only similarity (to Die Hard) is that most of it takes place with them trapped in a building”
Wow – what an imagination Garland has.
All those stories to be inspired by and he comes up with “trapped in a building.” Lame
I think you’re spot-on about the Escape From NY plot (I haven’t read the spoof – Kurt Russell Block is priceless). As you say, there are so many incredible, epic storylines from the comics to go with; it’s as if he’s chosen to adapt a forgotten page-filler from one of the Annuals, drawn by somebody you’ve never heard of.
And mucking about with the nature of Anderson’s character now will automatically affect how the Judge Death storyline might be handled (a) if it’s ever dealt with, and (b) if this one earns a sequel in the first place.
Also, “…plays the world we’re in as a realistic future…” Take a look at Dredd’s uniform, man! It should be a gloriously, insanely UNrealistic future. Twelve serious crimes reported every minute? Twelve bizarre murders committed by hellish mutant cyborgs, more like.
The budget is 50 million, not 200 million so it would be impossible to do the big epics, however, I’m sure a 50 million dollar budget would allow something more ‘Dredd-specific’ than an Escape From New York plot (which is what the story outline is about).
The outline is:Dredd has to find a perp, go up 200 levels of the block and escape before some crazy warlord and gang kill him. More or less identical to Escape From New York – just with different locations and a perp instead of the President of the USA.
It’s easier to make a film about Dredd and Anderson trapped in one place because it’s all interior filming, less CGI, less green screen composites. The question Rebellion have to ask themselves is:
“Is Garland’s story ambitious enough? Is it the best story or perhaps there’s a better storyline which can be done for the same amount of money?”
With the film scheduled to shoot in November, time is running out. It may be impossible to stop the film, change the script, hire John Wagner to write a more ambitious, expansive story. I guess so.
Rebellion made a mistake because they should have insisted Wagner write the screenplay. When DNA Films acquired the option to make a new Dredd film, one of the conditions should have been John Wagner writes the screenplay or the story on which the screenplay is based. That way Rebellion would be secure in the knowledge the story is true to Dredd’s world. Wagner wouldn’t have stuck Dredd in one block. I’m sure he would have used parts of the city, made it feel like a proper Dredd film. Sadly, Rebellion didn’t insist upon that, they had to go with Alex Garland, a writer closely linked to DNA Films. He’s come up with an unambitious sounding plot, one which has been described as “video game simplistic” and “generic.”
I’m sure the film will be better than the Stallone one, but it does feel as if Rebellion and DNA Films are making the same mistakes again by ignoring the original Dredd writers – Wagner and Grant – and thinking they know better. From the sound of Garland’s plot, I don’t think they do know better.
Agreed – it’s a budgetary compromise. Mega-City One is as much a character as Dredd himself. Short-change the audience on that and they’ve shot themselves in the foot right from the outset.
Is it possible that this stories intend could somehow fit into the block wars storyline? I know on the surface it seems pretty lame to be an entry story in that line but perhaps it’s not fully fleshed out. Doing a one shot like this without an arc seems pretty under confident of the potential. That’s maddening. Perhaps the ideal one shot would be ‘Judgment at Gotham.’ That would so make for an interesting out for Warner’s Nolan/Batman issues. Since it’s a time/universe warp story casting someone different for Batman that could realign the Batman world to be more amenable to Superman’s world, could so work it all together and have the potential to propel Judge Dredd’s world into the American popular movie consciousness. You see Nolan’s universe stays intact. A dead end pocket for our “the real” world’s Batman story, Plus if Warner was involved the budget would get expanded, but then you would have Warner management to deal with. Probably not good, but perhaps the pain would be worth it for the reward.
I can see them using the Block Wars scenario as some kind of sketchy background thing like the 1995 movie did, but as dreddhead points out above, I think it’s more to do with budget constraints. Within that they’ve even massively decreased the Block size (200 floors might get you to the lobby of the comic ones).
Judgment On Gotham is definitely thinking outside the box! Wouldn’t really be the one you’d want Judge Death appearing for the first time in though – he’s treated too much like the comic relief. Much of the dynamic of Anderson acting as peacekeeper between Batman and Dredd depends on her and Dredd having more history than just being a rookie with a few untested powers, as well.
“Doing a one shot like this without an arc seems pretty under confident of the potential. That’s maddening. ”
I think Dredd – as a film property – is a bit intimidating. The scale is so big, Mega-City 1 isn’t Gotham or New York or Metropolis, it’s this vast sprawling crazy city of the future. It’s sort of Blade Runner magnified many times. 50 million dollars is a lot to us mere mortals but compared to the average Hollywood blockbuster it’s not that much.
I think Rebellion and DNA have thought “how do we do this for 50 million, it is possible? and they went the ‘safe’ route. Use an old film as inspiration – Escape From New York – stick it in Dredd’s world, put Dredd and Anderson in one block – and hope fans and movie goers accept it! It’s the safe unimaginative way of doing it. A more imaginative approach could be more risky but creatively more rewarding.
Yeah I realize the city is like what, a third of the U.S.? So moving the story along, it would be easy to get crushed under set expense, even if you resorted to the virtual sets and red cameras that shows like “Sanctuary” are doing. That’s why it would make sense to name the film series something like “Judge Dredd: Special Chronicle.” If “Judgment On Gotham” is too ambitious then focus on a story that really means something to the fans of the comics, that has the potential to capture the imagination of everyone else. An anthology that brings understanding to the uninitiated, and gives the fans some of the best of the comics would be a possible winner. Curious if they even considered it?
In the end though your right Wagner should have been the one to do a script. Lets hope they have something that’s popular enough to show everyone the great potential. They could do much worse than “Escape from New York” they could have tried using “Escape from LA!” Hopefully they’ll make some real cash and encourage a bigger budget next time…
Yeah, MC-1 is supposed to cover the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States, population 400 million. Likewise, they shaved that down by a huge degree for the original movie and took no risks with the architecture either. It’s frightening to think they might not have the money to capture even that visual level this time around, though obviously there’ll be more CGI available.
I’ve said this before, but as much as I didn’t care for The Fifth Element, the chaotic scale of the city in that was much closer to how I pictured MC-1. The lunatic costumes too.
What tone to take with the storyline and the character of Dredd is also (clearly) a problem for any filmmaker. Hero or Nazi joke figure? Dark satire or light-hearted action-adventure? Sci-fi drama or gritty shoot-’em-up? The Stallone version couldn’t even decide whether it wanted to steal its thunder back from Robocop, and at the moment this one doesn’t look a whole heap different.
I see your points Big D, was curious whether the script could be doctored at minimal cost. Either what happens is a catalyst for something within the Block wars or the start of the block wars, or something to give it a more original feel…
I have the screenplay. For real. It’s just Die Hard in a block. The screenplay has been posted on Judge Dredd 2012 IMD board. Here is the download link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=THVZVTPH
It’s insanely unoriginal. Breathtakingly so. Based on what I’ve read, I will give it 4 out of 10.
Nice one, I’ll check that out tomorrow! Past my bedtime now…
Based on what I’ve read so far, almost three quarters, it’s very unoriginal. It’s Die Hard set in a block. It really is that. If you like that sort of thing you may enjoy it.
It’s not the worst thing you’ll ever read, Dredd’s actual character seems close to Wagner’s version, but overall the story is devoid of imagination, of exploiting Dredd’s world. As the screenplay for a ‘proper Dredd film’ it’s a big disappointment. Garland has missed out on so much potential. If you look at it as a cliched action screenplay clearly apeing Die Hard, and don’t expect too much, it may appeal to some Dredd fans and general film goers.
If you belong to Internet Movie Database you can read my full review there, on the Judge Dredd 2012 board:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343727/board/thread/167677993
Feedback on screenplay – if people have read it – are welcome. Like to know what fans thought of it.
Oh dear.
Yup, it’s Dredd on a shoestring. Bargain-basement, minor-episode Dredd. I’d agree with every word of your review there. The characterisations of him and Anderson are actually not bad – you wouldn’t want Dredd doing much more than that emotionally – but the story is nothing we haven’t seen before a hundred times. Slo-mo is a rip-off of Nuke from Robocop 2, ironically enough; even more so Muscle from Logan’s Run:
“Drugpads materialized. The cubs squeezed the pads, inhaled the Muscle. They shimmered into kaleidoscopic blurs, into weaving color patterns. Here. There. They were everywhere.”
The problem with a drug that dilates time to that extent is that the user’s actions and reflexes would have to appear sped-up to the observer, or it just makes no sense. Driving a car on the stuff would be impossible otherwise.
The swearing sounded plain ODD (if BSG can get away with “frak”, I see no reason why “drokk” can’t make an appearance), as did just throwing in Block Sternhammer and Block Tom Frame. Why reverse the words? Why isn’t it Block Peach Tree in that case? And why those two guys? Is Garland just into Strontium Dog and letterers? And Mega-City One is full of flying vehicles: why didn’t firefighters and a wagonload of Judges simply enter the building through the hole Dredd blew in the wall fifty floors up?
Ah, those buildings…
“Brutal concrete monoliths, jutting out of pollution haze.” 1995 all over again. Other than cereal box shapes being quicker, easier and cheaper to render in CGI than organic curves, I absolutely guarantee his excuse for that will be that all the artists drew it differently in the comics, there’s no one style blah blah
BEEHIVE BUILDINGS, you fool.
“America is an irradiated wasteland. A Cursed Earth in which a single outpost of civilisation remains. Stretching from Boston to Washington…” So the West Coast didn’t make it then, Alex? Guess we won’t be seeing the actual Cursed Earth storyline (Damnation Alley with added robots, cloned dinosaurs, alien aardvarks and Burger Wars between Ronald McDonald and the Burger King, for those unfamiliar) anytime soon. And thanks for halving the size of the city. Again.
From that ever-difficult grab-bag of approaches, it looks like this time around we have “gritty sci-fi shoot-’em-up”. And not a lot else. I suppose I should be grateful we’re getting a second shot at a Dredd movie at all, but I’d rather not find myself in the position of looking back on the first effort with a sense of wistful nostalgia. That’d be a crime in itself.
Many thanks for putting up that link and your review, dreddhead. That’s at least some of my tooth enamel saved from grinding when this does eventually show up in a cinema!
“The manufacturing base starts disintegrating. Amidst the glass vapourising, wood splintering, and metal puncturing -”
Alex. Where’s wood coming from in this city? Bloody Peach Tree Block indeed…
I’d be fascinated to know what people who hadn’t read much of the comic book Dredd made of that screenplay as well. Those who’ve maybe only seen the original movie, or who don’t know the character at all but do like Karl Urban. Can you see him in this? Any thoughts?
It’s only a minor point (or is it..?): “pollution haze”. As far as I’m aware there’s no organic fuel in MC1. Dredd’s Lawmaster is powered by a miniature reactor of some kind, and in one of the earliest stories he shoots a citizen for driving an illegal petrol vehicle.
Or blows his car up, I forget which. Probably both.
Your review of the screenplay seems to mirror my views, The Big Dentist.
“I suppose I should be grateful we’re getting a second shot at a Dredd movie at all, but I’d rather not find myself in the position of looking back on the first effort with a sense of wistful nostalgia. That’d be a crime in itself.”
LOL.
The leak of the screenplay may be a good thing. The producers will read some of the feedback and take note. I don’t know if the screenplay will be changed much, seems unlikely, as the core structure of the story is Dredd and Anderson stuck in a MC-1 block. It would be hard to alter that without needing an entirely new screenplay.
Here are there suggestions:
1) I’d prefer a male villain. Replace Ma-Ma with a man and give him a better name. A male villain – if played by a big guy with large muscles – is more of a threat to Dredd. A woman isn’t much of a threat to Dredd even is she’s portrayed as tough. Dredd is *really* tough and I can’t recall many women giving him a hard time in 2000AD’s Dredd strips.
2) The final action scene could be changed. The perps escape to the block roof, board a small craft. Dredd takes a surfboard, chases after them, lands on the craft, gets inside, the controls are destroyed during the fight, Dredd kills the perps, he grabs an anti-grav chute and jumps out as the craft crashes to ground. I accept that would cost a few dollars to do but it would expand the storyline beyond the Peach Tree block.
3) I’d put a few comic book swear words into the story. Garland’s screenplay has a lot of the f word. If you replaced all the fs with ‘drokk’ or ‘grud’ you could lower the film’s classification – aim it a 12 (UK) or PG 13 (US) audience. The violence may need to be toned down too to suit that classification.
Producers reading feedback? How would they ever fit that in between the escorts and substance abuse?! I’m reminded of the commentary on the DVD of the Star Trek movie, with Messrs Abrams, Kurtzman, Orci, Lindelof, and Bryan Burk – who’s producing this Dredd movie. Now, I thoroughly enjoyed the Trek film, but you could drive a bus through the plot holes. Hearing them all blissfully avoiding the issues or dismissing them as unimportant to the overall picture was a lesson in itself. Filmmakers can and will justify ANYTHING.
One example from Trek: the space jump/drill head sabotage. Never mind the lack of heat on entering Vulcan’s atmosphere, or how thin and unbreathable it might be that high up on the platform; never mind why the drill couldn’t simply be fired from Nero’s ship, or why there were GUYS in it… What bugged me the most about that whole sequence was Kirk and Sulu killing the drill by merrily shooting the (fairly solid) side of it with phaser rifles. Eh??! What?
The rationale? Abrams: “Originally in the script they went inside (the drill head), and I was like ‘Let’s just shoot the thing’. We need to cut $200 000 out of the sequence, how about they just shoot it? You don’t miss a thing.” I’d be the first to say that in the overall picture it didn’t really matter because the scene in its entirety was nicely shot, exciting and visually arresting, but that kind of blithe disregard for logic is addictive, and it accumulates.
Out of interest, do you know how Garland’s screenplay was leaked? Anything semi-official about it, d’you think?
Not sure about your Number 2 – sounds a bit too much like the “flying bike chase” from the original! I’ve just remembered another good villain name: bent Judge posing as bank robber Mutie The Pig!
http://filmredress.blogspot.com/
Judge Dredd is a great comic book character-
“If you’re asking yourself who Karl Urban is, then you are obviously not a sexually frustrated housewife.” That’s a bit harsh, Virgil!
“I would encourage the production designer to explore themes that veered away from the comic”. Looks like your wish has been granted!
Exclusive new Dredd movie poster revealed!
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8972/dreddfilmposter399x600.jpg
Dredd Hard is a great movie. It’s all set in Sly Stallone block too. Although I still think Dredd Hard 2: Return to Stallone Block – is the better movie