Urban Goes Dredd

Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich confirmed that Karl Urban - who played "Bones" Mccoy in the Star Trek reboot, was cast as Judge Dredd during BFI's Movie-Con III Q&A, which took place in London. "There's been a change in comic-book movies; they were treated unseriously and now they're treated seriously," said Macdonald. "We've cast a guy called Karl Urban to play Dredd. We'll be shooting in Johannesburg, it's being directed by Pete Travis, we're shooting with the people who did District 9—and if we get it right, Alex has a couple of ideas for other stories as well. It's not based on any one comic, and John Wagner is involved in every decision." Macdonald also talked about the feel and tone of the new movie: "The main thing about Dredd is that it's a fantastic comic that was completely messed up 20 years ago. Our idea is to make a very hard, R-rated, gritty, realistic movie of Dredd in Megacity, so we've got to get the tone right. He's not going to take off his helmet. His bike is going to feel real. He's going to hit people and it's going to feel real." Karl Urban promises his Judge Dredd will not make us puke our popcorn, and rumor has it that, like the comic, he will keep his fucking mask on this time.