Jul
22
Alex Garland’s Judge Dredd is something that’s been of interest to the wider genre community for a long time, and there’s been a double whammy of news lately.
First, Bleeding Cool is reporting that Karl Urban is being offered the role of Judge Dredd. The actor, who appeared in 2009′s Star Trek, has a role in Priest as well as the upcoming Star Trek sequel among others, is a peculiar choice for the part, but the rumour is lent credence by the fact that filming is set to begin soon. Soon, as in, the end of the year. In Johannesburg.
Secondly, The Playlist reports that it’s received details on the script, which sets Judge Dredd and rookie Judge Anderson fighting for their lives in a tower block. The report is littered with spelling mistakes and other errors, but does include a few cool details, if it is true. Check it out.
For now, though, here are a few others who we feel could take on (and keep on) the helmet.
Bruce Willis
If you’re going to do Die Hard, at least do it right. Willis may be getting on a little bit, but we’d certainly avoid meeting him down a dark alley if possible – and if Dredd never removes his headwear, then who’s to know? Besides, Dredd’s aged 30 odd years since the beginning of the strip anyway, and his line of work’s going to turn a few hairs grey.
Til Schweiger
Look at that chin! They may have to dub his lines to mask the accent, but if we’re being completely honest, Arnie pretending to be US Special Forces in Predator makes his German inflection more or less irrelevant. Schweiger has the action chops, and hopefully got the bad film syndrome out of his system with Far Cry.
Vinnie Jones
For a man who’s built a career out of being, shall we say, ill-disciplined, on the pitch and on film, Vinnie’s done alright for himself. And let’s be honest, is there any other supposed hero in fiction who’s more of a wanker than Joe Dredd? The man suggested the nuking of several billion people during Judgment Day, for heaven’s sake! Vinnie would do alright.
Gerard Butler
By which we mean 300, Coriolanus, Law Abiding Citizen Butler, not PS I Love You and Dracula 2001 Butler. The man can beef up when needed, and we’re more than sure that his delivery would be perfect for Dredd. Can you imagine it? ‘THIS. IS. MEGAAAAAAAAAAA (City One)!” Sounds about right, if we’re laying all of our cards on the table.
Jacqui Smith
What? She scares us…
Our 
provides all the latest Sci-Fi news, reviews, previews, interviews and spoilers, while our 
fan page is the best place to communicate with other fans of the SciFiNow magazine.
provides all the latest Sci-Fi news, reviews, previews, interviews and spoilers, while our fan page is the best place to communicate with other fans of the SciFiNow magazine.
Urban is a solid performer and, as Star Trek proved, he can be very good in roles that give him little to do, because lets face it Dredd as a character can be very one note if handled wrong.
However, if we’re doing fantasy casting I have to put forward Jeffrey Dean Morgan for Dredd, if you look at him in The Losers and of course Watchmen both characters could be tweaked / adjusted to be aspects of Dredd. Plus his voice, build and lack of ego, that’d demand the helmet be removed would make him ideal IMHO
How about Nathan (Firefly) Fillion as Dredd? He has the wit the chin and the muscle – Oh, and Jessica Simpson as Judge Anderson! :)
If we’re having a chin battle here then I don’t know why nobody has mentioned Bruce Campbell :-D
I think this sounds pretty awful. The lack of imagination is breathtaking.
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.
The problem with Stallones Dredd was it felt like a later installment of a franchise or an episode of a TV show-its plot wasnt the worst but it didnt feel like a first installment,an introduction into the world of Dredd. And i agree with all the comments-no way should the helmet be removed.