NEWS: Karl Urban Set To Become Judge Dredd

New Zealand's own Karl Urban (Star Trek, Pathfinder, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Lord of the Rings) has been confirmed for the leading role in a new adaption of Judge Dredd. For those unfamiliar with the comic, Judge Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner. There has previously been one other Dredd film; 1995's critically panned Judge Dreddstarring Sylvester Stallone.

Rumors of Urban taking on the the steel-jawed, helmet-wearing, hard man have been around for sometime but have now been confirmed by producers Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich during BFI's Movie-Con III Q&A, currently taking place in London.

Macdonald explains a little bit of where he sees the relaunch of Dredd going.

"The main thing about Dredd is that it's a fantastic comic that was completely messed up 20 years ago," said Macdonald. "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. There's been a change in comic-book movies; they were treated unseriously and now they're treated seriously. 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."

Sounds promising!

One thing for sure is that Karl Urban is a busy man, since he's set to appear in two highly anticipated movies by the end of this year, Red and Priest.

What do you think of Karl Urban being cast as Judge Dredd? Let us know what you think.