Joe Dredd, the most famous of the Street Judges that run Mega-City One is returning in a new film based on the character whose strip appears in the science fiction magazine 2000 AD. Originally appearing in the second issue in 1977 Dredd was created by writer John Wagner, artist Carlos Ezquerra, with early input from editor Pat Mills.
Judge Dredd was previously adapted into a film by director Danny Cannon with the character portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. This film was released in 1995, written by creators John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra with a production budget of $85 million (US) the film went on to gross just $34 million domestically in the US and $113 million worldwide.
Empireonline.com has reported that producers of the new film Andrew MacDonald and Allon Reich confirmed that Karl Urban has been cast in the role of Joe. Urban has been moving from strength to strength in recent years with roles in ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Bourne Supremacy’, and of course the newly partially rebooted (sort of) Star Trek franchise.
Pete Travis is currently attached to direct the film, his recent projects have included ‘Endgame’, ‘Vantage Point’, and several episodes of ‘The Jury’.
Karl Urban has proven himself a diverse actor over his career with a charismatic personality, the new Dredd project seems to plan to deliver something quite different to the previous outing of the character taking advantage of the different approaches to comic based material in recent years.
The new Dredd film is currently tentatively scheduled for a 2012 release.
