The new Judge Dredd adaptation will be much closer to the source material than the original movie, which starred none other than Sylvester Stallone.
This is heartening news indeed, especially for someone who puts a lot of stock into canon. There are so many franchises which, when adapted into action films during the 80’s and 90’s, strayed way too far from their original themes and attitudes – and Comic books adaptations were especially guilty of this.
This new film, which is simply called Dredd, will even have a comic-like storyline, only covering a very short time – about the length of the film – in a small space – a single city block. Back in January, the co-creator of the Judge Dredd comic, and consultant on the new film, talked about his feelings on the upcoming readaptation with the LA Times, saying, “It’s impossible to cover every aspect of the character and his city – perhaps that was one of the failings of the first film; they tried to do too much and ended up with not a lot. Dredd homes in on the essential job of judging – instant justice in a violent future city. I like the actors, they’re well cast and they handled their parts well.”
So, it seems like what we’re going to see an intense couple of hours, during which Dredd will somehow have to do a lot of judging without a lot of input from outside forces.
The villain he must judge is Madeline “Ma-Ma” Madrigal, originally described as an old fat woman covered in scars. Lena Headey, known for her starring roles in Sarah Connor Chronicles and Game of Thrones, was selected to play the part, and we have a photo showing that they seem to have decided that “Ma-Ma” could be a bit younger and slimmer than the original concept.
Hadely, in an interview with the same LA Times described the character as follows:
She’s a prostitute who then kills her pimp and takes over his drug-running business. And Ma-Ma is a bit of a man-hater. I think of her like an old great white shark who is just waiting for someone bigger and stronger to show up and kill her. She’s ready for it. In fact, she can’t wait for it to happen. And yet no one can get the job done. She’s an addict, so she’s dead in that way, but that last knock just hasn’t come. This big, fat, scarred shark moving through the sea and everyone flees and she’s like, ‘Will someone just have the balls to do it? Please?
We also have this synopsis of the film:
“Dredd” takes us to the wild streets of Mega City One, the lone oasis of quasi-civilization on Cursed Earth. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is the most feared of elite Street Judges, with the power to enforce the law, sentence offenders and execute them on the spot – if necessary. The endlessly inventive mind of writer Alex Garland and the frenetic vision of director Peter Travis bring “Dredd” to life as a futuristic neo-noir action film that returns the celebrated character to the dark, visceral incarnation from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s revered comic strip.
Dredd, which also stars Olivia Thirlby, hits theaters September 21, 2012.
