The first big screen adaptation of Judge Dredd starred Hollywood veteran Sylvester (“I am the law!!!”) Stallone and was considered somewhat of a disaster.
Unfortunately, there’s already been reports of trouble on the next Dredd film, which will see Karl Urban (Bones in JJ Abrams’s Star Trek) assume the title role – based on a screenplay by Alex Garland (28 Days Later) and directed by Pete Travis (Vantage Point).
Whatever problems the movie may be experiencing behind the scenes, Judge Dredd in his prime was a hell of a comic, and Dredd creator John Wagner remains optimistic about the new Dredd film.
As Wagner tells the LA Times, the previous Dredd movie with Stallone “tried to do too much and ended up with not a lot.” In contrast, the new Dredd movie “is about Dredd and his world… I like the actors, they’re well cast and they handled their parts well.”
This time around, however, we’re apparently not going to see Dredd without his helmet. Wagner said he felt all along that Stallone never should have shown his face in the original Dredd, but as we at TG believe, he was too big of a star to go the whole movie without showing his world recognized mug.
If there’s any comic that needs a reboot, it’s definitely Dredd, because there is a lot of potential and so much you can do with it. Again, it was a hell of a comic back in the day, and considering it came from England, a good Dredd movie could have great appeal both here and abroad. If they screw it up, then we have to wait ten to fifteen years for another try, so let’s hope this Dredd gets it right.
