It's official now, Karl Urban will definitely be playing Judge Dredd in the upcoming Pete Travis‘ movie!
So, beside this casting info, we can share that the movie will begin shooting in Johannesburg, South Africa later this year, and that this time Dredd won't be taking his helmet off (just in case you were still worried about that!)
As for the character plans, here's what producers of the movie, Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich shared with us:
“The main thing about Judge 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.”
Judge Dredd comes to theaters in 2012!
