Oh, Hollywood, will you never learn?
It seems that we’re about to witness another massive misstep with British comic character Judge Dredd and, like witnessing a car crash, there’s nothing we can do but watch it happen.
Dredd has had a weird past on the silver screen, with Sylvester Stallone first playing the character in 1995’s Judge Dredd which, while it has a lot of fun and cool effects, etc, is nothing at all like the character it’s based on.
Jumping ahead to 2012, we got Karl Urban as the titular character in Dredd, which was brilliant. True to the source material, it did everything right – Dredd even kept the helmet on the whole time – but because the suits had no idea how to market it, it failed massively, despite fans adoring it.
After that, there was some movement on a Megacity One TV series, which may have even featured Urban’s Dredd. It never went any further.
Now, move on to the present day and, as I reported recently, Thor: Love and Thunder’s Taika Waititi is looking at developing Dredd once again. Sigh. In fairness to this, Mission: Impossible and Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce is also attached, so that’s a little ray of light.
Now, Urban, who always was 100% behind playing the character again, is 100% behind playing the character again: “I would love to reprise that role in a heartbeat,” he says in a new interview, “I really would. I had so much fun making that movie.” He added, “If I’m not part of it, then I’m all good with it. I just want to see more Dredd stories.”
Yes! Karl Urban confirms he is in talks to return as Judge Dredd in Mega City One TV series
So, yeah, Urban is still flying the Dredd flag, but Hollywood is going to keep on Hollywooding.
In fairness, word on the Waititi and Pearce version is that it will take the best of Stallone’s movie – great sets and design, bigger budget – and Urban’s, giving it a more true to the comic feel in terms of Mega City One and the weird, futuristic people that inhabit it.
I still think I’d rather have more Urban.
Thoughts? I know you have them, and I wanna hear ’em all.
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Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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