Seems the rumour wheels are a spinning and with the plotted fall filming of the Judge Dredd reboot, its about time they actually cast a Judge Dredd. And it appears that the job has been offered to Karl Urban, who is quietly becoming huge in a lot of small ways.
Pete Travis is scheduled to direct the $50 million movie this fall, so they do need to start casting soon – and Urban definitely has the build and acting chops to play the gritty anti-hero.
According to Bleeding Cool, one major contract provision is that Dredd will not take off his helmet – the entire film. Considering Urban isn’t a huge star, though he’s been in plenty of huge franchises, there’s a good chance he’ll be fine playing a helmeted-Dredd (unlike the 1995 Sylvester Stallone film).
Now $50million is a seriously low budget for a flick like this, and I wonder exactly what we might see come of this.
It can’t be worse than the Stallone version right?
In the original comics, Dredd was never seen without his helmet and it added to the mystery that was the character. I can understand why they would want to remove the helmet to humanize the character, but if this is a requirement of the character, does it matter if they get a name to play him? Maybe get a talented nobody that will cost half as much to cast?
The role was offered to Urban, but he isn’t reported as taking it yet, and with Star Trek filming early 2011, and this slated to film in a couple months he would already have to have his schedule open between here and there.
If there is a scheduling conflict between this and Star Trek, I could make some easy wagers on which way he will go.
