Judge Dredd casting rumours

[Phil_A]

Urban for Dredd?

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/karl-urban-judge-dredd-rumours

I think he'd be ra espectable choice, he's certainly got the all important chin. But my ideal casting would've been Scottish character actor David O'Hara - if you listen to the voice he uses in "Doomsday", it practically is Dredd!

[biggytitbo]

Can't they just get Stallone back? He easily the best actor to portray the role in a film.

[Slaaaaabs]

Would be alright for a fresh faced Dredd. Nothing would beat Perlman as crotchety old Dredd though.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Aaron Eckhart has the chin for it and has played comic book anti-heroism in The Dark Knight.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Can't they just get Stallone back? He easily the best actor to portray the role in a film.

I really hope you're joking!  He was the main reason the last film got made, but also the main reason it was so shit.  I doubt Danny Cannon is actually a bad film-maker, I got the impression he just got railroaded by the hollywood machine.  But that doesn't mean he was the right director either.

Personally I always wanted to see Clancy Brown in the role.  He's got both the voice and the chin.

 

Or possibly Stephen Fry.

[biggytitbo]

Don't dismiss this out of hand, just think about it for a while and you might see what I'm getting at...


Nicholas Lyndhurst:


He'd be great I think, he's proved he can do menace before - look how scary he looks here:

[thecuriousorange]

It should really be:



But it won't.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Actually Campbell would be pretty good casting.

[thecuriousorange]

Agreed. A film like that would a perfect vehicle for a long-overdue comeback. Like Kurt Russell in Death Proof. Actually Kurt Russell would be my second choice. But you know it's going to be someone shit like Sam Worthington.

[copylight]

I have said this before but



is the law.

Just look at that fucking chin, and his acting is wooden which is a good thing for playing a fascist pig. If Stallone and his monoslabs were directed by Simon Bisley then there would not be a problem of a recast. Stallone has proven that he can act as much as fuck up on screen. Don"t blame a bad curry on an onion.

[copylight]

Actually, what with the fringe and such lips attached to such a chin I think he is a Forsythian contender.

[Doomy Dwyer]

Lembit Opik has a lovely chin for the role, plus all those years striding through the corridors of power like a baaad daddy have given him the dignity and gravitas that the part demands. The men want to be just like him. The ladies, they just want a piece of Him. He is the Law.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I have said this before but

is the law.
Just look at that fucking chin, and his acting is wooden which is a good thing for playing a fascist pig.

Henry Rollins should've played the fucking Doom guy. Look at the health sprite, it's him damnit! One actor who hasn't been mentioned is Peter Weller, although I think he retired his chin acting after Robocop 2.

It's probably being screamed by fan-boys across the internet, but they really need to keep the fucking man's helmet on this time. It's just wrong. It's like Spiderman taking his suit off and wandering about in a jockstrap. Though after Spiderman 3's emo-montage he probably would've looked less of a cunt.

I like to think the auditions for this Dredd role will have the actors dressed in a kind-of burka with just their chins exposed.

[SavageHedgehog]

Stallone did make a great Dredd movie, but it was called Demolition Man.

Dredd requires the kind of star Hollywood doesn't really seem to make anymore. Campbell would be good, if a mite cheeky.

[biggytitbo]

He might be a bit too old for the role now, but what about Dennis Waterman?

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Stallone did make a great Dredd movie, but it was called Demolition Man.

I may be misremembering because it's a long time since I've seen it, but wasn't Demolition Man a rightwing masturbation fantasy?  I know it was satirical to an extent but wasn't it set in what the rightwing think the leftwing would make America into given half a chance?  As I say it's a long time since I saw it.

Dredd himself may be a hawk, but John Wagner isn't exactly a rightwing writer. 

[SavageHedgehog]

I may be misremembering because it's a long time since I've seen it, but wasn't Demolition Man a rightwing masturbation fantasy?

Ehh... sort of, although it depends on how you define "right wing". It's more of a libertarian's masturbation fantasy than a republican's. It's definitley the "political correctness has gone mad" school of thought taken to its (il)logical conclusion. On the other hand, it's also a dystopia where every independent resteraunt has been replaced by Taco Bells and Pizza Huts, all music is commercial jingles, casual sex and kissing has been outlawed, the leaders are a bunch of lying cheats and so forth so I don't think it's a completely right wing thing. I would be surprised if screenwriter Daniel "Heathers" Walters was a total wingnut, but then again one of the other guys went on to write for 24... I wasn't being completely serious, it's more that it's a film with cool futuristic action and some genuinely funny satire (whether I totally agree with it or not), and as such is IMO closer to Dredd than the actual film.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Fair enough!

The only film-maker that for me comes anywhere near Dredd is Paul Verhoven.  Robocop and Starship Troopers really share the irony and dry sense of humour Judge Dredd has, and all his films have at least some mischievous irony and humour in them.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I think Ed Neumeier says on the Robocop DVD that it started out as a potential Dredd script.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

The writer did Robocop because whoever owned the rights to Judge Dredd refused to sell it to him - in effect it's his version of Dredd.  There's a "making of Dredd" book which covers the development process, and it talks about how the original Dredd producers saw Robocop and realised quite quickly they were watching a Dredd movie, meaning the proper Dredd movie got shelved for a while.  (The book also clearly shows them riding the thing into the wall.  I mean, adaptations probably shouldn't be sacrosanct to the original much of the time, but they really should look at what makes the original work in the first place - and it isn't the future cop element.)

[Phil_A]

Urban's now confirmed:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Karl-Urban-confirms-Judge-Dredd-role/tabid/418/articleID/167422/Default.aspx

[SavageHedgehog]

Seems like an odd choice to me, he doesn't strike me as particularly imposing. Still, he was the high point of the Star Trek reboot as far as I'm concerned, and he seems to be that rare modern actor who has made his name through genre fare (he even started off on Xena!) which gets props from me. And I guess you can at least say they cast someone tall this time.

[copylight]

Yes but his chin simply doesn't do it for me.

[Feralkid]

Not my ideal choice but certainly an interesting one, given that Karl Urban isn't exactly massively famous there's a real chance the helmet will stay on.  Now if only an interesting writer and director were attached.  Garland is a terrible screenwriter, as evidenced by the witless stitching together of genre clichés we saw in 28 Days Later and Sunshine.  His writing is so utterly humourless I've little faith in him nailing the tone of the source material.    And Pete Travis as director.   Mmmm, Omagh was good rather than great and Vantage Point is the very definition of workman like hackery. 

[VegaLA]

And will be shot in 3D.

I wish that fad would die already. Again.

[Small Man Big Horse]

In vaguely related news, Sam Worthington is set to star in the forthcoming Dan Dare project. I was going to give it it's own thread, but a) it won't be out for ages, and b) Sam Worthington's going to ruin it by being really shit in it. It's a shame too, as it's based on Garth Ennis' recent mini-series, which was amusing enough, and if it had been fleshed out more could have been something quite special. Still, at least we won't be subjected to Grant Morrison's take on the character. I've forgiven a lot of writers a lot of things, but having the Mekon bugger Dare? He went too far there. Way too far.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Personally I loved the Garth Ennis take on Dan Dare.  A straight translation of the 50s version really wouldn't work in my opinion, but Ennis managed to update the character very well, keeping the stiff upper lip without making it feel out of place. 

Spoiler alert

Hope they don't kill off Digby though.  I really thought that was a mistake - especially if they ever want to do another one.

[close]

Worthington doesn't seem like a bad choice to me.  Possibly a bit too square-jawed, possibly a bit too young, but I think it could work.

[SavageHedgehog]

Worthington almost seems like an inevitability with casting these days. I'm not a fan, but given that is Dare strikes me as slightly square and generic hero in an old matinee serial fashion, I do agree that it seems like OK casting.

[Glebe]

Urban is an interesting choice... as a big LOTR fan, I thought he was good as Eomer, also loved his Bones in Star Trek. I've read that they intend to keep the helmet on this time, which would be fantastic.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Worthington almost seems like an inevitability with casting these days. I'm not a fan, but given that is Dare strikes me as slightly square and generic hero in an old matinee serial fashion, I do agree that it seems like OK casting.

I just feel he lacks the charisma to the pull off the role, and Dare is quintessentially British, but this could well be ignored now. As for the mini-series, I enjoyed it for what it was, but felt it was only just getting going before it came to a sudden end. And yeah,

Spoiler alert

killing off Digby just wasn't right at all...

[close]