I grew up with British comics, there were not many on shop shelves but 2000ad was enough. In my opinion its the greatest untapped source of material for cinematic treatment today, series such as Cannon Fodder, ABC Warriors and Rogue Trooper are some examples of exceptional works amongst many. I remember the first time I saw the Sylvester Stallone actioner Judge Dredd. I was excited mainly because Kevin Walker [ABC Warriors/2000ad] [One of the greatest comic artists from the British Isles] was handling the concept designs. Unfortunately this was the only thing I remember liking, the rest was simply garbage being fair.
So Why was Judge Dredd [1995] so bad? They messed with the formula. They gave Dredd a political correctness, they gave him Sylvester Stalone, they went ahead on a script so under-developed even as a spec-script it was blatantly flawed. If you are familiar with the characters in 2000ad the casting was horrific. I feel sorry for Danny Canon [director], I know he is a genuine fan of the Comic but this was his first "big budget" production. It currently holds its own at 15% on rotten tomatoes. Well here we are today in 2010. I have read the new Judge Dredd script "Peach Trees" [working title] and its impressive. Karl Urban would not be my choice for Dredd, he has a passive air of vanity about him that is too distracting, Dredd is a machine, raw uncompromising. Robo-cop after all was a direct rip off of Judge Dredd. Karl Urban recently chatted with Empire
from his home in Auckland, NZ and mentioned a few details about the film:
“I think somewhere along
the line Stallone’s film was a missed opportunity. As soon as he took his
helmet off the enigma was blown. Our film is going to be darker in tone, and we’ve
got the benefit of modern filmmaking and technology to help us.”
Urban goes on to say
that he knows they’re taking a much darker run at the legendary comic book
character this time around, but that he doesn’t want to give too much away
before they get the thing in the can.
28 Days Later and Sunshine writer Alex Garland wrote the
script that, not surprisingly, Urban describes as fantastic, remaining faithful
to the books while creating his own story as well.
Urban doesn’t give us
much to go on here, but it seems like he’s genuinely interested in the role he’s
taken on, which is always a plus. He’s been a major part of some films, most
recently Star Trek as well as Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of
Riddick, but this will be his first starring role beyond the massive box office
failure Pathfinder. More on Dredd as casting continues and they
near their start date, now ten weeks away.