The Law Returns. This Time With His Helmet On! Judge Dredd!

[Admiral_Young]

Karl Urban is now confirmed as the new "Judge Dredd" which starts shooting later this year for a planned 2012 release. I'm kind of excited about this. Bones is now the law!

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=68774

 

[Skywalker]

Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor! Not judge, jury, and executioner!

 

[Admiral_Young]

Bones You Are the Law!!!

 

[Christopher]

Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor! Not judge, jury, and executioner!

Come to think of it, it's hard to imagine two more diametrically opposed characters.

...Well, almost. I just remembered that Urban's two characters in the Hercules/Xena universe were Julius Caesar (a particularly evil version) and Cupid. So he has some experience playing polar opposites.

If they have him go the whole movie without ever taking off the helmet and showing his famous mug, that's a daring choice. I still think the Stallone movie could've made the helmet's removal work in a way that was truer to the character, if he'd been stripped of the helmet by force upon his arrest and was striving to get it (and his "good" name) back.

 

[Reverend]

^ The helmet coming off was the least of the Stallone movie's problems!

I'm encouraged by the way this new Dredd flick up so far. From most reports the appear intent on staying true to the cyberpunk/tech-noir/police procedural drama mix the more recent strips have been using.
Still, given Urban's age he'll be playing the (relatively) younger Dredd, not the gnarled up, grizzled and hardened veteran he is these days. Of course he was always those things, he just became them more-so over time.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

If they have him go the whole movie without ever taking off the helmet and showing his famous mug, that's a daring choice. I still think the Stallone movie could've made the helmet's removal work in a way that was truer to the character, if he'd been stripped of the helmet by force upon his arrest and was striving to get it (and his "good" name) back.

It would be truer to the character to not spend the film framed with Rob Schneider.

 

[Christopher]

That is not in dispute...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Cool! I'm not sure Dredd should be such a hotty but if he keeps the helmet on, who's to know?

Hmm, not sure Urban's jaw is up to the task, tho. Will prosthetics be needed?

 

[Reverend]

I'm sure they'll hire him a chin coach to beef it up for the part.
I have to wonder if Hugo Weaving's performance in 'V for Vendetta' had anything to do with convincing the suits that a film could cope with the main actor that never shows his face?

On a side note, I was reading a "History of 2000AD" article some time back and they go into some detail as the the problems with the movie; both conceptually and from a production standpoint. Boy, that was one unhappy set!
What stood out for me though was the mention that Rob Schneider's character was originally killed off but a test screen audience reacted negativly to this so they re-shot a scene with him still alive. Who did they screen that film for? Patients recovering from brain surgery?

 

[Samurai8472]

Won't be the same with out Stallone's

"I'M DA LAAAWWW!"

and Rob Schneider

 

[Aragorn]

Instead of Rob Schneider they'll cast David Spade this time around.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Instead of Rob Schneider they'll cast David Spade this time around.

C'mon, Rob's still available...

 

[Reverend]

^Yeah, there's a very good reason for that...

If Dredd has any sidekick at all in this movie, I'm pretty sure it won't be anything like Schneider's character. Hershey maybe? DeMarco? Beeney? Anderson?
Actually, now that I think about it, of all the quasi-sidekicks Dredd's had over the years, how many of them weren't attractive young females?

I know it's early days, but anyone care to speculate on the film's possible plot/villain? Assuming they stay away from using Rico again, I'm thinking that crazy Chief Judge (I forget his name) or P.J. Maybe might work quite well, depending on the plot. Judge Death should, I think, be saved for a possible sequel. The first film should be more about Dredd putting creeps in the cubes than extra-dimensional madness.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I had a chance to read an early draft of Alex Garland's draft and I can say that this movie is quite different from the Stallone film. It's ultra violent and Dredd does have a female partner who I'm quite interested to know who they will cast as. She's not a love interest as Diane Lane was in "Dredd" and Dredd does say "I'm the Law" in the draft I read. It actually was a really enjoyable read.

 

[Gaith]

Any other non-JD-fans think that doing a whole movie around a protagonist whose face you don't see is likely to be artistically disastrous? A 30-minute short film, maybe. But a feature?

Sorry, I just don't see it.

 

[Aragorn]

Why is he not allowed to ever show his face? Can't he take off his helmet when he's at home? Does he wear the helmet to sleep and in the shower?

 

[Reverend]

Any other non-JD-fans think that doing a whole movie around a protagonist whose face you don't see is likely to be artistically disastrous? A 30-minute short film, maybe. But a feature?

Sorry, I just don't see it.

It's been done before, several times. In fact I've already mentioned 'V for Vendetta' once in an earlier post and that film is hardly a unique example. That's not even counting films with extensive prosthetics, of which there are legion.

Hell, you only see a little more of Batman's face than you would Dredd's and that's never been much of an impediment. Granted that little bit extra happens to be the eyes, which can make a huge difference to a performer but I think Urban is up to it.

Why is he not allowed to ever show his face? Can't he take off his helmet when he's at home? Does he wear the helmet to sleep and in the shower?

Sure he can and he does, but the way they usually frame it in the comics you never see anything above his nose, not even in profile. It's just one of those things where the helmet and uniform is so ingrained into his identity that whatever his head happens to look like without the helmet, it's not his real face. There are other factors too that tie into him being the personification of law, order and authority, which must of course be as faceless as justice is blind.

It's sort of like how you never really see Charlie in Charlie's Angels or Captain Mainwaring's wife in Dad's Army or Chef in Enterprise. You know his face is there, that logically there must be something under that visor but you never see it.

 

[Gaith]

^^ Both nonsimilar comparisons. V wasn't the main character of V; Evey was. And we see about as much Bruce Wayne as Batman in any of the Bats movies.

 

[Reverend]

Of course V was the main character. He/she was the title character for goodness sake and had just as much screen time as Evey. As important as she was, the whole film was about Evey discovering V, she was the audience's POV into the world.

As for Batman, I'm pretty sure in most of the films, Bats had at least as much screen time as Bruce and I don't think I've heard anyone say "I'm sick of that freak in the mask, I want more of that smarmy rich bloke!"

But if you want a more relevant example, how about the most glaringly obvious; Vader. Sure the films don't follow him around all the time but he had several rather powerfully emotional scenes across 3 films and the mask (which showed nothing of the actor's face) to say nothing of his voice being dubbed after the fact was never an impediment to realising the character.

All you're really missing with Dredd is the eyes and a skilled character actor would still has plenty to work with. Hell, Levar Burton managed to get along with a hairclip covering his eyes for seven years and it didn't stop him from effectively portraying an engaging character.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Cyclops never took off his visor...