In a recent interview with Total Films, Karl Urban who will play the lead in “Judge Dredd” talks about wanting to stay true to character by leaving the helmet on throughout the movie. For those unfamiliar with the character which first graced the pages of the British science fiction anthology “2000 AD,” Judge Dredd was a character whose face was shrouded in mystery. No one’s really seen him without his helmet off unless you count the campy 1995 “Judge Dredd” adaptation starring Sylvester Stallone, who had trouble hiding his face and revealed it in every scene possible like a complete Hollywood tool.
Check out what Urban had to say about the whole helmet fiasco:
If anyone is familiar with Dredd, over the years there are many times when he removes his helmet but you never fully see his face. This was a construct by the creators because he represents a faceless system of justice and law.
I say this hypothetically. If I went to a movie called Judge Dredd and the lead actor at one point took off his helmet so we could see his full face I would just puke in my popcorn because that’s not Dredd. He is mysterious and enigmatic. We’re doing it right, it’s gonna be harder, grittier and above all faithful to the comic. It’s gonna kick ass.
Talk about being true to character and taking the role very seriously. I guess like the rest of us, he didn’t like looking at Stallone’s face in the original film either. I really hope this movie does well, Urban is the kind of actor I want to suppose. I was pretty hyped with the announcement of a new “Judge Dredd” film but now I’m looking forward to it even more knowing that Urban will do all he can to keep it faithful to the original source material.
Director Pete Travis, ‘Judge Dredd” is set to be released on September 21th, 2012.