Caffeinated Clint
Screenwriter Alex Garland has reportedly penned the long-gestating “Judge Dredd” reboot. That’s according to comic-book artist ‘Jock’ (yep, like ‘Cher’) whose intriguing http://twitter.com/jock4twenty/ tweets were picked up by Slashfilm earlier today.
Garland, Danny Boyle’s right-hand man (that’s not an opportunity to make a joke about) and the penner of “28 Â Days Later”, “Sunshine”, and “The Beach”, has apparently finished a draft of the flick.
The project, in the works since Clinton was in office, is set up at Fox Searchlight and DNA Films (that’d be Boyle’s company – hence the Garland appointment).
Judge Joe Dredd is a comic character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine’s longest running (having been featured there since its second issue in 1977). Dredd is a law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner. Dredd and his fellow Judges are empowered to arrest, sentence and even execute criminals on the spot.
I actually didn’t hate the Sylvester Stallone-version of “Judge Dredd” (remember seeing it in a packed theatre first-day of release), but then Diane Lane was in it and I always seem to be instantly put under a spell the moment her lashes grace the screen, and more so, I wasn’t that familiar with the comic so wasn’t disturbed by the changes that’d been made to the character in his journey to the big screen. Knowing that the character isn’t supposed to ‘take his helmet off’ (so, he sleeps in it too? bonks in it!?) , I can see why fans weren’t happy though. If Tim Burton’s Superman had been made – the one where Superman wore a black, cape-less suit, I wouldn’t have been dancing like Tiny Tim at a rainbow festival either.
The new-and-improved “Judge Dredd” (starring whichever name actor doesn’t mind not showing his face for 90 mins – er, Hugo Weaving?) will be in theatres 2012.
