By Brent McKnight | 8 years ago

I’m one of the sporadic few with an affinity for Sylvester Stallone’s 1995 version of Judge Dredd. Can’t help it, I love the damn thing, warts, Rob Schneider, and all. That adaptation of the British science fiction comic was cheesy, cartoonish, and generally much campier than the source material.

Pete Travis’ (Vantage Point) new version, simply retitled Dredd, promises to be a darker, grittier interpretation, more in line with the tone of the comic. In fact, creator John Wagner gave the film what could be construed as a seal of approval via his Facebook page.

Here’s what Wagner has to say about Dredd:

I went up to London yesterday to see the completed Dredd film. I’ve had reservations about certain aspects of it, and made them plain to the team at DNA. All but one of them—a little quibble at the beginning—have been addressed. And what a lot they’ve added. Music is on the button. SFX are excellent. Filming is impressive. I’ve not seen a modern 3-D movie before but I like it. I found myself reaching out trying to touch things that were dancing before my eyes. Karl is a great Dredd and Olivia gets Anderson completely. This is Dredd as it should be done-true to character, visceral, unrelentingly violent (but not off-puttingly so). It will open, I believe, sometime in September. No doubt you’ll let me know what you think when you’ve seen it, but this has my recommendation.

I personally can’t wait for this return to Cursed Earth. To hear Wagner say that the film does his characters and universe justice is huge. His words may be simple lip service, but it sounds like he raised concerns to DNA Films, the producers, and they listened to his thoughts and feelings, and took his input to heart.

Dredd does indeed open in September, September 21st to be exact. The film stars Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, Olivia Thirlby as Judge Anderson, and Lena Heady as the terrorist Ma-Ma.