A new teaser poster and the first publicity stills for the upcoming film Dredd have just emerged today. The film is set to be released in September, so it’s shocking that this is all we have right now, but here it is. Movies with comic book heroes typically start there publicity rounds long before the movie is scheduled to open. While it is at the end of the summer, it’s still surprising there isn’t more.

Dredd is based on the comic Judge Dredd, and takes place in a ultra-violent futuristic city where vigilante justice is required to keep the peace. It this version, Judge Dredd is charged with taking out a gang that deals in a new hard core drug hitting the streets called SLO-MO.

Right now, the best thing this movie has going for it is Karl Urban (Bones in the latest Star Trek movie). According to Jo-Blo he is dedicated to this role and really wants to put some quality work out there on this one. The directors, producers and actors are all committed to staying faithful to the comic book.

Which is exactly what Judge Dread creator John Wagner wanted to hear. He got an opportunity to screen the film (or I should say, the producers got the opportunity to show him the film), and he seems impressed. He talks about what he saw to JoBlo:

“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 guess we are going to have to wait and see if he is just plugging the movie to increase his royalty check, or if it really is true to form. A teaser trailer should be out momentarily, so be on the look-out for that.

All-in-all it should be a gore-fest with the “R” rating. And look at it this way — It can’t be any worse than the Sylvester Stallone version.

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[info and images: JoBlo]