Karl Urban talks ‘Dredd,’ comics, keeping the helmet on, ‘Riddick’ and ‘Star Trek 2’
Karl Urban stood center stage on Monday at “Dredd” photocall in Madrid as the promotion for the Judge Dredd reboot officially kicked into high gear. Urban admits to following the comic books and understands the enigmatic appeal of the character.
Talking with the Den of Geeks in an interview released Tuesday, the “Star Trek” star detailed how he discovered Judge Dredd comics.
“When I was a teenager, the dairy just down from where I lived was selling the Quality Comics series [US-based reprints] of Judge Dredd in the early 90s. A friend of mine was quite into them, and that’s how I tuned in, as it were.”
The gritty, stylish and relentless violence of Metro City is held in check by the Judges and Urban describes the appeal of the script and coming onboard.
“I was interested, but I certainly approached it with a degree of trepidation. It wasn’t until I read Alex Garland’s script that I realised that what the filmmakers were endeavouring to do was going to be a lot more authentic, edgy, grittier… it was going to be a harder film. And I also thought Alex did an incredible job of showcasing the relationship between Judge Dredd and Anderson – and really, to me, that was the foundation of the movie, to see how that relationship evolves.”
Even the non-comic book fans can find appeal in Dredd. The “Red” co-star describes the character and how he battles crime.
“He’s just a man – okay, a cloned man – but just a man. He’s not a superhero. He doesn’t have superpowers. He’s just got a deadly skillset, a quick intellect, he’s highly trained, he’s got a cool bike and versatile weapon, and he’s the type of guy that is walking into a dangerous situation when everyone else is running in the opposite direction. That’s what appeals to me.”
One of the keys to the comic book and appeal is that Dredd never removes his helmet and Urban confirms that the film is true to these details.
“I was relieved to get to the end of the script and find that Dredd’s helmet remained firmly on his head! That was an important one – you know, Dredd is such an iconic, enigmatic character, and I was glad that the choice had been made to be authentic in that regard.”
In a similar interview released on Monday by WhatCulture, Urban is asked about filming on the new “Riddick” film and the “Star Trek” sequel.
“Well, I shot a day on Riddick, my character Vaako comes in and essentially helps transition out of the Chronicles story and into Riddick’s new story. I was good fun working with Vin (Diesel) again, he’s a great guy. And Star Trek 2? Well, I can’t tell you anything about it…except it’s going to be AWESOME!!”
“Dredd 3D” opens September 21, 2012 with Urban, Olivia Thirlby as Judge Anderson and Lena Headey as the villain Ma-Ma.
‘Dredd’ Featurette: A Day In The Life …
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Apparently he and Simon Pegg spent a lot of time reading 2000AD on the set of Star Trek 2.
I’m really relieved to hear about the helmet. So often in Hollywood films they seem to want to make the actors remove their helmet/ mask as soon as possible, no matter how out of character (Batman Returns I’m looking at you) or nonsensical (soo many scifi films) it is.