We all know the wheels of justice turn slowly, but the new Judge Dredd remake, Dredd 3D, is planning to put the post-apocalyptic legal process into extreme slow motion – and 3D – for our viewing pleasure.
A buzz is building over the new Dredd 3D film that stars Karl Urban as Mega City One’s infamous one-man judge, jury and executioner. You probably know Urban as ‘Bones’ from director J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek remake (2009), but as Dredd he is almost unrecognizable with his Judge helmet on.
If you are not familiar with Judge Dredd, he is the top law-enforcement “Street-Judge” of Mega City One on the east-coast of America, set in a late 21st century dystopian world where chaos is rampant and the Judges provide instant justice to lawbreakers (think Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry after the apocalypse.)
Dredd was created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra and was first seen in the British science-fiction magazine called 2000 AD (in 1977.) In the 35 years since then Judge Dredd has become one of the world’s best known and most popular comic-book heroes and in 1995 inspired a feature film starring Sylvester Stallone.
- Learn more about the history of Judge Dredd in this video history by WatchMojo.com: VIDEO
Although the Stallone film was great fun, the new movie looks to be a lot nastier and more closely connected to the comic books than the original. It promises a day-in-the-life look at Judge Dredd as he trains a rookie Judge (Olivia Thirlby) while cleaning up a vertical city block that is inhabited by a gang of “slo-mo” drug dealers, headed by the villainess Ma-Ma, played by Lena Headey – who is said to have fashioned her role on the godmother of punk-rock, Patti Smith.
The “slo-mo” drug will play a big part in the look and feel of this new film in that the users of the drug have their perception of time turned down to 1% of its normal sensation. The result is that the audience is going to see a lot of the action from the perspective of the drug users – facing the slow motion onslaught of Dredd’s savage sentencing.
The usual fame-rate for motion-pictures is 24 frames per second, but the new Dredd film uses some extreme speed technology to capture its action. Dredd 3D’s Special Effects Supervisor, Max Poolman, says, “None of us understand what happens at 4000 frames a second,” but by using the higher frame rate, every day motions have potential to become beautiful visual actions.
- Learn more about “slo-mo,” the drug and the Dredd 3D film technique: VIDEO
Dredd 3D opens in theaters on September 21 – stay tuned to NERDVANA for reviews and an interview with Dredd 3D co-star, Olivia Thirlby, who plays rookie Judge Cassandra Anderson.
- See the ultra-violent Dredd 3D Red-Band trailer: VIDEO
