Dredd
Short description
Dredd is set in a future North America largely reduced to a irradiated wasteland, where most of the population lives in Mega City One, a vast and violent metropolis on the east coast. Order there rests with the Judges, officers who arrest, try and punish on the spot, combining the roles of police officer, judge and executioner. Judge Dredd, one of the most feared of them, is assigned to assess a trainee, Cassandra Anderson, who possesses considerable psychic abilities. A homicide call draws the pair into a 200-storey tower block controlled by Ma-Ma, a former sex worker who now runs a drug operation built around Slo-Mo, a substance that makes users experience time at a fraction of its normal speed. Trapped inside, the two have to fight their way out against her gang.
Pete Travis directed the film, his third feature after Omagh and Vantage Point, from a screenplay by Alex Garland, who also produced alongside Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich. Karl Urban plays Dredd, Olivia Thirlby plays Anderson and Lena Headey plays Ma-Ma, with Wood Harris, Langley Kirkwood and Tamer Burjaq among the supporting cast. The production involved companies based in the United Kingdom, India, the United States and South Africa.
Made for about 50 million dollars, the film took roughly 41 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 311,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.9 from about 5,725 votes. The critics' rating stands at 6.6 from 169 reviews, close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- At the beginning of the film, Ma-Ma throws three drug dealers off the balcony as a public execution. After the fall, it is visible that all three, as previously stated, are refreshed, but at least the first of them is led to the edge of the balcony, except for a few beatings, completely unharmed.
- The music constantly heard in the Tech Clan's computer room is the main theme from the BBC series "Jericho" (2006).
- As soon as Dredd and Anderson enter the "Peach Trees" block, Dredd tells a homeless man to leave before they do. When they leave, heavy blast doors come down on the homeless man, crushing his home. At the end of the film, the doors are raised, and there is no trace that anyone was crushed.
- Director Pete Travis was not allowed to do the film's editing due to creative differences with the producers.
- Duncan Jones was offered to direct the film, but he refused, not because he disliked Alex Garland's script (Jones said the script was excellent). It was because he had a clear idea of what he wanted to do with the film, and he felt he wouldn't be able to bring himself to accept Garland's script and not make the film his own way.
- The Chief Judge is not mentioned by name in the film. In appearance, she is a combination of Chief Judges McGruder and Silver, and the surrounding setting (the surrounding wall and the Fergee memorial) indicates that the film takes place during a time in the history of Mega-City One when McGruder's first term as Chief Judge was underway.
- Michael Biehn auditioned for the lead role, which ultimately went to Karl Urban.
- The Peach Tree block is named after a restaurant in Shrewsbury, where screenwriter Alex Garland and Judge Dredd creator John Wagner first met to discuss the film.
- Karl Urban's voice, which he uses for the role of Dredd, is somewhat similar to Clint Eastwood's. Judge Dredd is actually partially based on Eastwood's character from the series "Rawhide" (1959-1966), which is also indicated by the name of the block where Dredd lives, Rowdy Yates (the name of a character from that series).
- Judge Dredd was created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra.
- In the Judge Dredd comic series, all blocks are named with some connection to the creators, inspiring ideas, or current events at the time of writing. The block closest to 'Peach Trees,' where the film takes place, is 'Sternhammer,' which is visible at the beginning and end of the film. It is also mentioned as the block where one of the rivals of the 'Ma-Ma' clan is located. Wulf Sternhammer is a popular character from the 'Strontium Dog' comic series in 2000AD, which involved many writers of Judge Dredd, and these comics even had intersecting storylines.
- Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character whose comic in the British science fiction anthology (2000 AD) is the longest-running, appearing there from the second issue in 1977.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
