Over a year ago, a bold group of British stalwarts announced their intentions to cross our cultural border under dark of night and rescue their hero Judge Dredd, a beloved, very serious U.K. comic-book character mockingly transformed into a 1995 Sylvester Stallone farce as some sort of transatlantic volley, possibly as a counterstrike for unleashing Take That on the world. This time, director Peter Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland promised to ensure that Judge Dredd would be adapted properly from his 2000 A.D. origins, with Karl Urban taking over the lead role of the much-feared dispenser of street justice in a violent futuristic city, where the streets are lined with convenient justice-dispensers. This Judge Dredd would be serious, and it would eradicate all the lingering goofiness of the Stallone version, what with its egregious out-of-character helmet-removals and even more egregious Rob Schneider supporting roles. Yeah, so how’s that going anyway?
By way of answer, Empire offers these early preview images enabling you to dispense your own snap judgments, street or otherwise. Going by Urban’s expression, our violence-ridden future certainly looks like a total no fun super-duper frowny time. (Though if it’s any consolation to him, the filmmakers still have 14 months to get the size adjusted on his helmet.) [via Coming Soon]