Sylvester Stallone’s 1995 effort at bringing the 2000 AD character Judge Dredd to the big screen might not be going down in history as one of his finest moments, yet star Lena Headey believes the upcoming reboot (simply titled Dredd) is going to be something special.
Headey, who’s now seen on HBO’s Game of Thrones as the scheming Cersei Lannister, will be playing the role of Ma-Ma in the new movie; a role originally conceived for an older woman (until Headey managed to impress writer/producer Alex Garland, who scripted 28 Days Later, and had the part reworked for her), and a character that Lena describes as an old Great White shark who is just waiting for someone bigger and stronger to show up and kill her.”
Headey says Ma-Ma is “ready for it. In fact, she can’t wait for it to happen. And yet no-one can get the job done. She’s an addict, so she’s dead in that way, but that last knock just hasn’t come.” She thinks of her character as a “big, fat, scarred shark moving through the sea and everyone flees and she’s like, ‘Will someone just have the balls to do it? Please?‘”, but thinks that the entire world of Dredd will have that feeling; because “it’s so dirty and dark – the world feels really British.”
Given Headey also wanted to stress that “it’s… violent. Just in terms of gunplay. They’re not afraid to show blood and gunshot wounds”, it also sounds as if the film, which stars Karl Urban (Star Trek) as the titular peacekeeper Judge Dredd, and co-stars Olivia Thirlby (No Strings Attached) as his rookie partner, will contain a fair share of uncompromising action, when it’s released on September 7th in the UK, and on September 21st in the US.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: The LA Times.
