Lionsgate Picks Up U.S. Rights To 3D Judge 'Dredd'

Studio Also Buys Two Action Flicks; Boaz Yakin’s ‘Safe’ & Simon West’s ‘Protection’

As we mentioned several times today — and you’ll continue to hear it all week — AFM, American Film Market is about to be underway and sales are a poppin. Lionsgate, who already love their action, horror and genre bread and butter, have scooped up the U.S. rights to three pictures very much in their wheelhouse.

The first and most prominent one to most geeks is the rebooted version of “Judge Dredd,” though now just called, “Dredd,” which is set to star Karl Urban known for playing McCoy in the rebooted “Star Trek” by J.J. Abrams and as the Russian assassin in “The Bourne Supremacy.” While the 1995 version with Sylvester Stallone was akin to what Joel Shumacher did with the Batman series — corny, campy B-movie — this version comes with a much stronger pedigree; oft-Danny Boyle collaborator & screenwriter Alex Garland (“28 Days Later,” “Sunshine,” “The Beach“) penned the script and a particularly good supporting actress is onboard in Olivia Thirlby.

Lionsgate also picked up two other action pics: Boaz Yakin‘s “Safe,” which is already in production starring Jason Statham, and Simon West‘s action thriller “Protection,” starring Dwayne Johnson, the latter helmer being known for (and having never really topped) “Con Air.”

No release dates have been set for any of the films and “Safe” is the only one that has started production, however Judge Dredd starts lensing in South Africa on Nov 12 under director Pete Travis (“Vantage Point“) with a more modest $45 Million dollar budget. Variety reiterates that the film is a 3D adaptation of the 2000 AD British comic, but with that kind budget, it seems doubtful that the film will actually be authored in 3D and will likely post-convert later — which seems to be the way everyone is going much to James Cameron‘s chagrin.

If you want to find out more about ‘Dredd’ you can check out a script review we ran, which revealed that the screenplay was very dark and gritty with comparisons being drawn to “Die Hard” and “Blade Runner.” Evidently, the producers are going for a Hard-R rating.