Judge Dredd to appeal to the Urban market

And by Urban market, I mean folks who were bamboozled by a thoroughly bland actor doing a serviceable impression of DeForest Kelley.

Variety is reporting that Karl Urban has been confirmed to play the titular character in the reboot of Judge Dredd, based on the lantern-jawed law enforcement official who first appeared in the comic book anthology 2000 AD. At least Urban's complete inability to emote should serve him well as an emotionless cop who lords over a dystopian future society.

The film will be directed by Pete Travis, who is probably best known for helming the multi-character thriller Vantage Point (or not, as I had no idea who the guy was before doing a Google search), and is scheduled to be released sometime in 2012.

No other casting announcements have been made yet, but maybe if we're lucky, they'll be able to convince Rob Schneider to reprise his role from the previous adaptation.