Not old news! Confirmed news!

As you know, Judge Dredd is getting another crack at the big screen.  Pete Travis is directing.  Alex Garland wrote the script.  Karl Urban is playing him. Jock is doing the concept art. He has a helmet that covers his whole face. It’s already better than the Stallone version.

(By the way, do you know how much it sucks to hear Karl Urban say “Yes, it’s true, I’m Judge Dredd!”, the table gasps — and then you hear so-and-so with a better ComicCon connection has already posted it? It really sucks.)

But who will be the villain of the piece?  Bleeding Cool reported that it was Lena Headey, but since it originated on a Judge Dredd fan site (albeit one with a good ear on the ground), I wasn’t convinced. But it’s been double-confirmed by The Playlist, and filming has begun. So, it’s Headey.

Headey as Madeline Madrigal, in fact.  Ma-Ma. This might be the first eyebrow raising news of the new Dredd.  In the comics original script, Ma-Ma is a drug matriarch who is about 60 years old.  She’s big (the script called for her to be overweight), tough, she’s weathered, she’s scarred.  She knows her way around this violent world. She has to go head to head with Dredd, after all.

I adore Headey (she’s one of my top girl crushes), and I think she’s a budding and capable action heroine.  She could play a world class drug dealer in any other film, but she’s definitely too young and pretty to be Ma-Ma.  Maybe she’s going full Brando for this, and will be donning a fat suit and heavy prosthetic make-up.   That would be awesome. Actresses rarely get the opportunity to do a gross physical transformation, and Headey would score some major cool points.  Knowing her sense of humor and her fondness for horror films (thanks to Final Girl, who gets to hang out with her and get her to contribute to her site), I could see Headey going for that.

But that seems unlikely. Why cast a beauty if you’re not going to let her shine?  You could find an older Ma-Ma much easier than make one up … and there’s probably a hungry older actress out there that needs the work.

Oh well. You can’t change Hollywood. I’ll just be glad I get to see Headey kick Urban’s ass.  That’s worth a price of admission right there.

ETA: Apparently I should trust Wikipedia more often. Couldn’t find a trace of MaMa….