Well this debate was done to death in the early 90s. It’s a catch 22 anyway. If you cast an unknown it’ll be much harder to get a big film funded. If you cast an unknown and the film is a success, well he’s no longer an unknown…so it’s a moot point, and if it’s a success there’ll be a sequel, and then there’s no mystery as to what the actor looks like etc etc.
IMO though Dredd should be pure character. The actor who played Lex had ‘something’.
I don’t know what you mean by that. And I’m not being a sarcastic arse. If you mean a big character, or all character, then how could you discount someone like Ron Perlman?
Either way I personally think Dredd should is the abscence of character, he’s a plot device or a mechanism for a debate on where society might go. It would take several films for any “Dredd” character to manifest itself. I think Danile Craig or similar would be excellent. Or possibly even Statham. Dredd is an ultra hardcore fascist. A completely unlikable bastard who’s only redeeming trait is that he is true to a code.
So far the original Robocop is the closest thing we’ve seen on screen to Dredd. He’s a dour, humorless, emotionless killing machine of a man who, ultimately develops something of a personality, but it’s always in conflict with his programming.,