I can see that there are still some fans that are possibly ignorant as to the origins of the character and his uniform design.
First, here's a quote of the synopsis for
DREDD, which has been in some of the articles about the new movie:
DREDD takes us to the wild streets of Mega City One, the lone oasis of quasi-civilization on Cursed Earth. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is the most feared of elite Street Judges, with the power to enforce the law, sentence offenders and execute them on the spot – if necessary. The endlessly inventive mind of writer Alex Garland and the frenetic vision of director Peter Travis bring DREDD to life as a futuristic neo-noir action film that returns the celebrated character to the dark, visceral incarnation from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s revered comic strip.
Now then, let's have a look at how Carlos Ezquerra drew Judge Joseph Dredd in those early strips, shall we?
Even the Statue of Justice depicting Judge Dredd has the same look in those early strips:
The things that jump out at me about Ezquerra's original uniform design are...
- More than any other artist, he made the uniform look like a black leather outfit designed to protect a motorcyclist. Hence the protective pads and the helmet.
- He drew the shoulder pads at a smaller, more realistic size... just like the ones we see in the new movie! The ones that most artists draw, the ones that Sly Stallone wore in his movie, would limit the movement of a Street Judge's arms more than the smaller, more realistic shoulder pads Ezquerra drew. In real life, that could be dangerous.
- Ezquerra drew a smaller, more form-fitting helmet... more reminiscent of the one in the Stallone movie. So the new movie's costume designer clearly preferred a larger take on the helmet, from a different artist.
Also, it's clear that just as in the first movie, the movie-makers are having Dredd use the Lawgiver Mark II. But at least this time it looks closer to the Mark II seen in the comics:
Sure, it's not 100% the same, but that's due to the necessity of the design. Prop-makers start with real handguns and then modify them, so that the gun will be capable of firing blanks on the set. But at least this time they've attempted to make it look more like the Mark II in the comic.
As for the Mark I...
...it's clear to me that the reason we haven't seen that one adapted for the screen is its shape. The only way I can see to make a movie Lawgiver that looks like the Mark I is to use something like a Mauser (a WWI era handgun, famously customized to make Han Solo's blaster pistols for the original
Star Wars trilogy) or a Luger (a WWII era Nazi handgun). Those might be harder to find in good, working condition. And they wouldn't look as impressive or manly as the Mark II.
