Following the scoop from Bleeding Cool last month, Empire brings news from Movie-Con this evening that New Zealander Karl Urban has definitely been confirmed as Judge Dredd in the upcoming rebooted.

This is great news for fans of the infamous Mega-City One lawman. Urban is a fine character actor, and thanks to his winning turn as McCoy in last year’s Star Trek, I’m confident that he can do justice (no pun intended) to the role.

The makers have also confirmed that Dredd’s helmet won’t be removed (one of the many painful concessions in the Stallone version) and that long time Dredd scribe John Wagner has had a hand in every aspect of the development. It’s being shot in Johannesburg and the makers have (wisely) brought onboard crew members who worked on last year’s South African-set sci-fi, District 9.

This is the film I’ve been waiting for every since picking up a copy of the 2000AD Summer Special on my holiday in Gt Yarmouth way back in 1987!