When asked at Comic Con conference in San Diego, about whether J.J Abrams was staying on to direct the Star Trek rebooted film franchise’s next film sequel, actor Karl Urban, who plays Dr. McCoy told Collider  this:

“Knowing J.J. I think he will have a pretty tough time handing this baby off to someone else. He was such an instrumental force of nature in delivering that film and creating those characters and ensuring that the Star Trek that was released was not some vacuous special effects extravaganza and that it was a character driven film. My hopes are that he will come back to the director’s chair.”

Karl is pictured here promoting Red at Comic Con with his costars Dame Helen Mirren and Bruce Willis. Urban also confirmed to Bleeding Cool, he has been hand picked to step into the shoes of the upcoming South African filmed, Judge Dredd in the title role. Karl also tells Steve “Frosty” Weintraub of Collider:

“I’ve met with Pete Travis, Andrew McDonald and we’ve had a really wonderful meeting of the minds and long story short, they have offered me the role and we’re in the process of making that happen. To have the opportunity to play such an iconic and enigmatic character as Joe Dredd is a phenomenal opportunity and I’m really thrilled and looking forward to getting into it. Joe as a character has great ironic witty one liners set in this futuristic post apocalyptic world.”

He’s such a Kiwi bro, this guy. I guess I’m always proud of Karl as a New Zealand born Californian, because he’s always done good work in small budget Kiwi films and on New Zealand television series too, like Xena and Hercules as well as big budget New Zealand and Hollywood films.

Karl also happens to be distant family, a cousin-in-law, whose married to my first cousin Aroha‘s daughter. Ironically, (like a lot of Karl’s early work is based on irony entertainment) “aroha” happens to mean in the Maori language “Love” and I help promote an important book called Courage To Love by author Robert Ellis, here in Hollywood – a book with a good message of Peace for the world. 

Following Red, Karl will next star in another comic book adaptation film called, Priest. Karl plays the villain, a vampire named Black Hat. An interesting acting career in Hollywood is about playing good guys and bad guys. It’s always good to mix it up, like Karl is for Priest. But he’s most famous for being J.J Abrams star doctor in Star Trek these days, with a legendary following from New Zealand’s Lord of The Rings Oscars winning legacy he brings to the Hollywood table from the land of green paradise, down under. Kia ora bro. Karl is also part indigenous Maori blood too. 

~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 7.29.2010~