"I am the law!"
He has been around since 1977 - Judge Dredd: judge, jury and executioner; futuristic lawman of Mega City One.
The character was created by writers John Wagner and Pat Mills, and artist Carlos Ezquerra for the British comic book 2000AD and was an instant smash hit. The violent, often satirical comic has more or less dominated the British comics field since then and is England's most well-known comics character.
In 1995, director Danny Cannon turned Dredd into a big budget, American movie starring Sylvester Stallone. Cannon's film is entertaining and looks good, but it was not very faithful to the comic book version - among other things, Dredd removes his helmet. In the comics, he has never been seen without it. The movie was not very successful and Stallone claimed he looked like a Buick wearing the judge uniform.
Several years ago, the American B-movie company Shoreline announced quite surprisingly that they were going to make a new Judge Dredd movie. However, nothing ever happened. Dredd's fans would probably att "fortunately".
It seems like shoreline lost the rights, because a new movie has just been green lighted. It is Rebellion and 2000AD who announce that they have signed a deal with DNA Films, the company behind movies like SUNSHINE and 28 WEEKS LATER.
JUDGE DREDD goes into production during 2009, but as of this writing, the producers cannot give away any details.