Karl Urban

September 12, 2012 by Maura Reilly
Filed under Actors 2Watch4

Ode to Karl Urban:
Oh Karl Urban, how I love thee, let me count the ways!
Pierce me with an arrow of thy love, oh winged god. (It began with a guest starring role as Cupid on “Xena”.)
Horse master and master of my heart, I am your willing servant. (Then he rode across the plains of Rohan in The Two Towers and Return of the King)
I am boneless, without will and require your passionate care. (He plays Doctor McCoy in the new Star Trek.)
Judge me by the ferociousness of my affections for it only ever increases. (New line! That’s a Judge Dredd reference – duh!)
Wow, I am an appallingly bad poet. I’ll stick to my normal writing technique and spare you all further discomfort.

I’ve been a fan of Mr. Urban’s work for quite some time now. With the exception of some early television stuff he did in New Zealand I think I’ve seen the majority of his work. Hell I even own a copy of The Irrefutable Truth About Demons (2000). Don’t judge. It was a gift. Wellington born Karl is a notoriously private person. He prefers to let his work speak for him. Here’s the thing though – if he keeps this pace of quality and quantity up, everybody is going to want to know more about him. Consider this your ground floor initiation.

Karl has a presence on screen that is commanding, both physically and emotionally. From huge blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, to smaller indie dramas like Out of the Blue, about New Zealand’s first mass shooting, Karl’s been gifted with some amazing opportunities. He’s had to hold his own opposite larger than life actors like Vin Disel (The Chronicles of Riddick), Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Doom), Clancy Brown (Pathfinder) and Bruce Willis (Red). Karl so convinced Pathfinder director Marcus Nispel that he was a Russian when he played a hit man out to get Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy that Nispel feared they’d never get him to play the Viking raised by Native Americans in pre-Columbus North America. Well das vedonya for pursuing that avenue. We got Karl in a loincloth!

By now you know that Urban was Leonard “Bones” McCoy in J.J. Abrams re-imagining of the classic 60’s sci-fi series Star Trek. Karl, who, famously, is a huge fan of the original show, injects a little humor into the mix and may very well be the stand out performance of the film. Expect the sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness in 2013. It’s interesting to point out that Karl has played another iconic character in the early years. In 2008 Karl got his cowboy on and played “Lonesome Dove” Texas Ranger Woodrow Call, a role originated by Tommy Lee Jones, in the mini-series Comanche Moon, opposite Steve Zahn’s Gus McCrae. It’s available on DVD and worth seeing just for Val Kilmer’s interesting performance.

Karl is stepping into the realm of comics once again when he dons the helmet of Judge Dredd for Dredd 3D, out in September. I must issue a protest at this juncture – screenwriter Alex Garland (The Beach) stayed true to the source material and the Judge never removes his face-covering head gear. Seriously?! A whole movie and we don’t see his face? I don’t care if it is canon – it sucks! Karl, a fan of the comic, is pleased with the stand the filmmakers have taken but then I don’t think he should get a vote. What may very well make up for this is the next film due for release in early 2013 – the sexual thriller The Loft (also starring O2W4 James Marsden) about five friends who share a loft where they can carry on extramarital affairs. Unless there’s some sort of role-playing going on here – no danger of helmets.

Have you noticed a common thread with Urban here? He’s a fan of Star Trek, he’s a fan of comic books like Judge Dredd, I read he owns mini light sabers, loves Doctor Who and Comic-Con. Hell, he named one of his sons Indiana! If I haven’t already given you enough reasons to spout poetry about this guy – here is the nail in your coffin – he’s a total geek. I have a rhyming dictionary if you should need one. Not that it helped me at all…

Fansites:
Karl Urban Online
Karl Urban Network

Official Movie Sites:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Star Trek (2009)
Red
Dredd 3D
Dredd 3D on Facebook