Olivia Thirlby, who played Juno’s best friend Leah in the 2007 indie smash, has joined the cast of the new Judge Dredd film.  Thirlby will play Psi-Judge Anderson, a telepathic rookie who uses her powers to get the future cops out of a tight situation.  Thirlby will evidently provide the film's (and Dredd's) “romantic” interest, if one can use that term when discussing that passionless purveyor of blind and merciless justice in the 21st Century.

Pete Travis (Vantage Point) is directing the Alex (28 Day's Later) Garland-penned Judge Dredd film, which stars Karl Urban (see “Bones to Play Judge Dredd”) and promises to be far truer to the original 2000 AD comic book property than the Sylvester Stallone 1995 film.  The $45 million production is slated to begin filming in South Africa later this year.  The new Judge Dredd movie is expected in theaters in 2012.