Deadline NY is reporting that Troma’s flagship franchise, The Toxic Avenger, is getting a big budget remake. Akiva Goldsman (Hancock, I Am Legend, and the upcoming Jonah Hex), Richard Saperstein (Hancock, The Mist, Mother’s Day) and Charlie Corwin (The Squid and the Whale) are behind the deal, and have picked up rights to the franchise to create four sequels, an animated TV series and comic book series. Writers are being sought for the project right now.
The story will remain the same and revolve around Melvin, a 98 pound weakling tormented by the bullies at the Tromaville Health Club who falls into a vat of toxic ooze after a prank goes wrong. He emerges as the Toxic Avenger and uses his newfound size and strength to dispatch violent vigilante justice to the evildoers of Jersey. But the thing that will terrify most of us who grew up seeing Toxie literally rip bad guys to pieces (they usually deserved it) is that they’re looking to make this remake a PG-13 affair.
Quite a step from Citizen Toxie, the latest and greatest film in the series, which featured an old lady being run over and shitting and pissing herself as she died, a school shooting in a school for the “gifted”, abortions, a black man being drug to his death behind a truck, a man getting aids after being stabbed with syringes, and two fetuses duking it out in utero.
The remake will be mounted as a family friendly PG-13 action comedy akin to The Mask, which Saperstein worked on when he was a New Line exec.
This isn’t Saperstein’s first Troma remake, as he also worked on the upcoming Mother’s Day with Brett Ratner, with Saw‘s Darren Bousman directing. Saperstein is also working on Rob Zombie’s remake of The Blob.
How did this happen? It’s likely that the newfound success of the excellent Toxic Avenger musical has helped things along, and the concept of an environmentally conscious superhero is definitely back in favor once again, 16 years after Toxie originally appeared on the scene in NJ. Toxie’s made his way into a children’s cartoon before as well as pretty much every other form of media, so it’s not like this came out of nowhere. Still, good for Lloyd and crew for making out with this deal- hopefully one that gives them the opportunity to get working on another project sometime soon. It’s been too long since Poultrygeist!
Add Citizen Toxie to your Netflix Instant queue tonight and pay homage to the big green mutant.
15 comments
Worst idea of all time.
Hey Lloyd, write some more rants about how Hollywood sucks, you fucking sellout jerkoff…then rip off some more indie filmmakers while you're at it!
God fucking damn it. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK.
I called this a couple of months ago, actually. Of course, I figured they'd at least keep the R-rating. I had no idea that Akiva Goldsman, the biggest hack around, would be involved. This is awful news for anyone that values creativity in genre films.
I'm not one for prayers, but right about now we should take the time to pray that our ghost messiah of choice will send a team of AIDS infected chimps to skull fuck the shit out of Goldsman's cranium.
there was already a "family friendly" cartoon/comic book spin off back in the early-to mid 90's…and yeah, you bet your sweet bippy it was godawful
chemicals turning people into super-strong mentally ruined individuals is so hot right now.
Yea I remember that cartoon…it was called the "Toxic Avengers" and was about the Toxic Avenger and all his weird mutated friends. All I remember was Toxie and his mop and then one guy had a really big nose, it didn't last long tho maybe a season or two if that.
Liked the 1st toxie movie, couldn't make it through the 2nd so I stopped watching since I guess part 3 is the 2nd half of that peice. Also Poultrygeist is probably the worst movie I've ever seen since I tried watching Laprechaun 4: Leprechaun in Space.
I have the first issue of the Toxic Crusaders comic. Which makes this an exact copy of the original property. Four movies, a cartoon, and a comic.
isn't it more like 26 years since his mid-80's debut?
Any time you compare something to The Mask, it's a bad sign.
You lost me at Akiva Goldsman.
You shouldn't be hating on Leprechan in Space!
I'm really surpirsed the Troma back catalouge lasted this long without being completely remade.
I actually think theres heaps of potential for a good Toxic Avenger remake/sequel, just like with Robocop, since the subject of their exagerated humour has been surpassed by reality now.
However, without the Pythonesque violence, I'm sure it's going to lose a large amount of it's appeal.
If memory serves me correctly, in Lloyd Kaufman's book All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger he discussed how New Line made a deal with him about bringing the Toxic Crusaders cartoon to the screen after the Ninja Turtles movie was a success, bought the rights and sat on them. As of his writing the book (1998), they … See Morewere still facing a lot of legal trouble to get the rights back. I can't help but wonder if this is the product of a deal from 20 years ago, or is this a new deal with Troma for character/remake rights?
This part of the world (which also owns the fantastic Filmmaking book Mikey mentioned) is most decidedly NOT ready for the bastard child of Toxie and The Mask. Never likely to be. But what else can we expect in a world where it's my understanding that the rebooted Freddy Kreuger is an innocent man…I'm among those who loved Freddy best for his unrepentant glee in evil, which I think most of my peers would have loved to indulge in while acting like right bastards back in the 80s.
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