If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. And in the case of Troma’s “The Toxic Avenger,” they are yet again trying to find a way to make the trashy ’80s guilty pleasure culturally relevant. If you remember, there was a failed cartoon series on Fox in 1991, and if you think back really hard, you might even recall seeing the Toxie action figure in the sea of Ninja Turtle and X-Men toys. Well, as first reported last spring, producer Akiva Goldsman has the bright idea to just reboot the whole thing for a PG-13 feature.
Deadline reports that Steve Pink (“Hot Tub Time Machine“) has been hired to direct and co-write (along with Daniel C. Mitchell) “The Toxic Avenger.” “The Toxic Avenger is exactly what the country–wait, that’s not big enough–what the world needs right now,” said Pink with what we hope was a tongue firmly in cheek.
For those unfamiliar with the source material, “The Toxic Avenger” was a low budget, 1984 horror-comedy made by purveyors of the earnestly ridiculous, Troma. In the film, a “stereotypical 98 lb nerd weakling” (though played as almost mentally disabled by Mitch Cohen) falls into a drum of toxic waste, which transforms his body and gives him near super human strength. After dealing with his transformation, the hero takes care of the various gangs and crime bosses in his town of Tromaville.
So yeah, it’s a landmark piece of trash but with cinema screens already filled with comic movies, does this really need to be made? Moreover, will anyone really be anticipating this? We don’t think so, and in fact, we think it’s a tremendously bad idea, though it will probably wind up being similar to the original in name only. And with Goldsman in the background putting his hands all over this, we can’t imagine this will be anything more than toxic (ha ha ha).
