Back in 2010, Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink was going to direct a remake of The Toxic Avenger. In 2012 John Travolta was rumored to be up for a role, then in 2013 Arnold Schwarzenegger was in talks to star. In 2016, it was Sausage Party director Conrad Vernon being brought in to helm. The point being, we’ve been hearing about the remake for a while.

This past December Legendary Entertainment acquired the feature film rights to The Toxic Avenger and made it a priority. Now they’ve found the latest name to attempt to make the movie a reality, as Macon Blair has been hired to write and direct what’s now being called a reboot.

Blair is best known as an actor, starring in Jeremy Saulnier’s Murder Party, Blue Ruin, Green Room, and Hold the Dark among other credits. But he does have some experience as a writer and director as well. He wrote and directed I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore for Netflix, and also worked on the screenplays for Small Crimes and Hold the Dark.

The cult classic original Toxic Avenger was released in 1984. It followed a scrawny janitor at a workout club who is bullied and ends up falling from a second story window into a drum of toxic waste. This turns him into the title character, a horribly disfigured monster with superhuman size and strength who uses his new abilities to fight evildoers.

It was followed by three sequels: 1989’s The Toxic Avenger Part II, 1989’s The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, and 2000’s Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. The first three movies were directed by Troma Entertainment’s Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, with Kaufman directing the fourth alone. Kaufman also worked on the screenplays for all four.

Kaufman and Herz will produce the reboot, while Legendary’s Alex Garcia and Jay Ashenfelter will oversee the project.

No word yet on when The Toxic Avenger reboot might be released, or who will star.

[Source: Variety]

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