EXCLUSIVE: Get ready for a movie makeover for The Toxic Avenger, the anti-hero who became the beachhead mutant in a Troma Films schlock heyday that included such 1980s classics as Surf Nazis Must Die, Rabid Grannies and Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator. Toxie, as the mop-wielding character is affectionately called, is at the center of a remake deal for a film that will be produced by Akiva Goldsman, Richard Saperstein and Charlie Corwin. Corwin’s Original Media, a partnership with Dutch reality TV giant Endemol, has financed the acquisition of rights to a franchise that includes four sequels, an animated TV series and comic books. Original Media will finance the development of a script, with writers to be hired shortly.
The group intends to turn Toxie into a green superhero for these environmentally conscious times. It has been a good couple of weeks for Toxie, after the stage production of The Toxic Avenger received a nomination for Outstanding Musical. The Lucille Lortel Awards for Off-Broadway stage productions will be awarded May 2.
The original film was directed by Troma founders Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz and has become something of a campy classic. It revolved around Tromaville Health Club mop boy Melvin, a gentle wimp whose trusting ways made him easy prey for gym thugs and eventually got him immersed in a vat of toxic waste. The radioactive swill transformed Melvin into Toxie, a misshapen superhero who wreaks havoc on polluters in New Jersey and whose improved muscle tone improved his standing with the chicks. 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. It’s his second Troma remake property, as Saperstein is teamed with Brett Ratner on a Mother’s Day redo that was directed by Darren Bousman.
Saperstein is separately working on a remake of The Blob that will be directed by Rob Zombie. He and Goldsman most recently teamed on the Will Smith-starrer Hancock. Goldsman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of A Beautiful Mind, has become a more prolific producer than scribbler lately: Warner Bros releases The Losers next month, and Jonah Hex in June. Weed Road Pictures’ Kerry Foster will be executive producer on The Toxic Avenger with Kaufman and Herz and Shara Kay is co-producer. Corwin, a producer on The Squid and the Whale and Half Nelson, most recently produced the Joel Schumacher-directed Twelve.
Lloyd Kaufman is one of my favorite directors
WoW, another remake, am I supposed to be happy? You ididots in hollywood haven’t came out with something origianl in years. Instead you gotta remake stuff(sometimes several times over)and it is NEVER better than the origianl. Whne will you douchebags grow a pair and come up with some orginal ideas again, hell smoke crack if you need to but QUIT REMAKING MOVIES!!!!
Dude…shut UP!!!
“You ididots in hollywood haven’t came out with something origianl in years.”
WAAAHHHH!!! Get used to it! Hollywood is a BUSINESS! Not always a brilliant one, but a BUSINESS!!
Why don’t you move to Amsterdam’s red light district and pay to see a guy singing something from La Cage Aux Folles while he lights his penis on fire if you want “original”!!
“Whne will you douchebags grow a pair and come up with some orginal ideas again…” JUST FOR THAT…I hope Warners remakes “The Bicycle Thief” in 3D and yes…with Taylor Lautner…TOOL!!!
Wow… who made you the king know-it-all?
It is also an art form you asshat. Or do you enjoy watching people make the same shit over and over again? Let me guess… you thought the entire series of The Fast and the Furious was pretty darn good didn’t you? But you’re right. It is a business, and dipshits like you will keep giving these studios the money they need to stay alive and keep pumping out the same tired old shit and drowning out the people who actually have talent. It is a business of ENTERTAINMENT that has unfortunately marketed itself to the lowest common denominator. So look forward to licking up the vomit of fatcat producers and pretending its caviar. Meanwhile, I will keep advocating for some actual quality and originality.
To me there is no real point to remaking it, and I HATE remakes. BUT! Lloyd has said that Troma is in financial trouble, and if he sold it to hollywood it would pretty much save his company. So for the first time ever…GO REMAKE!
yeah that remake of hamlet by bill shakespeare sucked. can’t beleive he wrote that
Maybe so, but don’t ever work for him. His only managerial instructions are “I’m not gonna wipe your ass for you”. Needless to say, I didn’t learn very much from him.
Boo to a remake
I loved this movie growing up! I can`t wait to see this version! The original movie was made before today`s technology in movie creations and special effects. So I know this updated version should be much better than the classic. A truly big “Toxic Avenger” fan.
I lovved toxie as a kid and saw the crappy movies as an adult I’m glad to finaly hear there gonna make it with a real budget and the characters from the tv show.
FINALLY!
/s
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….
why god why do we let hollywood keep fucking up classics
please make it stop for good we want it to stop now with this toxic
avenger remake no pg-13 remake no toned down toxie no big time hot shots ruining troma films…..LEAVE THEM THE FUCK ALONE……I
FUCKING MEAN IT.
Please let this one be in 3-D! Nothing screams 3-D more than toxic waste and New Jersey!!
I think at this point Lloyd must write and direct the Lloyd Kaufman story and get Pee Wee to play himself. Truly an original and have you tried his perfume, Aroma du Troma?
The Toxic avenger is often mistaken for a superhero, in the same way that Akiva Goldsman is often mistaken for a talented screenwriter.
Why bother remaking this one unless shooting to have your movie play on USA Up All Night is your concept of thinking big. But seriously, the first movie is so awesome. The opening health club scene is hilarious. How can you top that campiness? A remake will just take this material too seriously, and I don’t see kids lining up to see a deformed guy beating people up.
james gunn would be a good choice to write a script that is pleasing to the masses but retains some of that troma sensibility
Yet another unnecessary remake..
Congrats Loyd- Troma goes mainstream with, I hope for you, some mainstream recognition and $$$$.
Great, let’s ruin this even more. There were already 2 crappy versions produced that Lloyd apologized for (and they tanked), but 2 others were awesome and totally deserving of the name. Toxie is fantastic, but the pg-stuff is crap for the movie.
MAKE A REAL RE-MAKE!!! (R-rating, gore, sex, black comedy)
NO MORE CRAPPY REMAKES!!!
Stick to the originals or else…
It is time that we as citizens rise up against this Hollywood travesty of Cinema and lay claim to what is ours!
Let us band together and send our feces to the studios in protest with a note that reads:
“No More Crappy Remakes”
How ironic that a company called “Original Media” should be financing a B-movie remake. Originality is something that is in very short supply these days in film and television.
“The remake will be mounted as a family friendly PG-13 action comedy”
Nope. Won’t see it.
Also, do we need yet another re-do of The Blob? The ’88 remake still gives me the willies.
Second this, no WAY would I watch this Toxic remake.
The whole appeal of The Toxic Avenger, at least when it initially came out, was the campy gore factor. It wasn’t no-holds-barred but it also didn’t exactly pull any punches. It was rather risque in the death of the bicycling child but yet didn’t throw gallons and gallons of blood into the mix either. It was a charming little film, very well directed and well written for what it was, and has endured over two and three generations of viewers.
With that being said…how exactly are they going to stay true to the original on a PG-13 basis? It’s going to ruin any appeal it once had for viewers. Except for the cartoon viewers…maybe.
I’ll play the wait-and-see game with this “reimagining”.
I saw the musical off Broadway. It was hysterically funny – the music was perfect and so was the cast. I hope they will use the same cast in the movie.
Brilliant idea. Here’s how it will break down:
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Akiva Goldsman, Richard Saperstein and Charlie Corwin
Directed by Michael Bay using the James Cameron 3D technology
Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Starring Taylor Lautner as “Melvin” and introducing pop sensation Ke$ha as “Toxie”
Genius.
This is a mistake. Toxic Avenger + PG13 = boring.
I know someone who was at a test screening of “Mother’s Day” who thought it was so bad it was funny. Hope they do better with this one!
David Paterson should have a cameo.. or at least Fred Armisen :)
Good news for Troma. They will be able to keep the lights on for awhile longer now for sure.
It’s bad enough that everything is being remade nowadays, but to remake and heavily water down is just illogical. Why not just make an original movie if your idea differs so much from the original? Call it the Green Avenger or something. No one remembers the Toxic Avenger, anyway, so there’s no name recognition value. …And a Mother’s Day remake on top of it all? Bleh. :(
When will they redo Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid? I used to love that movie but my roommate took my VHS copy and it’s not on DVD.
none of the troma movies are as awesome as you remember when you were 14 years old (I hope)
some time back troma released a ton of stuff on DVD at firesale prices, and believe me most of it is unwatchable shit, all caps