Although the remake of Troma’s The Toxic Avenger was a really big hit at Fantastic Fest, there hasn’t been a wide release planned as of yet.
Last September, people finally got to see a bit of Macon Blair’s remake of the famous Troma film The Toxic Avenger. The original is a cult classic that puts an over-the-top, irreverent, graphically violent spin on the superhero franchise and the remake aimed to keep the spirit of the Lloyd Kaufman original. This new incarnation would also sport an impressive cast with The Thicket‘s Peter Dinklage. He’s also joined by Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood, who portray the big baddies in the film.
However, after the release of the Red Band trailer, there has been no word on a release as the studio behind it doesn’t deem it releasable with its straddling the very fine line of commercial and cult appeal. The status of the film appears to have it in limbo at the moment, but the movie’s lead, Peter Dinklage, is optimistic that it will eventually find its way to theaters. The Hollywood Reporter shares Dinklage’s optimism as he told ComicBook.com,
No, I’m not a producer on it. I don’t know. I do want it to get out there into the world because it was a really big hit at Fantastic Fest in Austin, and Macon Blair, the writer/director who is also in The Thicket … He’s incredible. He’s one of my favorite people and favorite artists. So hopefully it will have its day in the toxic sun.”
Blair’s version of The Toxic Avenger stars Peter Dinklage as Winston Gooze, a stereotypical weakling who works as a janitor at Garb-X health club and is diagnosed with a terminal illness that can only be cured by an expensive treatment that his greedy, power hungry employer refuses to pay for. After deciding to take matters into his own hands and rob his company, Winston falls into a pit of toxic waste and is transformed into a deformed monster that sets out to do good and get back at all the people who have wronged him.
Dinklage is joined in the cast by Kevin Bacon as villainous corporate overlord Bob Garbinger; Elijah Wood as Bob’s brother Fritz Garbinger, who is described as “sort of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Danny DeVito Penguin mixed together”; a group of lunatics / musicians called the Killer Nutz, who are “a rock and roll group where their presentation is theatrical evil, like KISS or Alice Cooper, but their moonlight gig is professional assassins”; Taylour Paige as investigative reporter / vigilante detective JJ Doherty; Jacob Tremblay as Winston’s stepson Wade; Jonny Coyne as a “shadowy criminal figure”; Sarah Niles as a “corrupt city official”; Julia Davis as an unspecified character; and Blair as a guy named Dennis.
The Toxic Avenger remake was filmed in Bulgaria. Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz produced with Legendary Entertainment. The film has received an R rating for “strong violence and gore, language throughout, sexual references and brief graphic nudity“ – and the gore includes a moment that has been referred to as “the butt guts scene“.