The first wave of Fantastic Fest was announced today, and the Austin-based genre festival revealed a surprise for its opening night. Legendary’s all-new version of the Troma Entertainment classic, The Toxic Avenger will have its worldwide debut debut on September 21. The film comes from writer/director Macon Blair, who was most recently seen in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
The reimagining of the 1984 horror-comedy stars Peter Dinklage as Toxie, as well as Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Elijah Wood, Sarah Niles, Julia Davis, Julian Kostov, and Kevin Bacon. The story is about a toxic accident transforming mild-mannered janitor Winston Gooze into a radioactive solider of the future, who wields a mop he shares a telepathic bond with.
Legendary released a teaser image of Dinklage with his mop’s radioactive glow, but mostly obscured in the darkness, so we still have a little bit of time before his ghastly face is revealed.
“Set in a fantasy world following Winston, 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,” the official film synopsis reads. “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.”
The original Toxic Avenger film gave way to three sequels and even an animated series called the Toxic Crusaders, which then spawned a toy line and video games in the early ’90s. Then again, who didn’t have a toy line back then?
“Macon Blair knows Troma better than I do. He’s seen everything. He’s seen the cartoon [Toxic Crusaders], he’s seen the Halloween special, he’s seen everything. And he loves our movies,” Troma creator Lloyd Kaufman said in a recent interview. “I’ve read the script and it’s better than the original and I leave it to him. If I’m called upon, I’d be happy to jump in. I learned in the musical to leave the creative to the creative. I learned to let them ask so if they want me, I’m there. I hope that Legendary keeps going. If they let Macon Blair direct it, I think it will be terrific. He knows the Troma sense of humor, the combination of slapstick, and satire with the environmental theme.”
Image Credit: LEGENDARY PICTURES
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