by Conan Simmons – June 18, 2021 – 6:32 am
Tromaville is getting a Hollywood makeover as Legendary Pictures, the studio behind Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy as well as ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ and the upcoming remake of ‘Dune’, takes on the most iconic of Troma’s characters ‘The Toxic Avenger’.
Originally appearing on film in 1984 ‘The Toxic Avenger’ is what put low-brow schlock studio Troma on the map. The film became a cult hit and spawned sequels, ‘The Toxic Avenger Part 2’ and ‘The Last Temptation of Toxie’ in 1989 (the latter being a riff on Martin Scorsese’s controversial ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ that same year) and 2000’s ‘Citizen Toxie’.
The nerd janitor turned monster superhero proved popular enough to have a Saturday morning cartoon series, ‘The Toxic Crusaders’, in 1991 that included a line of action figures, a video game for Nintendo, Game Boy and Sega Genesis, as well as a comic book series published by Marvel Comics from 1991 to 1992.
If a Saturday morning cartoon show was an unlikely adaptation from Troma in 2008 ‘The Toxic Avenger’ became a hit off-Broadway stage musical.
First news of a big budget Hollywood remake came in 2010 with rumors that Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to star. Sure enough, the rumors proved true albeit the production was stuck in development hell and Schwarzenegger left the project in 2013.
Now today, a new adaptation is currently filming under the Legendary Pictures banner with original Troma producers Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman producing.
The new film is being directed by Macon Blair who also wrote the screenplay for the latest Toxie adventure. Blair is mostly known as an actor and has appeared as Phantom Stranger in James Wan’s ‘Swamp Thing’ tv series based on DC comics horror hero.
Peter Dinklage, who became a household name with his iconic role on ‘Game of Thrones’, is playing the part of The Toxic Avenger.
Kevin Bacon is expected to be playing the main villain.
The cast also includes Elijah Wood, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis and Jacob Tremblay.
Filming is currently underway in Bulgaria, the nation sandwiched between Greece and Romania on the coast of the Black Sea. So, obviously New Jersey was too expensive to film in.
