The Toxic Avenger remake director Macon Blair aimed to honor the original film

More than five months have gone by since I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore director Macon Blair announced that filming had wrapped on his remake of the Troma cult classic The Toxic Avenger (watch it HERE), but we still don’t know when this movie is going to be released. While we wait for a release date, star Peter Dinklage has described the remake as a “crazy, over-the-top movie”, and now Blair has given some insight into his approach to the material in an interview with Bloody Flicks.

Blair said the project happened because he was contacted and asked to pitch his take on The Toxic Avenger. At first,

I was hesitant but then I kept thinking about it and ended up suggesting a version of the character and the world to Legendary they wanted to hear more and we kind of developed it from there. The guiding principle was that the story could exist on its own terms but in spirit would feel connected to the original.”

Asked to elaborate on the development of the remake, Blair said,

I saw Toxie as an impressionable kid and it had quite an impact on me—the absurdity and gleeful bad taste of it. So in one sense it’s an exciting privilege to get to take a swing at a new version but it’s also kind of daunting because there are different goals we’re trying to hit simultaneously. Troma fans are passionate and dedicated and it’s important to make a movie they feel like honors the original. I don’t presume we’re going to be able to please every single person but the intention and the hope is that fans will feel like we’ve preserved some of that Kaufman vibe. But at the same time, we want to make a movie that will connect with contemporary audiences who may not have heard of Troma or Toxie, who are coming into it without that context, so it can’t all be winks and nods and rehash of the original.”

Interestingly, Blair said his movie is “a little bit of both” a period piece and a modern day tale.

Blair’s version of the concept stars Peter Dinklage as

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. 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 Jacob Tremblay (presumably as Winston’s son), Taylour Paige as the “female lead” (we haven’t heard any details on her character), Julia Davis and Elijah Wood as unspecified characters, Jonny Coyne as a “shadowy criminal figure”, Sarah Niles as a “corrupt city official”, and Kevin Bacon as the primary villain, a role Wood had originally been rumored for. Blair is also in the cast as a guy named Dennis.

According to The Illuminerdi, the main villain is rumored to be 

Bob Garbinger – Leonine hair and eerie plastic surgery. Evil head of the shady company Garb X. He has no regard for the well being of anyone but himself and embarks on a murderous spree to become as powerful as Toxie. His ego is bolstered by his standing amongst the towns official but in reality he lives in fear of the underworld gang he’s indebted to.

The Toxic Avenger was filmed in Bulgaria. Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz produced the remake with Legendary Entertainment.

Here’s hoping we’ll be hearing a release date announcement soon.