Elijah Wood Cast As The Villain In An ‘80s Classic Reboot
Elijah Wood is going to take a turn to the dark side in his next film, playing the villain in a crazy 1980s reboot of a cult classic
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Elijah Wood has played a lot of roles in his career, though will likely always be best known for trudging that single ring to rule them all up through Mordor and into Mount Doom before disposing of it. Playing a hero Hobbit was an iconic turn for the actor though he’s clearly tried to distance himself from it in other roles over the years. And this latest casting news follows that path. According to The Illuminerdi, Wood has taken the role of a villain in a reboot of the 1980s cult classic The Toxic Avenger. This is about as far as you can get from the Shire and Middle Earth.
In The Toxic Avenger Elijah Wood will be playing Bob Garbinger, a power-hungry, greedy, and classically evil corporate executive who runs Garb-X. It’s this company that employs the hero, Winston. The flick has a very 2020s feel to it in terms of plot arc in that the main character, Winston can’t afford cancer treatment and his employer (Garbinger) refuses to pay for the procedure. This results in, somehow, Winston falling into a vat of Garb-X toxic waste, and thus the Toxic Avenger is born. I can just picture Wood as the diminutive and sneering heel in this one especially when he sees out powers of his own.
Elijah Wood will join a movie that’s shaping up to do the reboot route right. Peter Dinklage has already been cast as the aforementioned Winston who will become the deformed hero in the story. Whether Dinklage plays both the original Winston and the veritable monster he becomes remains to be seen. There is presumably plenty of makeup and CGI in this one if they hope to bring it anywhere in line with the original. Jacob Tremblay has already been cast as Winston’s son.
After some production starts and stops with this reboot, The Toxic Avenger has slotted in Macon Blair as both the writer and the director. He made his feature-length film debut on Netflix with the movie I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore. The thriller black comedy was a critical hit sitting at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and oh, just happened to co-star Elijah Wood as a vengeance-seeking do-gooder who had a strong moral compass (to start) but a violent streak as well. They will team back up for this one.
The Toxic Avenger will be rebooting the 1984 movie of the same name which was directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman. The splatter film reached cult status and was the silly and gory story of a dude whose trip into a toxic dumb has him coming out the other side with a sense of right, superpowers, and a horrible disfigurement. It doesn’t seem like the first movie you’d think would get a second run, but all of the main players are lining up for this to be a hit. Getting Elijah Wood on board as the villain is just another great addition.
Before we get Elijah Wood in this movie, which is still very much in pre-production, he’s going to come out with No Man of God which will explore the relationship between FBI agent Bill Hagmaier (Wood) and Ted Bundy (Luke Kirby) before the latter was executed.
