A Classic ’80s Superhero Movie Reboot Just Finished Filming
This '80s reboot has finally finished filming. It's going to be a wild addition to the superhero genre.
This article is more than 2 years old
At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is rearing its head again and film productions are getting shuttered one after another with a fresh wave of positive cases amongst its crew and cast, the news of a production actually managing to complete its shooting is certainly a cause of celebration. This is especially if the topic of our conversation is the recently concluded filming of the highly awaited The Toxic Avenger.
A reboot of the original 1984 film of the same name, The Toxic Avenger is directed by Macon Blair and was filmed in Bulgaria. Recently, Blair took to Twitter to announce that they have finished filming the superhero comedy horror film. Elijah Wood, one of the actors in the film, also responded to the tweet by sharing that shooting the film was a fun experience.
The Toxic Avenger, due to release in 2022, was first announced in 2013 and will be the fifth film in the franchise, although it will be a “contemporary reimagining” of the original blockbuster. For now, all that is known about the film is that its core storyline will follow the first film i.e., we will see a “struggling everyman” get turned into a mutant freak when he is pushed into a vat of toxic waste. While he was a nobody before the incident, he becomes a hero when he decides to go up against bigger powers, dabbling in corruption to quench their ever-increasing greed, to save his son, friends, and community. As reported by Deadline previously, The Toxic Avenger will also include environmental themes and will be twisting the superhero genre somewhat like the Deadpool films.
Initially, when the film was announced, Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to join the cast of the film. But at the time he also had Terminator Genisys in his hands and opted to drop The Toxic Avenger. For a few years, the development of the film and the process of picking its cast was paused until 2020 when Peter Dinklage became the first actor to join the cast followed by Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, Julia Davis, and Elijah Wood. While it is yet to be disclosed what roles the carefully selected cast will be playing, it has been reported that Bacon has been brought on board to play the villain in the film. The film is produced by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, who were also the directors and producers of the 1984 film.
As stated above, no explicit details about the upcoming The Toxic Avenger are known, but Kaufman has praised the choice of Blair as the writer/director of the reboot and claimed that its script is better than the original. Kaufman has no doubts that the film will be terrific as Blair is well-versed in the unique sense of humor of The Toxic Avenger franchise and already loves all the films under it. To his credit, even though Blair has only directed one film in the past i.e., I Don’t Feel Like At Home In This World Anymore, it ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize at 2017’s Sundance Film Festival. Only time will tell if Blair successfully brought his unique vision to this film as well or not. Fingers crossed!
