It wouldn’t seem like it, but “The Toxic Avenger” is quite a large franchise.
Sadly it hasn’t been active for some time and with superheroes dominating the box office it seems like as good of time as any to bring old Toxie back. However, this is a project that the producers have been discussing for some time. Mainly trying to find someone who can direct the film. It would seem they may have found a director in the form of Conrad Vernon. Don’t recognize the name? Well he was the co-director of the recent “Sausage Party“.
For those who don’t know “The Toxic Avenger” began life as a slasher film, but during production became more of a superhero film. Shocking pretty much everyone it spawned 3 sequels (two of them filmed simultaneously) video games, comic books, a musical (yeah I’m as shocked as you) and of course a kid’s cartoon series with a line of action figures. Now if that doesn’t seem strange to you then let me explain, the film was filmed as a slasher. So as such it is a VIOLENT film. The bad-guys run over kids in their car for fun, Toxie kills people by shoving a mop through their faces and Spoiler Warning in the end of the film kills the big bad guy by punching him so hard in the stomach that his organs fall out. So who better to director than the co-director of such films as “Shrek 2”, “Madagascar 3” and “Monsters vs Aliens”. Yes before hitting it big with “Sausage Party” that is was Conrad Vernon was most known for. He seems to be transitioning himself in his career, just a bit.
Despite what I mentioned earlier I HIGHLY doubt the remake will be as violent as the first film. I’m sure it’ll be a PG-13 that at most pushes the envelope of the rating, but that’s probably it. Still a director who has a background with adult humor and the ability to understand what the youth enjoy both in action and comedy. Hopefully the rumors about his and the top people on “Sausage Party” treatment of the crew won’t follow him on to this production.
This story was first reported by Deadline.com