Production on Legendary’s Toxic Avenger reboot is scheduled to begin this summer and the film has reportedly found its villain with The Illuminerdi reporting that Elijah Wood will take on the part for the film. The Lord of the Rings star will reportedly appear as “Bob Garbinger,” the boss to Peter Dinklage aka Winston/The Toxic Avenger. The site has a description of Wood’s character which reads in part: “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.”
To lend some credence to this report, Wood has worked with and been friends with Macon Blair, the director of The Toxic Avenger reboot, for many years. The pair previously collaborated on I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. back in 2017. Blair wrote and directed the film which starred Wood. Should the ink dry on the deal, Elijah Wood would join a cast that includes the former Game of Thrones star in the titular role plus Jacob Tremblay as Dinklage’s son and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom actress Taylour Paige as the female lead. Blair will step behind the camera as director.
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The outlet also brings us the official description for the film, which reads: “Based on the 1984 cult classic of the same name. Set in a fantasy world following 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.”
For those unaware, The Toxic Avenger was a creation of the cult-film company Troma Entertainment, who specialized in low budget exploitation movies but Toxie would quickly become their most successful release. The film would grow into a full blow franchise and becoming a phenomenon, spawning multiple sequels, a stage musical, a comic book, and a children’s cartoon.
“Macon Blair knows Troma better than I do. He’s seen everything. He’s seen the cartoon, he’s seen the Halloween special, he’s seen everything,” Troma head Lloyd Kaufman previously shared with Dread Central earlier this year. “And he loves our movies like Troma’s War and Terror Firmer. I’ve read the script and it’s better than the original and I leave it to him. If I’m called upon, I’d be happy to jump in. I learned on the musical to leave the creative to the creative. I learned to let them ask so if they want me, I’m there.”
