Kevin Smith Was Offered To Direct The TOXIC AVENGER Remake But He Turned it Down
It's easily one of the biggest cult classic films of all time and Troma Entertainment's The Toxic Avenger has been in the process of being remade for a long time. Producers first got the remake rights back in early 2010, but by the end of that year, director Steve Pink (Hot tub Time Machine) had been hired to write and direct a PG-13 action comedy take on Troma's very R-rated original. Pink wrote the screenplay with Daniel C. Mitchell, their story followed an average teen who joins an environmental club in hopes to impress his crush. Then while investigating a waste plant, he falls into a tub of waste and transforms into a radioactive hero.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was even offered a role in 2013, but it wasn't clear if he would play, and John Travolta was even rumored to be up for a role.
Then last year, it was announced that Pink was out as director, with Sausage Party director Conrad Vernon coming on to direct and Archer's Mike Arnold and Chris Poole did a rewrite of Pink and Mitchell's first script.
Recently director Kevin Smith mentioned in an episode of his podcast Fatman on Batman that he was at one point offered the director job. When asked a question about receiving notes from producers or executives, Smith explained:
I don't really deal in that world that much anymore, I don't have to sit with people that are corporate and have interests to protect, like, I'm in the walrus movie phase of my career. The last thing, and it wasn't even a big deal, it wasn't like 'I'm outraged!'... somebody asked me, 'Hey man, we've got THE TOXIC AVENGER and we're gonna remake it, do a reboot, and hey, you're from Jersey.' And you know, I always kind of dug what Lloyd Kaufman and the Troma people do, it was right in Jersey, I remember seeing them on the news all the time - 'Hollywood, motion pictures in New Jersey? Right here at Troma!' And TOXIC AVENGER was insanely well known. So I always respected the Troma world and Toxie franchise. So I was like, all right, I'll go down the rabbit hole a bit and see what's what.
And we parted ways fundamentally on the budget, because I was just like, 'Part of the charm of the TOXIC AVENGER is that it was made for two nickels. If you're gonna do it again, don't spend a lot of money.' But they were like, 'No no no, it's a 35 million dollar movie.' And I was like, 'It's a f*ckin' remake of THE TOXIC AVENGER, the guy in a tutu with a bad makeup job, what are we gonna spend all the money on?' So right then and there, I'm clearly not on the same page. In my head, if I need to see a TOXIC AVENGER remake, it should be done in the spirit of the original. Instead, they were literally trying to start a franchise, Marvel-ize it and stuff like that. And I'm like, 'I don't know if you guys saw that movie.' So I just quietly stepped away. I understand what they were going for, but I would never want to see that version of the movie. It would be like somebody doing a 35 million dollar version of CLERKS. Why would you bother?"
At this point it doesn't seem like the remake will be happening anytime soon, but the idea of a family-friendly Toxic Avenger movie starring Schwarzenegger and/or Travola would be something that even the most imaginative person would struggle with envisioning.
What do you say? Do you even want a remake?
Source: Joblo.com