Keeping in line with most of his recent output, Seth Rogen’s raunchy animated comedy Sausage Party took a mostly goofball premise, injected it with a cavalcade of dirty words and a small, if surprising amount of insight, and made a decent chunk of change during its run at the box office last month. Of course, the film’s profit margin miiight have been affected by some delinquent (or non-existent) payments made to the film’s animators, but there’s no denying how impressive the final product came out in the end.
Like Deadpool before it, Sausage Party took a big risk with its R-rating and succeeded, which has given co-directors Conrad Vernon and Paul Tiernan a lot of leeway with Hollywood when it comes to choosing their next projects. While the latter has been a bit busy dispelling the aforementioned rumors being leveled at them by the film’s disgruntled animators, it looks like Vernon is already moving on and has lined up an equally, if not more absurd film to add to his resume: a remake of 1984’s The Toxic Avenger.
Per Variety, the remake of the Troma classic will be coming from producer Richard Saperstein’s studio, Storyscape Entertainment, with Conrad directing and Archer writers Mike Arnold and Chris Poole handling the screenplay.
Considered by many to be the definitive film of Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma Entertainment, The Toxic Avenger tells the story of Melvin Ferd, a New Jersey teenager who is turned into a mutant superhero after falling into a vat of toxic sludge. But beyond that, it contains some of the single greatest scenes in cinema history, such as the one where a small child on a bike is mercilessly run over by a group of teenagers whose names include Bozo, Slug, and Wanda.
Even back then, it’s like teens couldn’t just live in the moment of splattering a boy’s head on the concrete before having to break out their fancy Polaroid cameras and documenting the entire event. I blame Wanda.
While Conrad has already helmed a handful of successful animated films including Shrek 2 and Monsters vs. Aliens, The Toxic Avenger remake will represent his first venture into the world of live-action feature filmmaking. Said Saperstein Vernon, “[He] is a subversive comedic genius. He is the perfect director to bring this iconoclastic franchise back to life.”
“The opportunity to re-imagine a favorite cult-classic from my high school years is an honor. Toxie is an underground icon. My favorite kind!” added Vernon.
We’ll keep you updated as details on The Toxic Avenger emerge, but in the meantime, here’s that clip of the kid getting run over in gif form.
(via Variety)
