The director of the new Toxic Avenger has been announced, Troma’s troubles, and beyond…

A few people who read our blog might know my personal love affair with Hot Tub Time Machine. I personally think HTTM was a little masterpiece which deserved critical praise and millions of dollars. It did mediocre at the box office and did get a bit of critical praise. Even A.O. Scott, a critic known for being kind of an academic d-bag, gave the film high praise.

So what is the point?  Well, some how the stars have aligned in our favor. Deadline reports that The director of HTTM, Steve Pink, will be remaking one of my favorite movies The Toxic Avenger. The whole Toxic film is above, take an hour and watch it here!!!

The Toxic Avenger is considered a masterpiece of shock cinema and when its director, Llyod Kauffman, announced that Troma would be licensing the rights to a major studio, a lot of people freaked. How could Kaufman let “the man” and “corporate elites” get their hands on the sacred classic? Well, I think Kaufman’s decision is super awesome. Why? Well, let me explain…

Troma studios is one of the few independent studios that figured out how to stay alive without the help of big, Hollywood studios. They did this through VHS and wiggling their way into a sub-genre of horror almost impossible to describe. Call it: Splatter comedy. It isn’t tongue-in-cheek or comedy-horror, it is/and was something special.

But the problem was that Troma never adapted itself to the industry. It prefered expensive theatrical release over straight-to-dvd. It preferred film over digital and other committed numerous technological blunders. Troma had a lot of trouble with the digital age…not to mention the terrible films Toxic Avenger 2 &3 (which was actually just one film), Sergeant Kabukiman NYPD, and Tales from the Crapper. They were garbage.

Most importantly, Troma needs money right now. Kaufman and Troma co-owner Michale Hertz are old. They should strike while the iron is hot and try to get out a few more original Kaufman/Hertz titles before they retire. Rumor is that Pink’s version is to be more “environmentally” friendly, akin to the cartoon Toxic Crusaders. I also think this is awesome. The original had a low-budget veracity that would be hard to emulate. There is no reason to try.

Basically I’m stoked for this and I can’t wait to see what Kaufman comes out with next. Rumor has it he is working on yet another Toxie movie. Let’s hope he releases it better this time. Straight-to-DVD and without mother fuckas’ stealing it.

-Collin