There’s a chance we should take this one with a healthy dose of salt, but according to industry tracking website It’s On The Grid, John Travolta is attached to the title role in the proposed remake of the 1984 cult comedy-horror The Toxic Avenger, which is set to be directed by Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine) from a screenplay by Pink and Daniel C. Mitchell (Dead Last).
Originally released in 1984, The Toxic Avenger centres on a mild-mannered janitor who finds himself transformed into a mutated superhuman crime-fighter after falling into a vat of toxic waste. Produced and directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, The Toxic Avenger was an early hit for Troma Entertainment – with Toxie becoming the official mascot of the company) – and spawned the sequels The Toxic Avenger Part II, The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV, as well as a children’s cartoon series and a recent rock musical.
Aside from a potential appearance in The Toxic Avenger, Travolta will next be seen alongside Robert De Niro in director Mark Steven Johnson’s Killing Season, which is scheduled for release next year, and he is also set to star as mobster John Gotti Sr. in Barry Levinson’s crime epic Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father.
Update – According to Jeff Sneider of Variety, Travolta is indeed attached to the project, although not in the role of Toxie himself.
Originally published August 21, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
