Tag: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Posted on in Film News

‘The Toxic Avenger’: Peter Dinklage Nabs Lead Role In Legendary’s Reboot of The Cult Comedy Superhero Franchise

Deadline reports that Emmy winning actor Peter Dinklage has been set for the lead role in Legendary’s reboot of the cult superhero franchise The Toxic Avenger from director Macon Blair. Peter isn’t a stranger to either comedy or genre projects with credits such as Game of Thrones, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Pixels.

They don’t mention who Peter is playing but the assumption he’ll end up playing Melvin Junko or a version of him, a nerdy New Jersey janitor that is turned into the hulking Toxic Avenger aka Toxie after a prank by a bunch of bullies lands him into a batch of toxic waste.

It’s tone is all over the place as the violence is on par with stuff like RoboCop and Total Recall while being just as satirical as a parody like Scary Movie. I’m extremely curious to see how they want to approach the reboot and if they’ll attempt to be as violent as the original installments. However, with the popularity of a character like Deadpool that was created in the wake of Toxie’s popularity in the 1980s, it wouldn’t tough to see how Legendary might want to let director Macon Blair do what he likes with it. Blair is already working if Peter on the comedy Brothers for Legendary which co-stars Josh Brolin (Deadpool 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame).

The Toxic Avenger is an oddball franchise since the films were hyper-violent it still managed to be given a children’s cartoon titled The Toxic Crusaders along with a batch of toys spawned from the cartoon and some comics published by Marvel Comics. I had a couple of toys from the cartoon myself growing up. It wasn’t all that uncommon for R-rated films to have toys released or cartoons marketed towards kids as movies like Police Academy, Robocop, Rambo, and Aliens had similar money-making ploys.

Brothers is seemingly still in the pre-production phase at Legendary and it’s unknown when they’ll want to start on The Toxic Avenger.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Simon Kinberg Is The Latest Screenwriter Hired For Universal’s ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Movie

Universal Pictures has hired a new screenwriter to help them realize their long in-development feature film reboot of the beloved 1970s sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that writer Simon Kinberg is the latest addition to the project.

Simon Kinberg has signed on to write and produce Battlestar Galactica, Universal’s long-gestating feature adaptation of its sci-fi TV franchise.

Screenwriters John Orloff (Band of Brothers, Masters of The Air), Jack Paglen (Alien: Covenat), Lisa Joy (Westworld), and Jay Basu (Metal Gear Solid) previously worked on the film’s script in various incarnations.

Simon Kinberg is no stranger to science fiction as he worked on Star Wars: Rebels and had been trying to help Warner Bros. with their own reboot of the sci-fi thriller Logan’s Run. He was also involved with the Boba Fett film for Lucasfilm that was going to be directed by Josh Trank before the project was ultimately shelved.

His other screenwriting credits include X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumper, xXx: State of The Union, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes, This Means War, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, and the unremarkable Fantastic Four reboot.

Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Red Sparrow, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1-2) was the last director attached.

Universal is also developing a new BSG series for their streaming service Peacock.

SyFy revived the property as a three-part miniseries in 2003 and then moved forward with a series that lasted for four seasons.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA – After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, the last major fighter carrier leads a makeshift fugitive fleet in a desperate search for the legendary planet Earth.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER