We first heard about Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s involvement with the remake of Troma’s 1984 ‘Toxic Avenger’ last year in May when a press release announced that the former Terminator was in negotiations to star in the film. While not the lead role, Schwarzenegger would have had a substantial part playing  a former black ops agent who trains Toxie to use his powers for good and together they would take on the lurking menace created by the polluters and the polluters themselves. Nothing much was heard for several months after that and it was assumed he had signed on the dotted line. But since results of the negotiations were never released, is Schwarzenegger still involved with the project?

Well in December, according to We Got This Covered, executive producer Lloyd Kaufman stated the former Govenator was no longer involved with ‘The Toxic Avenger:’

“Well no, he unsigned. He signed and apparently unsigned. I’m not sure what went down, I’m not really privi’ed, but yes, it was announced in every newspaper, there are photos of Arnold Schwarzenegger holding up a poster of ‘The Toxic Avenger’. From what I understood, he got a better deal and had his fingers crossed.”

So what made Schwarzenegger unsign?  According to Kaufman in an interview with the folks over at Movie Web, it could be because he saw the original film:

“… Steve Pink has written a script, and he is directing, and they did sign Arnold Schwarzenegger! But then Arnold Schwarzenegger must have seen the original, and he unsigned. That’s all I know about that.”

But Total Film apparently gathered up some new information recently and a quote from Schwarzenegger indicates that he may still be in negotiations (you can see him talk about it briefly in the video below):

“I cannot talk about this project because it has not yet been totally approved.”

If  Schwarzenegger does go through with his role as Toxie’s own Jiminy Cricket, he would play a former black ops agent known as… “the Exterminator.” No, seriously, this is Troma we’re talking about — we can’t make this stuff up.

So what do you think? Is he in or out? Would you like to see him in the film? We’ll be keeping an eye out on this story so check back with ScienceFiction.com as we bring you the latest news!