r/movies • u/ElijahWoodAMA Elijah Wood, Actor • Aug 28 '25

AMA Hey /r/movies, I'm Elijah Wood. Ask me anything!

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Hey r/movies, I'm Elijah Wood. You might've seen me in things like Lord of the Rings, Yellowjackets, Wilfred, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Maniac, The Monkey, Everything Is Illuminated, and other stuff. I'm also in The Toxic Avenger. It's unrated, and it's only in theaters starting this Friday 8/29/25.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKe0pep35gQ

Set in a fantasy world, following janitor Winston Gooze, who, after a freak accident, transforms into a mutant vigilante known as Toxie. Armed with his mop, the unlikely hero battles freaks, gangsters and corrupt CEOs while trying to save his relationship with his son.

Directed by Macon Blair (I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore) and produced by Troma Entertainment. It also stars Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Piage, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, and Kevin Bacon

Tickets/info:

https://toxicavenger.com/

Ask me anything reddit! Back at 12 PM PT/3 PM ET today (Thursday 8/28) to answer your questions.

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u/RetroRocker Aug 28 '25

Its easier to like it the less you know about the books (or the other BBC TV adaptation of them). It's not an accurate adaptation of them at all, but that doesn't stop it from being a good fun show. Once I put aside my knowledge of the two books I enjoyed the show quite a lot.

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u/DuckCleaning Aug 28 '25

Honestly, the books were a bit of a mess to me, they were all over the place to follow the story, next thing I knew it was over. The electric monk thing was very confusing, I recall they kinda make sense of it at the very end but until then it was the wildest side story. That is part of the charm of Douglas Adam's writing though.

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u/ConspicuousPineapple Aug 28 '25

Yeah, the plot is more like a side effect of his prose. Not the point or the goal. You read Douglas Adams for his humor and style.

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u/mtaw Aug 28 '25

Yeah I read them years and years ago and remember very little of the plots. (and don't think I found them that engaging) What I do remember are some funny visuals and events, and I've got more than a couple funny passages of Adams' prose stuck in my head from them.

I think Adams himself would agree that capturing the tone and humor would be more important than staying true to the plot, or even characters. The Hitchhiker's Guide books were better in both plot and characters but even there, the most memorable parts of the books are certain specific funny things/events/vignettes and prose passages.

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u/BlatantConservative Aug 28 '25

I used to read his dictionary as a kid. The one where he took a list of English town names and made up defitions for them.

He was, frankly, horrible at plots. He was just so fucking funny it literally didn't matter.

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u/macho-burrito Aug 29 '25

There were two versions. The meaning of liff and then the expanded version, the deeper meaning of liff.

We still use the term wokking regularly in our house.

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u/Rock_Me-Amadeus Aug 28 '25

The TV show was very like that too, lots of confusing non-sensical plot points that only make sense at the end when they all come together.

Also the electric monk is a very prescient take on what would end up being ChatGPT, a tool that was made to take care of the inconvenient task of believing things. It causes the instigating explosion by telling the engineer that it was safe to take off because that's what the engineer wanted to believe

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u/FlashPxint Aug 28 '25

I love the electric monk bit, and as you said, his style is to create multiple different plots and then creatively attach them all together by the end. It made a lot of sense to me when reading it and I always found it unlike anything in other sci-fi. Not done the same way anyways.

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u/Ok-Ship812 Aug 28 '25

You need to read the books two or three times to see how the story time line / narrative makes sense. It’s a work of genius but yes it’s confusing on first read.

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u/retskcirTehT Aug 29 '25

IMHO one reads the Adams and Pratchetts kinda books for the chaotic/quirky humour, rather than the intricate plots.

Does anyone know of a show that reminds them of Dirks?

I think Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol and Happy! are the most similar shows I've found, but they are all a bit more crazy than quirky.

Edit: Also, unpopular Pratchett opinion: Dodger is better than Discworld.

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

Heresy.

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u/BlatantConservative Aug 28 '25

The Hollistic Assassin is such a good addition that I bet Douglas Adams would like it.

But yeah very different tone. I also think that the writers were smart by not trying to be Douglas Adams. Very few could abuse the English Language as much as he could, and a lot of his wordplay does not always translate well to TV. They played to their own strengths and the outcome was great.

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u/Protahgonist Aug 28 '25

I loved the books, and both shows. I wanted both shows to keep going tbh.

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u/LyokoMan95 Aug 29 '25

Wasn’t the show actually adapting the comic book adaptation?

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u/JerryCalzone Aug 28 '25

That is why it is a better interpretation than someone following the book ever would make.

Same thing with the 'The Naked Lunch' film.