Talks of a brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie have officially reached a point of chaos. First, co-creator Kevin Eastman claimed that many meetings had taken place about a new live-action movie. This claim was immediately shot down by writer Steve Murphy, who called it nonsense and untrue, which crushed all of our obvious excitement over the thought of a new live-action flick.
Now comes word from Peter Laird — the other creator behind the TMNT — in an interview with MTV, that in fact they are working on another movie. Laird says:
I have to say that I don’t know why Kevin was talking about something with which he has no involvement. The blurb he put on his website was very inaccurate. He has not been involved with any meetings in Northampton, nor any others related to a new “TMNT” movie, as far as I know. That being said, I can confirm that we have had several meetings with very interested people, and I think we are pretty close to making a deal. As owner of the “TMNT” property, I want to be the first to announce it at a time of my choosing.
Laird also went on to explain that the film will likely attempt mixing animation and live-action. He describes the planned project as:
As it stands now, there is no intention of doing another live-action film like the first three, with actors and stuntmen in actual Turtle suits, contrary to what was said by Kevin. We have pretty much decided that the next “TMNT” movie should be what we’ve been calling a “hybrid” — that is to say, live-action humans and sets combined with very realistic CGI Turtles.
He also mentioned that no storyline has been settled upon, but it could go pretty much anywhere. We could see Shredder back, we could see new characters — there’s a lot of possibilities to explore when the time comes.
I’ve always been someone who was very, very against my Turtles being CGI-animated. When I found out that they were going to do a fully CGI movie, I was actually quite upset, but in the end, I found myself enjoying it as a fun little movie. The thing that catches my eye in Mr. Laird’s comments (and what would differentiate this project from the more cartoony TMNT) is his description of these animated turtles as “very realistic”; I really have to think it might be the best option. I loved the idea of new live-action costumes being put together to wow us, but with where we are technologically and with how fast an actual turtle who happened to be a ninja would move, it might just be best to leave the costumes as they are and dive into some hardcore CG.
The absolute selling point in all of this will be the actual animation. If these guys go out and they get me the guys who worked with Peter Jackson to bring Gollum and Kong to life, to bring that brilliant realism to the characters, then I will be all over this. That kind of CG matched with a solid, dark story could potentially bring us the best Ninja Turtles movie we’ve ever seen. On the other hand, if they go out and get the people who did the zombie/vampire albinos in I Am Legend, I might just slap someone.
On a semi-separate note, Laird also expressed his interest in seeing the original movie released in Director’s Cut fashion, with some touch-ups.
I would love to see a “Director’s Cut” or special edition of that movie, with some things that were cut out put back in. And although I think it HIGHLY unlikely, I would love to see the first film given a “digital touch-up,” if you will. By that I mean it would be very cool to go through it very carefully and digitally tweak all of the mistakes and goofs — for example, scenes where you can see an actor’s face inside a Turtle’s open mouth, wires hanging off the shell of a Turtle, and so forth. Here’s one that always bugged me: As Leonardo is exiting April’s apartment, one of his sword hilts rubs against the wall… and it BENDS like rubber. And taking it a step further, it would be fantastic to utilize digital technology to go back in and tweak and enhance the expressions on the animatronic faces of the Turtles, which in some scenes just don’t work too well.
Who knows, maybe this will set the ball rolling on a new Special Edition DVD to release along with the new movie! I would love to see some deleted scenes and other goodies from the old movies.
In any case, it looks like we officially have SOME form of new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie heading to theaters — let’s just hope it’s as good as it could be.
Nooooooooooo!!!
Nooooooooooo!!!
Nooooooooooo!!!
Yesssssssssss!!! to a new TMNT movie
Noooooooooooo!!! to a new TMNT live action movie with CGI turtles. Bring back the rubber suits!