Back when Michael Bay first revealed that the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be neither teenagers nor mutants, The Warp Zone responded with this theme song spoof, aptly titled "Grown-Up Alien Ninja Turtles."
(Sorta not safe for work, descriptions of what Michael Bay is doing to your childhood.)
[thewarpzone.]
The Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film -- simply titled Ninja Turtles because of the controversial decision to make the Turtles aliens -- is scheduled to start shooting in Vancouver, BC late this summer or early in the fall.
Wrath of the Titans helmer Jonathan Liebesman will direct, with a script by the Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol team of Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec.
Although it hasn't been officially announced, it's expected that the Turtles will be rendered in motion-captured CGI.
The movie has a tentative release date of Christmas 2013.
[geektyrant.]
Shia LeBeouf is officially not returning to the Transformers franchise for the fourth installment in Michael Bay's blockbuster series, which is said to be an "evolution" -- not a complete reboot -- of Transformers.
Although LeBeouf (and, apparently, the rest of the series' human stars) won't be back, Bay is returning to direct T4, and it's now been confirmed that Transformers 2 and 3 writer Ehren Kruger has been tapped to write the script.
The movie will reportedly also feature vehicles that shapeshift into giant robots, so at least there's that.
[nerdbastards.]
Michael Bay is continuing his effort to get Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans to "chill" about changes to the beloved franchise, this time addressing a rumored title change that would drop the "Teenage" and "Mutant" from TMNT.
Bay confirmed the change on his Shoot for the Edit forums, but said the new title is a marketing move that won't affect what's actually in the movie.
He wrote:
Paramount marketing changed the name. They made the title simple. The characters you all remember are exactly the same, and yes they still act like teenagers. Everything you remember, why you liked the characters, is in the movie.
Bay also assured fans that director Jonathan Liebesman is a huge fan of the franchise himself and "he's not going to let you down."
TMNT fanatics may still have a reason to get upset about the Turtles being "from an alien race" in the new film, but it looks like the outrage over the title change was just a false alarm.
[nme]
Last week, producer Michael Bay revealed that the Turtles in the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film may not be mutants, and now a new rumor suggests that they may not even be teenagers.
Sources have told Bleeding Cool that the new live-action Turtles flick may simply be titled Ninja Turtles, but they didn't provide a reason for the rumored change, so it's not clear what age the new Turtles will be.
It's possible that the title change may not have any bearing on the plot -- one source said it was just a marketing decision, comparable to Disney's dropping of the "Princess" and "of Mars" in John Carter.
And besides, it wouldn't make much sense to keep "teenage" in the title if they're going to drop the "mutant."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans have been up in arms over Michael Bay's announcement that the turtles in the upcoming TMNT flick would be "from an alien race," but Bay is just the producer of the film. Jonathan Liebesman, who will actually be directing the new Turtles, says the story isn't exactly what Bay's controversial comments would imply.
"Look, it's so funny," he told Collider, "if everyone was such a die-hard fan, they would know that the TCRI canisters where the ooze comes from, that is alien ooze. Now I'm not saying what Michael said is exactly what the movie is, because we're sitting in a room now figuring everything out."
Liebesman also said that the movie's mythology was coming directly from Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman, and that everything in the movie would "tie in" with existing TMNT canon.
"A lot of it is stuff he's wanted to do for a long time, but just hasn't had the opportunity because now we have the budget and things on this film to expand it in the right way," he said. "It's all coming from the best possible place for this franchise."
When asked whether the new film would use CGI or practical effects, Liebesman said, "All I'll say is that I love how they did [The Rise of the Planet of the Apes]. That was exceptional."
Photorealistic motion-capture Ninja Turtles? Hey, that's worth a shot.
The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film is scheduled to start shooting this fall.
[collider]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird says his blog post about Michael Bay's new "alien" origin story for the Turtles has been widely misinterpreted. Although it may have sounded like he was willing to give Bay the benefit of the doubt, Laird says he was actually being sarcastic.
"Did you really get out of what I wrote that I in any way, shape or form LIKE the idea of a planet of Turtles? If so, I guess I have to re-think how I express myself," Laird replied to a commenter on his post.
"Just so it's absolutely clear -- I think a planet of turtles is not, in and of itself, a bad idea for some kind of science fiction/fantasy story. But as a way to explain any aspect of the backstory of TMNT, I think it is awful and unnecessary."
Although Laird is now very clearly against the "aliens" plot device, he also takes issue with the idea that Bay could destroy the Turtles franchise with a bad movie.
In response to a commenter who claimed that Bay ruined the Transformers franchise, Laird wrote, "He may have made Transformers movies which are not to your taste, but he hasn't turned the properties themselves into 'utter crap.' I have no particular interest in Transformers, but it seems to me that -- like TMNT -- it will be around for a long time, well after Michael Bay's involvement with it is done."
He's got a point. After all, if the Ninja Turtles survived The Next Mutation, they should have no trouble surviving one Michael Bay-produced movie.
