A while back there was chatter of production company Platinum Dunes (Jack Ryan, A Quiet Place) rebooting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a second time for Paramount Pictures and we finally have an update from the producers thanks to Variety, who caught up with them during the Critic Choice Awards.
The producing duo Andrew Form and Brad Fuller revealed that their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot for Paramount is alive and well, even going as far as to say that production could begin at the end of the year.
“And we’re doing a reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Paramount. That’s looking like production by the end of the year.”
‘A Quiet Place’ producers are rebooting the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’ again! Production could start as early as this year #CriticsChoiceAwards https://t.co/wdsQUeuspo pic.twitter.com/IxbalX6Gxm
— Variety (@Variety) January 13, 2019
This little update could suggest production begins either in the fall/winter, exciting news since I don’t even think we have a director announced officially.
In June, TheHollywoodReporter revealed that they had hired Bad Words screenwriter Andrew Dodge to pen the reboot’s script. His most recent project is Space Jam 2 starring LeBron James for Warner Bros. that is expected to shoot over the summer.
The history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films is an odd one as the original from 1990 was successful, partly thanks to the cartoon that had started airing years earlier (cartoons are sticking kicking around in Nickoldean). It’s two sequels in the 90s while still popular have decreased quality and ultimately became stuck in cartoon form for a long time.
Platinum Dunes then was assigned to reboot the franchise with Transformers actress Megan Fox as April O’Neil and bizarre character designs that honestly threw me off as a fan. They hammered out two movies to mild success while the second film made half at the worldwide box office as their first installment ($493.3 million compared to $245.6 million). It’s understandable considering the second film’s $135 million budget that they didn’t end up making a third film as it was unlikely a profitable installment.
I really want to see them consider using character designs that are a little more recognizable as Ninja Turtles.
My own hope would be that Paramount is smart enough to possibly combine their Transformers, G.I. Joe and Ninja Turtles franchise into one toy universe but I imagine that might be a harder sell to the owners of those properties rather than the studio. After the success of Bumblebee, I think Paramount is possibly considering overhauls of their IPs. Their G.I. Joe prequel Snake Eyes could easily be a retcon/soft-reboot of the franchise and allowing them to possibly connect these properties in the future.
Paramount Picture has yet to officially announce Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or assign it a release date.
SOURCE: VARIETY
