As a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turning 25 years old this year, news has just come out that a new live-action TMNT movie is in the works.
The Mirage Group, which owns the property, is moving forward with a live-action film focusing on the origins of the iconic crime fighters. Project, targeted for release in 2011, would mark the fifth bigscreen outing for the sewer-dwelling heroes Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael as well as their master Splinter.
Ok, now don't get me wrong here.....I love the Turtles. I read the comics when they first came out, I watched the TV show religiously as a kid and I've even seen all of the Turtles movies in the theater. However, I must say that I really didn't care for the live action films too much. With the exception of the first film (which I do think is good), the 2nd and the 3rd films are just plain awful. I've never really cared for the rubber turtle suits and have always thought that the Turtles worked better as an animated property.
I absolutely loved the CG movie that came out a few years ago and was seriously hoping that they would make more of those. But now we hear that a new TMNT movie is coming, and it's going to be live action. What I don't get though is this discussion of going back to look at the Turtles orgins.
"The original dozen comics created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman are some of the best source material one could hope for," said Mednick, whose exec producing credits include the upcoming "Where the Wild Things Are." Laird, who bought out Eastman's share of the property several years ago, said the film will remain true to the spirit of the original comicbooks. He added that the pic may employ face replacement technology, which would allow the turtles to be much more expressive.
Wait a minute. The first dozen issues of the comics? Those have already been adapted to film. That's what the first live-action film basically was. So are they just planning on remaking the first film with modern technology then? And they're going to use a mix of live-action suits and CG faces? I don't know about you, but that last sentence just gave me the heeby jeebies.
I'll withhold my official opinion of this new film until I see some actual footage, but based on how it sounds I am very worried that we're in for a total crapfest/raping of the Turtles. Let's just hope I'm wrong.
Did you skip over the executive credit on Where the Wild Things are, yeah the first movie is BASICALLY the first dozen issues of the comic, what if we have a more faithful adaptation coming our way? I'm holding out on heebie jeebies till I see a still from the set. Or possibly a teaser poster.
ReplyDeleteThere's no way we're going to have a more faithful adaptation coming our way. The first film got a lot of negative parent response when it came out because they said it was too dark and too violent. That's why the next two films were so bright and campy. There's no way they'll make a fully faithful adaptation of the original Turtles comics. They were dark, they were violent, they weren't originally meant for kids. But ever since the original cartoon series, the Turtles have been considered a kids property. No movie studio on earth will be willing to make a PG-13 Turtles film that shows our green heroes slicing through foot soldiers faster than Wolverine slices through faceless military personnel in X2. Ain't gonna happen. No, what we'll get stuck with is yet another dumbed down, kid friendly version of the Turtles origin story. In other words . . . . Lame.
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