The Kidd here...
Things have been getting quite heated over the NINJA TURTLES reboot the last few days. First, producer Michael Bay commented that everyone's favorite heroes on the half-shell would be aliens in the new version. Then fans went into an uproar, calling him "an asshole," "raper of childhoods," etc. Then Bay told everyone to chill, and it got worse, because how dare someone who made a movie like PEARL HARBOR tell us to do anything?
Along the way, the co-creators of TMNT, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, took Michael Bay's side, explaining that things are nowhere near as bad as the conclusions we've been jumping to, and now director Jonathan Liebesman is putting himself out there, too, to explain that liberties aren't being taken with Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael that aren't endorsed or supported or encouraged by at least Kevin Eastman.
Speaking to Collider during the WRATH OF THE TITANS press junket, Liebesman hoped to cool you down enough that you put away your torches and pitchforks.
"Look, it's so funny... if everyone was such a die-hard fan, they would know that the TCRI cannisters 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. So we don't know, but we are like Michael said... we're expanding it, and the expansion will be true to the mythology. I promise you. Fans will love it... Whatever mythology we're building on or expanding is coming from that guy, Kevin Eastman's head, who created the Turtles in the first place. And so everything will tie in with the mythology; fans will be extremely excited with what we're coming up with. 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. And so, I'm happy that everyone is extremely passionate, and they will not be disappointed. It's all coming from the best possible place for this franchise."
Don't worry... you'll love it. Feel better now...?
Well, this should get you riled back up.
Fresh from the Disney playbook on JOHN CARTER, ripping a page out of the chapter on unnecessarily shortening titles, Bleeding Cool reports that the working title for the reboot is simply NINJA TURTLES. Apparently, people won't go see films with "teenage" or "mutant" in the name anymore than they will ones with "Mars."
I know we've got a long way to go on this, and we shouldn't pre-judge too early, especially before anything even goes into full-blown production... but I can't be the only way getting a really bad feeling about this from the way it's started.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
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