Paramount and Michael Bay’s production company, Platinum Dunes, are slowly but seemingly surely moving forward with rebooting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle live-action movie franchise, and they may have found their director.
Variety is reporting that director Jonathan Liebsman (The Wrath of the Titans, Battle Los Angeles) is currently in negotiations to direct the TMNT reboot with a script written by the guys behind Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. No plot points are known at this early stage, but being that it’s a reboot I’m sure we will see a lot of what we already know about the turtles “rehashed” to start off with (assuming this will be more than one movie, which I’d be surprised if it wasn’t). There is also speculation that the turtles won’t be portrayed with the Henson Workshop versions those of us old enough to remember hold so dear, but instead by motion-capture CGI.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a huge part of my child hood, and that first movie was just fantastic (and no, this is not nostalgia clouding my mind, I just watched it for the 100th time a few months ago). Two things I am hoping for with this movie: First is that someone involved with this movie has some respect and passion for the Turtles, wanting to give the fans the Turtles we know and love, while bringing on a new generation of fans. Second, hopefully there is some reconsideration to use the Henson Turtles as opposed to mo-cap CGI. Sure, they could use some updating, and I’d even be okay with CG faces, a la Where the Wild Things Are. Too often today film makers default to CGI rather than the practical effects.
Enough of my fanboy rant and concerns. In either case I’m excited to see what comes of a new live-action TMNT movie – whenever that happens. To tide us all over until Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael are all back on the big screen, here are some promotional images from Toy Ark (follow link for tons more photos) from the new TMNT cartoon that will be hitting Nickelodeon later this year! Speaking of which, have you seen the new toys?!
