T M N T

[GeneChing]

I was just about to email him and congratulate him on this when he emailed me. He read this thread. And he said they are planning to go back to the original Eastman and Laird. Design Sifu tells me that the original was a spoof of Frank Miller's Daredevil, which is certainly more hard boiled and comic noir. So perhaps the Batman Begins reference is valid after all. If John says any more on the record, I'll let you know.

[Oso]

dangit...i still cry myself to sleep thinking of all the first edition copies i had...


sounds good...I thought the last CG flick was pretty good but an adult oriented reboot would be awesome.

[Zenshiite]

Yeah, complete with blood and actually using those weapons...

[Phrost]

TMNT will never sell as an adult franchise without a really creative marketing campaign.

[GeneChing]

I gotta say, I love those TMNT beanies that pull down.

Nickelodeon to Develop New CG-Animated Television Series and Paramount Pictures to Develop Feature Film of Renowned Global Property

NEW YORK, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Furthering its mission to provide premium
content to its audiences, Nickelodeon--part of MTV Networks, a division of
Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B)--has acquired the global rights to the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc.
(NYSE: KDE). The acquisition provides Nickelodeon, the world's number-one
entertainment brand for kids, global intellectual property rights to Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, the hit television, film and video game property that
has delighted kids around the world for the last 25 years. The aggregate
purchase price for the transactions is approximately $60 million.

Nickelodeon also announced plans to develop a new CG-animated television
series based on the popular superhero franchise, anticipated to premiere in
2012. Additionally, in partnership with Viacom's Paramount Pictures, a new
release of a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film is also planned for
2012. Nickelodeon has also acquired all merchandising rights to Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles, and will continue to work with its original and long-standing
toy partner, Playmates Toys, which has been the creative force behind the
successful TMNT master toy program over the last two decades.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shares a comedic sensibility with the
Nickelodeon DNA, with added layers of action and fantasy that have kept this
property an evergreen favorite with multiple generations of audiences," said
Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group. "We are
extremely happy to have the opportunity to be able to focus on this property
and creatively re-introduce it to a new generation of kids."

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a property that maintains a very passionate
global fan base, is rich with opportunity for a tentpole movie, and is exactly
the right property for us to work together with Nickelodeon," said Adam
Goodman, President, Paramount Pictures.

"Mirage has been the proud keeper of the Turtles' brand since 1984, and in
2009 we celebrated their 25th anniversary with our legions of fans," said Gary
Richardson, CEO, Mirage Studios. "Nickelodeon is a powerhouse global brand,
and we are confident that the company will be a wonderful steward for
Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello and all the other TMNT characters
and take them in all kinds of exciting and new creative directions."

"We enjoyed our eight-year partnership with Mirage during which 4Kids and
Mirage re-launched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise for a new
generation of kids around the world," said Alfred Kahn, Chairman and CEO of
4Kids Entertainment, Inc. "We will also work with Mirage and Viacom so that
our Turtles' licensees can be assured of a seamless transition."

Considered one of the most popular kids' television programs of the 1980s,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a classic, global property created in 1984 by
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It first debuted as a successful comic book
series and then became a hit animated TV show, a live-action television
series, and later spawned four blockbuster theatrical releases. The property
also has translated into a significant consumer products business--with DVDs,
video games, toys and more--that has generated billions of dollars at retail.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on four mutant turtles--trained in the
art of Ninjitsu--who battle evil from the New York sewers. The Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles animated television series--jointly produced by 4Kids
Entertainment and Mirage Studios--will continue to air on "TheCW4Kids"
Saturday morning programming block on The CW network through Aug. 31, 2010.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, now in its 30th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for
kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in
everything it does. The company includes television programming and production
in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online,
recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is
seen in almost 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic
cable network for 15 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit
http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and
logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

About Mirage Studios

The Mirage Group is a group of companies, including Mirage Studios, Inc.,
located in Northampton, Massachusetts, that owned and managed the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles property from its creation in 1984 through 2009.

[Shaolinlueb]

So... if Laird is saying Batman Begins-style reboot... does that mean this thing won't be targeted at teh 7-10 year old crowd? Or is that inevitable given the way Eastman and Laird chose to go back in the last 80s up to today?

Their comic was so brutal, I can hardly imagine even half of that stuff making it to screen. Though, I will say that they tried to include alot of the classic comic book elements into the cartoon series of the early 2000s and departed quite drastically from the cartoon of the late 80s-early 90s.

i hope so that they mean brutal, pg-13/r rating. but then again you will remember some of the later books were so kiddy because the archie comic series wasn't out yet and they were playing on the success of the cartoon to sell more issue's. i hope they keep it like the first 12 or so issues and the last 12 or so issues where they did city at war.

[Zenshiite]

I just watched a cartoon movie of the TMNT on TV called "Turtles Forever." It had the modern cartoon TMNT meet the classic cartoon TMNT. The contrast between the more serious modern turtles and the goofy classic turtles was funny. As well as the contrast between the modern alien/utrom Shredder and the classic imbecilic classic Shredder and Krang. Eventually there was a whole multiverse of TMNT revealed and images were shown from their various incarnations in tv, movies, video games and comics. At the end they went to the universe of the original grim-dark Eastman & Laird TMNT. Which was pretty cool. The world was black & white and those TMNT were grim, tough and narrated stuff. It was fun.

[GeneChing]

He said things were going well with the project. He didn't mention Bay, but then again, if he had, I'd have had a scoop.

Platinum Dunes Steers 'Turtles' Relaunch
By MIKE FLEMING | Tags: Actors, Directors, Movies | Thursday May 27, 2010 @ 8:28pm EDT

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon have brought Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form on to produce Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the live-action film that reboots the film series launched by New Line in 1990. Bay, Fuller and Form will produce with Galen Walker and Scott Mednick.

The producers will begin meetings with writers in the next few weeks. The deal puts Bay in the center of two Paramount franchises, as he started production May 17 on Transformers 3, and is zeroing in on Rosie Huntington-Whitely to replace Megan Fox as love interest for Shia LaBeouf. TMNT, a co-production between Paramount and Nickelodeon, is an outgrowth of the $60 million acquisition made by Nick last October for global rights to the entire Turtles franchise. Right around the same time, Paramount made a first look deal with the Platinum Dunes partners, who will generate genre projects but also want to expand their scope. While they've already set up several projects including a Rob Cohen-remake of Fright Night, the Turtles film puts them into new territory.

[GeneChing]

[doug maverick]

He said things were going well with the project. He didn't mention Bay, but then again, if he had, I'd have had a scoop.

i think im probably the only one who thinks this is a movie for michael bay....action explosions , ninjas...right up michael bays alley, except he will probably make the voices of the turtles black...lmao

[@PLUGO]

By Sean O'Neal August 20, 2010 over at the AV Club.

anyone familiar with the fast-paced, no-time-for-spell-check inner workings of Paramount knows by now, the studio has been making every effort to relaunch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the second or third time, because it is “a huge Viacom priority.” Also, art or something. Unfortunately, the first draft from writer John Fusco—best known, perhaps, for the Young Guns franchise—was deemed “not great,” despite Fusco’s extensive meetings with original Turtles co-creator Peter Laird about capturing the darker tone of the original comics. Fortunately for Viacom (and the rest of you, we guess), Paramount has now hired Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who have both done second draft work on Iron Man and Punisher: War Zone, and whose upcoming projects include reboots of Highlander and Buck Rogers—so clearly they’re comfortable with taking established properties and giving them the kind of modern-day zing that would make Paramount excited again. The new, live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could now begin shooting as early as next year, which means Corey Feldman should start campaigning for a part sometime next week.

oh and there's Vanilla Ice doing "Ninja Rap at the link

[ghostexorcist]

I met the creators of TMNT many years ago at a comic book convention when I was younger. They really liked the art work I brought with me in my port folio.

I would love it if they came out with a live-action movie that was closer to the original comic book.

[Zenshiite]

Over at Super Hero Hype they reported that the guys who wrote the first Iron Man movie are now on board to write the new TMNT. Where does that leave John Fusco?

[GeneChing]

How A Co-Ed Built The Van From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles


There are custom vans, there are cartoon cars, and then there's 23-year-old Brittney Schneck's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles van, a '94 Dodge Caravan obsessively reworked into a life-size piece of turtle power realistic enough to call out Shredder.

Schneck, 23, says she started working on the van last July, paying for it from a part-time cashier job and working in her father's auto-detailing business while also going to college.

"The Turtles played a huge role in my childhood," Schneck said. "Growing up with all my male cousins, playing Ninja Turtles while my Uncle Harry (Uncle Shredder) chased us around doing an exact voice of The Shredder. He used to drive us all around in his Caravan, and when I see one, I just think of the Turtles and all the memories."

How A Co-Ed Built The Van From Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe only major concession to authenticity from the original TMNT ride was the brand of van; the Turtles drove a Volkswagen, but Schneck said she chose a Caravan because parts would be far easier to come by — even if it did arrive with rusted panels, no working air conditioning and the kind of mechanical gunk expected from a 16-year-old minivan. But, since the new VW minivan is just a re-badged Mopar, we think there's still a degree of authenticity to her choice.

Schneck hand-painted and stenciled the exterior colors and fabricated the ray gun, spoiler and other add-ons from scratch. It's not just cosmetic craft; Schneck has rebuilt and replaced most of the Caravan's mechanical parts, from a new radiator, brakes, axles and head gasket down to a clip for the hood prop rod, color-matched to the paint scheme that extends to the engine bay.

She could enter this in NINJASTAR....

[Lucas]

TMNT will never sell as an adult franchise without a really creative marketing campaign.

make a movie, old school eastman and lairds style and just refresh it. all the turtles wear red bandanas they all carry katanas, in addition to various ninja weapons, you know like a real ninja, and they slaughter foot in a most glorious and bloody fashion.

make shredder evil as hell with REAL samurai armor, and give splinter the look of a rabid rabbid wolf rat, with actual deadly animal skills and have him get in the action too. clawing out eyes and biting off fingers

make it dark, violent, adult language, and in a different setting, im picturing....canadian wilderness, on the move, hunted by the foot, hounded and brutalized, starving and cold, and needing every bit of ninja skill just to survive...

few words, no pizza, no skateboards, and adult humor. mix with japanese film style.

i could bring the tmnt back with a vengeance!

but we know it wont ever get that awesome. im way too awesome for mainstream....