'Ninja Turtles' Producer Provides An Update

I kind of dug the recent animated incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  That’s not to say it was without its flaws – but for me it was definitely more of a nostalgia trip than any sort of real appreciation for the movie on its own merits.  The Turtles are such a deeply ingrained part of the Generation X culture that I still hum that rockin’ theme song whenever I see someone wearing those familiar green logo t-shirts.

Sometime after I “grew up” (and I use the term loosely), I started reading the old Eastman and Laird comic books and was struck by how much grittier it was than the Saturday morning cartoon series – and my love affair for the heroes in a half-shell continued.  And yes, I can sing the Ninja Rap.

There is a new Turtles movie in works, if you haven’t already heard, and this one is going to be a live-action film in the vein of the first three.  Though one can hope this future incarnation will contain significantly less Vanilla Ice.  There is still no script written yet, no writer attached to write the script, and no director to direct said script.  But that isn’t going to stop anyone from talking about the upcoming movie.

Producer Scott Mednick recently spoke on the movie, and mentioned something I hadn’t considered when I watched the recent animated incarnation of the Turtles.  Kids these days aren’t quite as aware of the franchise as the rest of us are.  As much as we love them, the Turtles aren’t on the same cultural level as Superman or Batman.  Mednick said, “As great as the [2007 animated film ‘TMNT’] was, my son said, ‘how come a rat is their father?’   You know?   Because he wasn’t around for the 1990 version."

And this is one of the reasons that Mednick is taking the Turtles back to their roots – planning on making the film an origin story.  The plan is also to make the film a little darker and edgier – perhaps taking it closer to the original comics as opposed to the saccharine fun of the 90’s animated show.

The movie will definitely be live-action, and Henson studios will be using face replacement technology to bring the Turtles to life.  It’s the same technology currently being used on Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are – and the creature work in that has been fantastic.  Mednick said, "We want the Turtles to be real. We want them to be in the movie, not Gollumed."

I love Gollum and the technology WETA used to create him – layering a CGI character over the movements of Andy Serkis.  But I do think Mednick has the right of it here, the Turtles really do need to be practical creations.  And I have no doubt Henson Studios will churn out something great.  Although I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t mind seeing Raphael CGI-layered over Tony Jaa.