Cowabunga! If you were one of the many fans that were upset after reading about Michael Bay’s plans for a ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ reboot (now just called ‘Ninja Turtles’), then you may be happy to hear that Paramount has put a 10 week hold on the production of the film.
With the crew in Vancouver in pre-production gearing up to start filming in the summer, Paramount has shut the project down temporarily laying off the pre-production staff. Accordingly, the release date of ‘Ninja Turtles’ has also been pushed back from Christmas 2013 to May 16, 2014. While some reports are saying the hold is currently for 10 weeks, other sources are saying “indefinitely.”
There are a couple issues as to why the delay. Deadline is saying the reason is that Paramount wants to cut the movie’s budget by $10-$20 million and bring it down to the $125 million range while THR is reporting that it’s a script problem.
Initially, Paramount hired Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec (‘Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol’) to write the screenplay for the CGI live action ‘TMNT’ reboot but no word has come if they will be handling the rewrites or if Paramount will bring someone else on board.
This isn’t the first time this year that Paramount has had to delay a movie due to script issues. Just recently they announced that ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ and ‘World War Z’ have both been pushed back for the same reason. In the case of ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’, Paramount is looking to add more screen time of Channing Tatum due to his increased popularity since the movie wrapped on filming (although official word was to convert the film into 3D). As for ‘World War Z,’ the studio has brought in ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Star Trek 2’ scribe Damon Lindelof to rewrite the last part of the film.
Ever since producer Michael Bay (‘Transformers,’ ‘Battleship’) announced his plans for this Joseph Liebesman (‘Wrath of the Titans’, Battle: Los Angeles) directed film, fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been watching the development of the movie closely wondering how much more of their beloved Turtles would be altered. From the looks of today’s events for ‘Ninja Turtles,’ there’s a good chance that this reboot may stay in the sewers indefinitely.
So what do you think? Are you happy that ‘Ninja Turtles’ is on hold or were you hoping to see Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo back together again?
