The remake of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ has been riddled with problems, seemingly from its inception.  First, its name was shortened to ‘Ninja Turtles’ supposedly because Paramount wanted a simpler title.  Then news leaked that producer Michael Bay stated that the Turtles would be extraterrestrials not mutated turtles, like in the original comics and animated series.  Then the entire project got pushed back from a June release date to August.  Oh and Megan Fox will be playing April O’Neil.

William Fichtner has been cast as Eric Sachs, a dark character who will apparently assume the identity of Shredder, the Turtles’ arch enemy.  Fichtner described his role as “the darkest version of the character.”  He also stated “What I read about Eric Sachs in the script was great, and then how the character has been molded and changed when we started filming has become something really quite remarkable in terms of what we’ve seen before of the character.”

One other fact about the movie was revealed.  The mutated warthog and rhinoceros from the original cartoon series, Bebop and Rocksteady, Shredder’s two main bumbling henchmen, are not in the movie.  The two characters were also not part of the original comic books, but were created for the animated series when it debuted.

Platinum Dunes, the company producing this remake, have previously focused on remaking classic horror films like ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Friday The 13th’ and ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’, so this marks a shift for them, in that the ‘Turtles’ have always been aimed at children.  But perhaps the omission of these two comedic characters, plus Fichtner’s remarks about his “dark” character indicate that they are taking this franchise in a more mature direction.

At any rate, the current Nickelodeon cartoon is a hit with the kids, so this movie should at least appeal to that audience.  The movie features Jeremy Howard as Donatello, Noel Fisher as Michaelangelo, Peter Ploszek as Leonardo and Alan Ritchson as Raphael. The cast also includes Whoopi Goldberg as April’s boss and Will Arnett April’s camera man Vernon Fenwick.

Will you be checking out this new take on the classic Heroes In A Half Shell?

Source ScreenRant