Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Paramount is hoping to begin filming another damn reboot of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ this year, according to producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, who served on the previous two ‘Turtles’ films which came out in 2014 and 2016.  The pair were on hand at this weekend’s Critics’ Choice Awards in support of another of their projects, ‘A Quiet Place’, which took home the prize for Best Science Fiction or Horror Picture.  While on the red carpet, they let slip that while no director was attached to the reboot, they had “dates we’re trying to hit” while speaking to Variety.  You can watch their interview below:

Last June, it was reported that Andrew Dodge (‘Bad Words’, ‘Space Jam 2’) had been hired to write the new film.  Lindsey Beer (‘Sierra Burges is a Loser’) is also reportedly involved in writing the script, but it isn’t known whether she has replaced Dodge or vice versa, or if they are working on it together.

Paramount’s newest chairman Jim Gianopulos took over after the first two movies were already in development, but has made it a priority to get the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ franchise back on top, where he feels it belongs.

Form and Fuller produced 2014’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and 2016’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’ along with Michael Bay and Galen Walker.  Bay will also be on board with the new picture.  The first film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, was a decent-sized hit, but the sequel, helmed by Dave Green fell short, which was chalked up to the first movie not being very good, but satisfying any nostalgia that adults had for the property they grew up with, so they didn’t need a second helping.  Unfortunately, ‘Into the Shadows’ was actually much closer to the original cartoons than the first, but fewer people saw it.

Evan Daugherty wrote the initial screenplay for the first movie, which was then revised by Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec.  Appelbaum and Nemec also wrote the sequel.  Megan Fox starred in both as April O’Neil, while Will Arnett played her cameraman Vern Fenwick.  ‘Arrow’s Stephen Amell appeared in the sequel as sports enthusiast Casey Jones.  Also added to ‘Into the Shadows’ were classic cartoon characters Krang, Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry), Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (Stephen “Sheamus” Farrelly).

On the cartoon front, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ was recently relaunched for the umpteenth time as ‘Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ on Nickelodeon.

The reboot doesn’t have a release date, but if production begins this year, as Paramount seems to be hoping, then it’s entirely conceivable that it could be in theaters next year.

In the past few years, films from the long-in-the-tooth ‘Predator’, ‘Alien’, and ‘Terminator’ franchises have fizzled at the box office, while other plays at nostalgia, like ‘Power Rangers’ have failed to attract the adults who loved those brands as kids.  Considering that ‘Into the Shadows’ just came out two years ago, Paramount better have a killer new take on the brand, or this is just going to seem like beating a dead horse.  (Or should that be turtle?)

What do you think?  Are you ready for yet another ‘Turtles’ reboot?