Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

As part of a deal between Viacom, Paramount, and Netflix, Nickelodeon will be delivering a full-length animated movie expanding on its ongoing series ‘Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’.  Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos announced in November that these companies had entered into the deal, and the ‘Rise of the TMNT’ movie, along with a film version of ‘The Loud House’ were announced by Viacom CEO Bob Bakish during an analyst call.

‘The Loud House’ movie was previously expected to be released in theaters and appears to have been in some form of development, with a 2020 release date scheduled, but last month, it was quietly and mysteriously removed from Paramount’s theatrical schedule and this appears to be the reason why.

Netflix is hoping to tap into Nickelodeon’s rich catalog of intellectual properties.  The first Viacom/Nick property for Netflix was ‘Pinky Malinky’, a cartoon about an anthropomorphic hot dog, which premiered on January 1st.  A live-action series based on ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ is also in production.  Hopefully, these properties can help Netflix, as Disney and Warner Brothers have begun pulling content as they prepare their own streaming platforms.

‘Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ is the latest reboot of this perennial franchise and reimagines these characters as younger teens and tweens just learning their ninja skills, as the threat of Baron Draxum threatens New York.  This also marks a return to 2D animation, following more recent 3D computer animated offerings.

Paramount is also developing a new live-action theatrical film featuring the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, which doesn’t appear to be related to ‘Rise of the TMNT’.  That film may begin filming this year, and if it does, that means it could be out next year.

Since the ‘Rise of the TMNT’ and ‘The Loud House’ movies were just announced, it’s unclear when they will be released.  Check back for updates.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter