Here's their movie page check it out... TMNT is up there!
And here's the story on it, cause we know at some point it won't be up there anymore...
Release Date: March 30th, 2007 (wide)
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributor Note: (8/6/02) The first three films were distributed by New Line Cinema, but this CGI project was to be produced separately, with the rights being shopped around to a variety of distributors (who didn't "bite"). (7/21/06) Warner Bros. Pictures will be distributing the film domestically. The Weinstein Company has the foreign distribution rights.
Title Note: (7/21/06) Instead of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' Warner Bros. is officially calling the movie "TMNT."
Production Company: Imagi Animation Studios (next up is Astro Boy)
Type of Animation: 3-D CGI (computer generated imagery)
Cast: (voices) None announced yet.
Director: Kevin Munroe
Screenwriter: George Miller, John Collee, Judy Morris and Warren Coleman
Based Upon: The extremely popular 1980's comic books created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, that were licensed for a TV cartoon and three feature films based on that cartoon (and not so much on the comics). There is also a new animated series (currently in pilot form) that is based upon the comics (and not the cartoons/movies), which would tie in with this film.
Premise: After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Master Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Tech-industrialist Max Winters is amassing an army of ancient monsters to apparently take over the world. And only one super-ninja fighting team can stop them—those heroes in a half shell—Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael! With the help of old allies April O’Neil and Casey Jones, the Turtles are in for the fight of their lives as they once again must face the mysterious Foot Clan, who have put their own ninja skills behind Winters’ endeavors.
Premise Notes: (6/21/01) What isn't known yet is what exactly this film will be about. Will it indeed retell the origin (not a bad idea), or just start out with a fresh story where they're already established characters? My personal hope is that this film adapts, to a T, the original first four comics.
Genre: Animated, Action, Eye Candy, Martial Arts, Science Fiction, Superhero
Official Characters Site: NinjaTurtles.com (although this site emphasizes, as of 6/21/01, the more kid-oriented versions of TMNT, there is indeed content here related to the original, "gritty" vision that is going to be adapted in this CGI feature; check out, for example, this online version of TNMT #1, to get an idea of what I mean by the original version of the team... ever imagine the cartoon/movie versions with violent dialogue like "I sense his body quivering with tense energy, waiting to be triggered into savage, slashing release"? The original TMNT were dangerous, violent warriors... and if this movie captures it; wow.) (7/9/01) There is now an interview with Peter Laird that answers many questions about this project.
Official Site:
http://www.TMNT.comStatus: In Production
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Input about Greg's Previews of upcoming Movies, or any movie covered here, is encouraged. Just e-mail Greg Dean Schmitz using our feedback form. Please note that all release dates are subject to change.
Though please people still go there, cause I'm sure they got some sort of counter to see which of their pages get a lot of hits and we want that to get a ton of hits!
Recent Updates to This Page:
10/06/06 - Greg's Preview Thoughts, Production Company
8/21/06 - Title Note
7/21/06 - Greg's Preview Thoughts, Status, Official Site, Premise Notes, ...
Greg's Preview Thoughts:
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10/06/06 - Even before this movie has been released, Imagi has announced that they're not a one-shot company, with work already underway on their CGI take on Astro Boy, the beloved Japanese robot boy superhero. 'Astro Boy' has no "dark past" as the ninja turtles do (seriously, the original comic books were satirical stabs at The Dark Knight!), but it seems like a good project for them. Here's hoping Imagi's work on this movie is great, so we can continue to see superhero-ish projects from them every few years.
7/21/06 - After years of going through the development wringer, the Turtles are finally leaping back onto the big screen. In conjunction with ComicCon, the first teaser trailer for the new all-CG animation flick has been released. Head over to Apple.com to see it in QuickTime.
8/06/02 - According to this story at ToonZone.net, this CGI project has been shelved due to lack of studio/investor interest.
12/03/01 - The pilot footage (not an entire episode) is now available over at the official NinjaTurtles.com site. You can expect the final film version to be a lot darker and grimmer... this pilot is based more on the cartoons than on the original comic books. The only elements that we can expect to stay from the kids version are the colored bandanas to distinguish them.
8/30/01 - The Hollywood Reporter ran a lengthy summary of how the franchise is being revived, including, in addition to the TV series, a mini-series on the "Hallmark Channel." As to this film, which the producers describe as being done in a "PG version" of Woo's directorial style, the release is now (more realistically) aiming for sometime in the next four years (maybe 2004/2005?).
7/09/01 - The official site has added an interview with Peter Laird, in which he answers many questions from fans, directly about this project. Also, at PlanetRacers.com, there are now a few images from the CGI pilot demo reel, which gives you a general feel for the look, although there will still be notable changes and improvements.
6/21/01 - When talking about what it was like to be a teenage comic book fan in the mid-1980's, it's difficult to convince non-fans of the whole "comics aren't just for kids" concept when you have to admit that one of the hottest titles that you and your friends all loved was... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In an extremely short time, TMNT went from being "cutting edge" to being "strictly for kids", as the rights were picked up for a cartoon, and then the movie. Gone was the dark satire (they're "mutant turtles" who are dangerous and lethal... it's supposed to be funny), and introduced was a slogan, "Cowabunga!", and a corny desire to eat lots of pizza.
It was one of those cases where fans could complain and mope and shout, but there was no getting around that the ironic twist on superheroics that we loved (TMNT was a parody of "dark" comics like Frank Miller's runs on Daredevil & Wolverine) had been usurped for kids. Kids did love the version of TMNT that most people know, but the title lost nearly all of its fan credibility. There have been tries in the past few years to bring them back in comics as their old "gritty" selves, but they've failed. Now, John Woo and crew are hoping to revive the original Ninja Turtles, as CGI heroes, separate from the kiddie fare. What a great, great idea.
There are going to be skeptics. I will say, that if I wasn't a fan of the original comics before there ever was a made-for-kids cartoon, I might be skeptical as well, because I would only know TMNT as a goofy franchise. There is a lot of humor in the original TMNT comics, but it's in the form of parody. Basically, the joke is that if there can be mutant humans like X-Men, why can't there be mutant turtles? And if mutant humans can become superheroes, why can't these turtles be ninjas; dangerous, shell-kicking ninjas, at that.
You've got to sort of know where comics were going in the 1980's. Writers like Alan Moore and Frank Miller were injecting a darkness into characters like Batman that harked back to their earlier pulp-derived roots, seeking to banish the image that comics are lightweight, "kids stuff." Quickly, however, as these revitalizations caught on, everybody was trying to go "gritty" in comics, and that's where TMNT came in, a parody of a movement at the exact height of "grittiness." Fans got the joke quickly, making the original prints of Eastman & Laird's mini-series among the most expensive published in the 1990's. There was a time, just a year or two after their publication (before the cartoon) when individual issues were priced as high as $100. High prices aren't rare, but they are for something so recent (then).
And Eastman and Laird sold the rights to be made into a cartoon, and the "joke" was made... so literal. Gone was the self-aware violence and grittiness, and any thing that might not be kid-friendly (I'm surprised they let the turtles keep their sharp weapons), and gone, too, was the lure. Comic fans, a fickle bunch, quickly discarded their love of TMNT, trying to pretend like the Turtle craze never was. Fans who spent hundreds of dollars on TMNT first editions a few months back were now acting like they never heard of the sensation the kids were licking up. It wasn't just a "I'm too cool for that" thing; there was a sense that Eastman and Laird had sold out a great concept.
But hey, can you blame them? It's all well and good to attack someone for "selling out", but how many of us would necessarily be so noble if the cash was placed before us? Besides, they didn't really sell out, retaining the rights to what is now a $4 billion franchise empire. I'm fairly certain that if TMNT had never expanded past those gritty 1980's comics, they'd be lucky if the license was worth $4,000 today.
So, sometimes, you have to take a step back so that you may someday have room to move forward. Consider how unlikely a faithful, martial arts and attitude, version would have been years ago. Now, with plenty of time behind the franchise (and many of those toddler/kiddie fans now teenagers or in their 20's), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can reinvent itself... in its original image. Bizarre.
Page Created: 6/21/01
