Another Live Action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie in Development?

Posted by on July 17th, 2008   Filed under: Action, Books/Comics, Rumours
Source: /Film

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Although I liked the computer animated TMNT movie that was released in theatres last year, the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies from the early 90’s are the ones that I will always hold near and dear to my heart. The use of Jim Henson’s muppet costumes brought the characters to life in a way that I never would have thought possible, and in a way that probably would never be repeated again nowadays. Or so I thought. According to a post over at /Film, there is a strange rumour going around right now that a new live action TMNT movie may be in development. They point towards a short message on the Playmates Toys website that says that Mirage and Imagi “have begun work on a new live-action TMNT film for 2010″. However, if you go to the website right now, you will instead see the following short blurb:

“Following the success of the TMNT theatrical release in 2007, Mirage Licensing is in negotiations with several companies about a new TMNT movie slated for release in 2010.”

Notice that there is no mention of it being live action. /Film updated their post saying that Playmates had changed the site after the fact… which is interesting indeed. Either it was a typo, or they weren’t actually cleared to release that information yet. Personally I have a hard time believing they’d go the live action route. CG is so affordable nowadays, and they already proved that there is an audience for an animated TMNT movie franchise. Plus there was a live action TV series in 1997 called Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation and it wasn’t very well-received (possibly due to the addition of a female turtle). What do you think, does another live action TMNT flick make any commercial sense? Which format do you prefer?



  • I’ll take whatever.

    I would be interested to see what they could do with mechanical turtle-suits nowadays, but as fun and goofy as the original film was though, I think this is one concept that is much more comfortable and at-home in animation. Though I guess they could just CGI the action scenes or something… Maybe they could do the turtles in a similar way to how they did the Davey Jones pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean 2, where they just CGI the turtle look on top of a man? There could be a good way of doing it. I just don’t want them to compromise on the kinetic ninja-action.

  • Jason

    As much as I liked the 2007 cg TMNT film, I’d love to see a new attempt at a live action movie. With advancements in practical and cg visual effects, I’m sure they could improve on the already impressive job that was done in the 90s. I mean, look at Hellboy…those are some damn good suits!

    As far as that god-awful tv series…I don’t even consider that (nor the third movie for that matter) a part of the turtles’ canon. :P

  • Ryan M.

    As I’m about to say in Jay’s post I don’t remember the first one at all (although I was a huge fan and still have all the figures) but Secret of the Ooze (the 2nd one) was awesome. I prefer live-action over CG any day plus TMNT was just meh. I’m almost positive they’ll go CG with it.

    The coolest thing would be a return (to comic) form. Have the movie be really gritty PG-13 live-action akin to the comics (minus the idea that they all wear red headbands). That’ll never happen again though I’m afraid. TMNT isn’t the power rangers or pokemon-esque phenom it was back in my pre-pubescent days.

    As for the live-action series, it didn’t bother me that they had a girl in it but I was way grown out of it. I didn’t really watch in favor of Spawn comics and other shit.

  • Matt

    The original tv show in the 80s and early 90s is what I grew up with and where my heart is. I didn’t perticularly care for the live action movies, and I didn’t even see the CGI 2007 version. But I do remebmer the terrible live action show with Venus. Man, that was painful.

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  • Heather

    I’m a younger TMNT fan – being thirteen. And I grew up first watching the 2003 TMNT cartoons and then being introduced to the 2007 CG film.
    Of course I have watched all the earlier movies and cartoons, infact, I have them, but I still have to say the CG movie is well on the top of my list.

    I would be very happy if they made another CG movie, that would be fun. But I’m also curious to how they could go with another live action film.
    It’s pretty 50/50 with the live action. They could go with something like they did in Hellboy and Pirates of the Caribbean with Davey Jones with the well designed costume and make-up. Along with the live human actors. I would be very pleased if they did a good job on that. But if they went with the older costumes again, I would be a little disappointed. There’s just no need for tacky guys in limited plastic anymore.

    So over all, I’m excited that they’re making another movie at all. I’m interested to found out how it turns out.

  • bygate

    hay, im lee im a big fan,im 20 so ive grown up with all the cartoons and movies and the new ones look good but the classics are well classics and nothing beats a classic, ive always liked the turtles, dont know why but i just like them, i think the costume movies were awsome it would be sweet to actually have one of the costumes from the movies, not like the stupid ones you buy from the shops and stuff.
    If its true that they are going to make another life like movie of the turtles it would be hard as hell for them to get it right, i mean it was taking a chance when they did it back then and now with the technologie theyve got and the quality of the images and special effects they can creat it would have to be perfectlly made and thats not even getting into the story of the movie yet,

    BUT im all for it i mean it would be insane to see another one made like that , it would be a break from the way movies are made these days and if they actually make it like that they would make sure that it was perfect so it would be worth it.

  • Well i love the Ninja turtles and i will forever but i would like to see it CGI beacuse its a hole lot better then having to have men walk around in akward suits and if you CGI in them in an live movie only a few movies pulled that of and this is more action then the others because we are talking about big green turtles not Alivin And The Chipmuncksso i think you get that ponit and the show that was live was great amazing but it did not get so many hits beacuse there were showa with them in cartoons and others better no ofense but the turtles i would recamend to have them in CGI because it seems more well better thank you i hope you really think this through.

  • Cassandra

    The next mutation TV show wasn’t well received, not because it was live action, but because of the terrible writing, and the addition of corny sound effects and 2 dimensional characters. It was awful. The 2004 cartoon was better because of the darker plot and drawing style.