It’s only been two and a bit years since the heroes in a half-shell were last on the big screen, but Paramount Pictures has announced it’s already working on a new reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller’s Platinum Dunes production company returning to helm the next mutation of the franchise.
While speaking to Variety at Sunday’s Critics’ Choice Awards, Form spilled the beans, revealing that the film goes before the cameras at the end of 2019.
“We’re doing a reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Paramount. That is looking like production at the end of the year,” he said.
“Did you just give something away?” Fuller added. “Oh boy. We did the preceding two Turtle movies, but I didn’t know that we were saying that we’re making it, but that’s good to know!”
It’s since been reported that screenwriter Andrew Dodge – who’s also attached to the long-awaited Space Jam 2 – has been hired to provide the script. And if pre-production for the project goes smoothly, we should expect to hear some announcements about a director and cast later this year.
2014’s TMNT was Michael Bay’s first effort to relaunch the franchise, much as he’d done with the Transformers universe. Fans didn’t take to it – and neither did critics – but it made almost $500 million at the box office. 2016’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows then followed, but that stopped the series in its tracks by grossing a disappointing $245 million.
We could theorize that the interest in rebooting TMNT again comes from Paramount finally finding critical success with Transformers in the shape of Bumblebee, which has been highly praised for its strong storytelling and clear love for the original 1980s cartoon it’s based on. If the studio can approach Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael and Donatello in the same way, then they could have a hit on their hands.
We’ll have to wait and see which direction they head in, but tell us, are you interested in yet another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie? Sound off down below.