'Tales of the TMNT' anthology movie?
 

Well, with all of the different ideas on what a reboot should be, I was wondering if the right answer for what to do next might not be a 'tales of the TMNT' film, with four or so shorter stories adapted from the comics. Something like, having it set in the late 80's, and April's helping out at a community youth center in New York, and when the kids get out of hand, she starts telling them stories of the turtles;

story#1-TMNT, vol. 1, issue 1- An almost totally faithful adaptation of the origin, beat for beat. Maybe some mystical ninja stuff in there, that explains how a normal rat learned ninjitsu. This is the BEST idea for an origin retelling I can think of.

story#2- TMNT vol.1, issue #2- TMNT vs. Baxter and the Mousers, turtles meet April. Only changes are April plays more of a role in defeating Mousers, and the turtles lair isn't destroyed and Splinter isn't captured.

story#3- Tales of the TMNT vol. 1., issue #6- Leatherhead's first story, with Jack Marlin. Just remove the foot soldiers and Utroms, add April to the story, and change Leatherhead's origin so he was mutated by runoff mutagen in the sewers that mutated the turtles.

Story #4- Tales of the TMNT vol. 1, issue #4- I monster adapted, with the TMNT Fighting the rat king. Just remove Casey, have them training April how to fight at the abandoned factory, and have Splinter with them so the Rat King can take control of him, having the TMNT being forced to fight a controlled Splinter.

In the end, none of the kids believe the stories, which April knew they wouldn't, while the turtles watch and laugh from the shadows. All the changes are for continuity within the movie instead of the comics, and this could set up for a possible 'return to new York' sequel. Would that concept be a good idea for a restart? Would an anthology, maybe even a different collection of stand alone issues adapted, work better than a bloated origin film that retreads the 1990 movie again?

Where would the Utroms be instead?

They wouldn't be necessary for this film, and could show up later. I was excluding them from the hypothetical film to keep the story streamlined.

I'd rather the next movie have Tom Waltz be involved.

Take it in a more IDW direction? huh.

Yeah. I don't think it would easily adapt to film, but you could make a trilogy out of 1-12, Cityfall and Attack on Technodrome/Vengeance.

While it sounds like a unique and refreshing presentation, it would certainly have its fair share of issues.
Due to time restraints, each segment would have to be cut short and the would lead to underdeveloped and severely lacking stories.
If April was the one telling the stories, she'd probably have to be involved in each one right? I'm pretty dubious that those tales would all work/make sense if April was in them.

I highly doubt any studio would want to make a film like that.
They'd probably think it wouldn't be as marketable as a regular feature film. And since it'd probably be geared towards kids (yeah, I really don't think we'll ever get a TMNT film for older audiences, much as I would love one) they'd argue that kids wouldn't be able to understand it all since it'd be separate stories in one film. We're just likely to get another childish movie filled with cowabunga moments, pizza, lame jokes, and little in the form of actual plot. :(

I'd actually really like to see something like this. Play with time a bit, like Pulp Fiction, Sin City, or Trick R Treat. Revisit earlier scenes from different character perspectives, have each turtle involved in a story that interconnects with each others at certain points. I can dig that :tcool:

I can see it working in animation but in terms of a big budget live action movie I don't think the studio would find it interesting enough. I mean any Hollywood blockbuster movie requires a beginning, middle and end.

It'd be interesting and I'd watch it but I doubt such a thing would move the needle much. Too unfocused.

Actually it could work pretty well as a Creepshow kind of anthology. By that I mean done in a similar style of storrytelling with a series of loosely connected stories told by the central character. Only instead of April I would have Splinter telling the tales- perhaps to her or Casey. Not many movies do that kind of short story presentation anymore so it would be a breath of fresh air.

Thanks, everyone. Yeah,. my thoughts on this relate to how many want to see a reboot/Return to New York battle with shredder and the foot, and others want something new, and characters that have yet to appear in a TMNT movie. This gives the best of both worlds, allowing the origin retell to be gotten out of the way with Mirage 1# adapted, them moving on to other stories in the same feature. Besides, a return to New York film has more impact if Shredder is coming back from his previous defeat/assumed death to take revenge on the Turtles, trashing the shop, and chase them out to the farm.

The problem with doing it like an anthology movie is that add that genre to TMNT and it would be pretty niche to attract people.