Hypothetical: How would you handle the next reboot if we don't get a sequel?
 

Whether you like this film or not, it leaves us in a precarious situation with TMNT on the big screen should this film not do well enough to make a sequel.

If the next creative team goes with an origin story, it might seem rehashed following up a previous origin story film. What elements do you think you could put off in hopes of a potential sequel, and what elements are a must have?

If they do a soft reboot sequel, how much of the first film are they going to have to retcon before they're better off just starting from scratch? What are the most important elements that you feel should be fixed in this scenario? What are the least?

If this situation presented itself, how would you handle the next reboot? How would you face the issues presented and/or additional issues for your reboot?

I know I've posted this before, but I actually wrote a fan-casting/mini-treatment for a TMNT movie several months ago.

i DOnt want a reboot at this point i Love the actors Involvedd to much I think slight changes are except-able Like changing leos voice back Minor character add more character and such
all the actors in this movie do a great job of playing their character Jeremy, Noel, Pete, Alan, Danny, Tohoru Masamune, All did fantastic i want to see more from them not someone else everything else can change(even thought i loved Johnathan's take and dont really want to see him leave) I still wan't Kevin working on the movie and giving insight, But this movie really does deserve a sequel

Sorry but if this movie doesn't produce a sequel. We will not see another live movie about tmnt in the next 20+ years, lets be real.

And how its looking a sequel is kinda a stretch.

Kill off Megan Fox, focus on turtles, bring in bebop and rocksteady, make shredder a utrom and show people dimension x, and a longer movie with more character building and no corny jokes.

The one thing they haven't tried at this point: a proper adaptation of the original comics by a real director with a passion and a vision for an original take on the material with enough Hollywood clout to not have to kowtow to Playmates and focus groups.

But that's never going to happen.

I haven't seen the "film" that's out right now, but what you describe would pretty much be the worst thing imaginable... which means that's probably exactly what we're going to get in TMNT Part 6.

I would start by hiring a talented production company, screenwriter and director and not ones that think bigger and flashier equals better.

Adapt City at War into a movie. Make it a loose continuation of the first 4 movies.

April/Casey grow apart, Karai and the Foot go to war, and Rat King debuts in the movies. It's win/win.

I'd go with a more traditional design in terms of accessories and size of the turtles. The foot wraps, belts/straps, arm wraps, elbow/knee pads, possibly some bracer/forearm armor or shoulder armor for them, a little variety between them on that gear. Proper plastron and the shell bridge on the sides. Toss up on full CG vs mix of traditional make up and CG, depends on what you could do there.

If it was a full reboot, and I've got supreme control in this fantasy thought experiment, I'd probably go with a Batman Begins approach of a full film focused on the origin. From whatever Yoshi/Saki angle you choose to go with to the mutation and actually spending time exploring different stages of their youth and training. The overall conflict I'd go with would be the original goal of bringing down Shredder, though it might be developed with that being a clear end-game goal of a trilogy rather than having a one-and-done Shredder story or a defeat and "I didn't die" sequel.

Developing it as a working your way up to the criminal kingpin rather than going straight after him from the start.

I'd draw heavily on IDW for some things. Bebop and Rocksteady being nasty, mean, gangland style infantry level that prove to be the best in terms of the last 2 standing to be selecting for mutation. Making them serious dangerous threats but clearly the muscle with someone like Karai directing them.

And outright ninja vs ninja. I want the 100 foot soldiers vs Turtles & Splinter martial arts brawl with a ton of choreography. I didn't feel like we got the martial artist vs martial artist in the new movie too much. Gimme a scene like the end of 2007's TMNT, only with a full fight.

I'd love to see the Mirage Leonardo vs the Foot sequence for Shredder's return while the others are getting ready for Christmas. But I'm biased there...I just want them to show that Leo's a bad ass in his own right for a change. ;)

And no damn noses or nostrils!

Oddly enough, I came out not even minding that. That was actually the least of my problems.

In the opening of the movie tell the backstory of Saki and Yoshi and how the Turtles came to be...

Yoshi would flee Japan after being framed for his masters death by Saki. He heads to NY to start a new life and does ok for a few years until one night on his walk home from work a truck gets sideswiped and hits him into a pet shop. The trucks back door gets jarred lose and a canister falls out onto Yoshi and a rat next to him that was released from a cage in the shop. He then gets up from the hit he took as the truck flees the scene. To his horror he is covered in ooze and sees a turtle bowl knocked over into the same green substance. He grabs the turtles and heads home to rest and bandage his wounds. The next morning to he sees that his body is changing and starts to look like a Rat. He becomes afraid and goes to the hospital but when he arrives he is chased out by a cop.

Yoshi now knows that he can not go back to work so he grabs his personal items and heads to an abandoned warehouse with the turtles who have also now doubled in size. Overtime he and his Turtles train but as the turtles grow bigger Yoshi decides they must head down to sewer to hide from the world. The Turtles end up calling Yoshi Splinter as a super hero type nick name because he is so gifted as a fighter.



I would Have April going to college to become a news reporter while working part-time for a Prof. Stockman on campus for a while. At some point she finds out he is crazy so he sends the Mousers after her. When that happens she takes off running into the subway where she can be safe but is cornered by the Mousers. She ends up being saved by the Turtles.

Around that time The Shredder finds out that Yoshi is still alive because of the symbols found in the city by the Foot Ninja that were left by the turtles. Shredder wants to end what he started with Yoshi in Japan so he sends out his men to hunt him down. Around the middle of the story one of Shredders street thugs (Human Bebop or Rocksteady if you want) find a Mouser trying to break into a bank so they grab it and take it to Shredder.

Shredder decides to seek out Stockman to force him to make more robots for the foot to help take out the big crime families and to find his old foe. Stockman tells him they where made for military use but that they were never picked up for use so he decided to rob the city Banks instead. The Shredder tells him he will give him all the money he wants as long as he and the mousers serve his needs.


The movie would end with a huge multi-roof top fight with Splinter and the Turtles vs. Shredder and the Foot Ninja. The Turtles send Shredder flying with a final strike.

Shredder is now laying in an alley near death about to die from the fall off of a rooftop when out of nowhere a drill module rises from under ground. A stone-like man picks him up and puts him in the module and tells his boss Lord Krang on his communicator that man is still alive.


That's a rough outline for what I would want.

Can I just watch this movie?

Well, a lower budget animated kids movie? Or maybe allow someone who wants to direct a TMNT movie do so instead of hiring paycheck director like Liebesman?

I know it will never happen but I would like an animated adaptation of the Turtles in Space arc or an anthology style Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

I don't think a worse movie could possibly get put out, so I would handle it well, I think. I definitely want a reboot more than a sequel. Before seeing the movie, I thought that a sequel may have potential, but not anymore. Knowing what kind of stuff would get carried over into the second one makes me lose all hope, even more if they keep the same people on board for writing/directing.

Or it won't happen in our lifetimes. Man, who knew waiting for the next Ninja Turtles movie would make you reflect on your own mortality...

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3494/3...052681f27f.jpg

LOOK. LOOK AT THEM.

Wrong, species, but sure, nostrils aren't the real problem.
EDIT* Actually, that's a tortoise. If you're gonna throw stones...

Don't make Shredder the villain of the first movie. Make him the Emperor of this series.

It's chelonian, and all chelonians have nostrils.

Pretty much all the TMNT movies so far have made me reflect on a lot more than that.

How would I handle another reboot?

Emotionally handling a reboot: I would be fine with it. I'd hope they'd choose people more in love with the franchise and learn what to do and not to do from this current movie.

Honestly with the 2007 movie not doing too hot and this one kinda meh, I'd be stoked that they would attempt it again with the last 3 movies being kind of flops.

I DO want this one to do well enough for a sequel. Not because I love it, not because it's worthy, but I want it to be successful enough to where they don't give up on putting the turtles on the big screen ever again in general.

Handling it as in I was in charge of it: I'd probably, get a lot of inspiration from the Nick toon. Since it does a great job of meshing it up from a lot of different versions, it seems ideal. I find I like the balance of danger, action and humor and it would work well on the big screen.

I'd stick with the classic look and mix media of CGI/motion capture and some puppets. Mixing media tricks the eye more and can really make for things to look real.

I would try to get inspiration from the fans as well since they ultimately know what they want to see.

I'd give more development to the characters and make the movie much longer.

I think I would not be afraid to show character death. How to Train your Dragon 2 got away with character death and dismemberment. So you just need a creative way to show it that gets the point across, isn't anti-climatic, and builds up tension.

I would also like to see a TMNT movie with natural light. Similar to How to Train your dragon. I dislike how everywhere in the TMNT movie is well lit. There needs to be darkness and the only light should be natural.

The plot should revolve around the turtles. All subplots should be one of the turtles that doesn't get enough time to shine in the main plot. There shouldn't always be a bad guy. The Antagonist doesn't have to be someone it can be something.

I think the origin of the turtles should be very similar to the comic book version, were everything just happened by chance instead of destiny. The mutagen should be some sort of weaponized-evolution-in-a-can were it mutates the creatures and makes their purpose malleable.

I just want a good TMNT movie that captures their original feel. They are trained to be ninja. To be assassins or hunters. To hunt down Shredder and kill him, as their master taught them. I don't want the movie to be dark. I just don't want the movie to be afraid to take itself seriously for a moment.

Yes, they belong to the same order. But when some one says "hey they look like turtles...they really don't. It's the tortoise turtle confusuion (a pet peeve of mine)
and when you get up that high in the clasification, they all have vastly different faces.
This (the classic TMNT species RES)
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/red-e...p-10273458.jpg
to this (ugh..who wants this! Mata-Mata)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4020/4...9d8a0f3e_z.jpg

also note the reduced nostril size.

Cast:
Splinter: Hiroyuki Sanada
Shredder: Tadanobu Asano
April: Anna Kendrick
Leonardo: Topher Grace
Raphael: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Michelangelo: Josh Hutcherson
Donatello: Don Glover
Casey Jones: Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Karai: Rinko Kikuchi
Baxter Stockman: Mos Def

Turtle Designs: Realistic mocap renders and body types as similar as possible to Out of the Shadows. Not hulking roid monsters, Ninja Turtles.

Turtle Accoutrement: Very toned down. They all have traditional elbow/knee pads and different colored eyemasks, but each of them get small bits here and there to further illustrate their personalities. Leo has some traditional Japanese warrior garb here and there, Donnie has a couple brown leather utility belts to hold tools and/or gadgets. Mikey has some old, torn up converse, a surfer bracelet, an ipod, an I<3NY sticker on his shell and a Hello My Name Is MIKEY sticker on his plastron, and Raphael has wraps on his wrists, knees, ankles, and the scars he's earned in battle and sparring with his brothers. That's it.

Splinter: Either average human height or slightly shorter, basically how he looked in the concept design from the new movie. Not the final design.

Shredder: IDW Shredder design but with some hidden retractable wrist blades and a retractable ninjato on the back of his belt.

Foot Clan: Actual ninjas again. No guns or dumb air soft masks.

More time spent on Turtles and their relationship with Splinter, who would have a bigger role and be involved in the final fight vs Shredder and Karai and a few Foot Ninjas.

Make it way less sterile and shiny and bland. More grimy and gritty, darker in look and atmosphere.

Turtles' personalities are still in tact.

Origin story: Basically the Nick origin, without the overt Kraang/Utrom influence. That should only be hinted at. And without Karai being Splinter's daughter.

That's how I'd do it, pretty much. At least the surface stuff. I won't bother writing a story/plot treatment.

There's some interesting takes on an origin reboot, but would releasing a new origin reboot with the standard staple elements in 2019-2020 get casual moviegoers excited to support what might be too similar of a film too soon?

Well it wan't too long after Superman Returns that we got Man of Steel and we got Amazing Spider-Man in a year we would have been due for Raimi's Spider-Man 4. I think the audience is more accustomed of reboots these days whereas at one point there'd be confusion.

I do foresee that a reboot would have an uphill battle in other respects. Firstly convincing anyone who saw this and thought it was ******** to give another TMNT movie a chance.

Secondly (and I've said this before) but TMNT is at good time right now with the Nick show popping in way the 4kids show despite being successful in it's own right never quite did and older people the right age for nostalgia with young kids of their own. It's not turtlemania part II but the franchise is at a peak time that it's not been before and probably wont be again (at least not for a long time). Even if we get a really good movie years from now I think the window of opportunity for TMNT to be on the level of all the current comic book movies will have passed by then.

Think about it; Batman Begins despite being so well received didn't quite reignite the general public's interest in Batman. It was Ledger's death that got people really excited for The Dark Knight.

Not to mention this movie had an opportunity to wow people on all levels. Now that audience has seen a movie with big action scenes and the best cgi it wont have the same impact. It would feel more like a do-over than a complete reinvention.

Of course this is no reason for them not to try.

Superman Returns was a sequel to Superman I and II acting as if III and IV didn't exist while Man of Steel was a reboot. The Raimi Spider-Man already had a trilogy before being rebooted. My concern isn't about another reboot, but back to back reboot origin stories. Can a reboot afford to push some things back for a sequel to separate itself enough from the 2014 reboot. Will keep in some of those elements make the reboot seem to similar to the recent reboot and will that affect the robot's ability to make enough money to get a sequel?

That would be great.

Or a Mutanimals spin off focused on Ninjara as she is captured by Bishop and placed with Ray, Mondo, Wingnut, and Screwloose. Leatherhead comes to rescue them and you do the math.

If I somehow had a handle on a reboot for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I would have them already established and fully formed TMNT. I kind of had some trilogy ideas in my head. Maybe you guys could help me? :tgrin:

Perhaps the first movie can deal with battling Baxter Stockman and someone he's "working for" and we finally get the mousers in a live action movie. Maybe sprinkle the Purple Dragons in there a bit? All the while, they defeat Baxter somehow and it's alluded to Baxter is working for someone named Shredder...but the end of the film we get out first real look at Krang.

Second movie is about more of the mutagen side of things and we'll get the arrival of Rocksteady and Bebop, who aren't as dull and dopey as their 80's version but they're not tough badasses like Raphael in this new movie was trying so hard and desperately to be. Stockman is also in the film as well and because we've had an attachment to him as a character in the first film...it's all the more shocking when he comes the Fly in this sequel. Maybe towards the latter part of the film, we get our first tease of the Shredder but we still don't see him yet. Krang and Stockman get defeated somehow but Shredder still doesn't get involved yet.

By the third movie, it's time for the final battle and we get our big reveal of the Shredder and we make it mean something again when the Turtles have to take on Saki.

Something along those lines at least, not fully formed ideas....but action beats at least.

Oh man, this is all I want really.

The first thing, get a script together where the movie's target demographic would be leaning more heavily towards teenagers and young adults. Just chuck the kiddy stuff. Batman, Superman, X-Men and even most of the latest string of Marvel movies have leaned towards a more mature audience, and you know what, the kids still flocked to those, and bought all of the toys, shirts, comicse and whatnot, without the movies being catered to tots and their soccer moms. I really think if they can see through these kinds of lenses, it will shape up a lot of problems the TMNT movies and the franchise as a whole has been facing. It's time to let the series grow up.

It's so sad to think we almost had that too before the Nickelodeon acquisition. I think the new Nick Turtles show is fine for what it is and I'm glad kids are digging it but the fact that the movie was in gearing up to be a return to it's roots and they even had casting and try outs for the Foot Soldiers as ninjas just makes me even more disappointed with what this movie is.

I agree, time to let the franchise become more.

So far it's only screening in my brain. :twink:

I would personally like them to make a reboot as close to the Mirage comics as possible, even more than the first movie ever did.

By the way, what are the chances of us getting a reboot either shortly after the sequel or a possible third movie?

Yep, sign me up for a proper adaptation of Mirage as well. Although, as discussed previously, I'd go a step further and have a proper live-action, no holds barred television show by HBO, Netflix etc.

There's nothing wrong with the goofier, kiddie turtles. That's great and it gets new young fans into the show - I still enjoy it myself. But it's time that that logic stopped dominating everything to do with the turtles. Even the more serious iterations just seem to have to have Mikey acting like a goofball for large portions of the story, or lots of comedy moments. It's time to let the franchise flourish - make something for those of us who want to see the TMNT in an adult environment - something based completely on Mirage, be it a game, a television series or a film.

Why not adapt the cartoon with a more serious less goofy tone. Have Yoshi be splinter. Have shredder work with krang with robot foot soldiers and bebop and rocksteady for the second act after they failed? Maybe dig deeper into the rivalry of Yoshi and saki (tang Shen?) and just how shredder met krang. End it with the promise of the Technodrome and shredder finally giving krang a new robot body.

Basically the first five episodes minus Baxter and the neutrinos. And without the kiddy 80s cheese.

And of course make the turtles look like themselves. Shredder too. We need a dude that can pull off the shredder armor and look cool and still be a guy in bladed armor and not an all-out robot. Pls tmnt smashing up robot foot soldiers is gonna be all kinds of cool.

I mean the first movie was kinda mirage. Everything else was kinda sorta it's own thing. Even this movie Vernon and all was still more new stuff than an actual adaptation of the old cartoon. Have them try an all out cartoon adaptation. A live action version of the first give eps with a bit more realism and less cheese basically writes itself.

Would you actually want another origin story? Just so we'd have one that was true to the 1984 comics?

http://www.aqua.org/~/media/Images/A...slide4-web.jpg

That could be done, but I sorta feel that with 4kids they pushed the 'serious' tone as far as they could. Rightly or wrongly there is a stereotype that American cartoons can never be fully adult in nature - it would have to be an anime to have that sort of autonomy. Or DTV films like has been mentioned previously.

I just feel a live-action show made by the usual suspects offers so much more scope for taking liberties and pushing the envelope. It won't happen but that doesn't mean that it's a silly idea - lots of comics are being adapted for television so why not turtles? A big part of the problem is the fact that lots of people simply don't know any better - they think the turtles were created for the 1987 show, they simply don't realise that Mirage existed and was grittier in tone.

Unfortunately Nick/Viacom have no interest in that whatsoever. They're only interested in doing 20 different Bebop and Rocksteady origins, and seeing how many different ways they can introduce the Technodrome and Krang.