Was Eric Sachs originally meant to be The Shredder?
 

It's blantly obvious, I could have sworn William fitchner, said he was the Shredder at least multiple times.

I'm sorry but something didn't feel right.. every scene we got with Oroku, was filmed in the same area, maybe that's what they were reshooting.. it's even more obvious he was meant to be the Shredder, Especially the scene were he's wearing those Exo-Tony stark under suits (you know.. the kind you wear under a mech suit)

bottom line is, I think they backed out because the negative reaction.

Pretty much. But will they ever admit it?

It is possible but I find it hard to believe that's actually what happened. One has to wonder what gave them the idea that making people believe that Shredder was gonna be white and renamed Eric Sachs/Colonel Schrader was a good marketing ploy. Although, it's only been confirmed a couple of weeks or so before the movie hit the theaters that Shredder was in fact Japanese, am I mistaken?

Some say the aliens angle was just a rumor taken out of context as well.This movie's development was an 'efing mess.

i wanna know when Sachs became Sacks

There is NO chance he wasn't. It's soooooo clear he was gonna be Shredder. I'd bet on it.

I was just reading an article on Topless Robot about it.

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2014/08/..._white_guy.php

It's not even debatable. It's a fact.

it really is..interviews with Will himself confirm it..dont even let me start on the editing of the movie to avoid showing who actually is in the suit

I am one of the people who enjoyed this movie, and I was willing to accept the new version of Shredder. After seeing the movie, I don't understand how anyone can really tell themselves they believe that Shredder wasn't a last minute change.

I wish they had stuck with what they had, rather than trying to please people who will never be happy. It did seem quite obvious to me that Sacks was originally Shredder. The change seemed to create a massive disconnect between Shredder and the rest of the characters. It is unfortunate. And on top of that, with Sacks no longer being Shredder, his character does seem a bit unnecessary. They tied it all in together in a reasonable fashion, but they should have just left him as Shredder.

There was no 'backlash' by the fans with this movie, and there would not have been one had they left their story alone. I've said many times before on this board, all of the hardcore fans around here need to realize that they are an extreme minority. Once upon a time, TMNT was one of the biggest brands in the world. All of the people who watched it back in the late 80's and early 90's are adults now, and most haven't watched anything TMNT related since that time. They will still go see this movie (they came out in strong numbers this past weekend), they don't give a **** if Shredder is Oroku Saki. If you survey'd the full theatres I would be willing to bet that 90% of the audience couldn't name Saki or Hamato Yoshi.

It's too bad, I would love a more traditional TMNT movie but some people need to get over this nonsense. It is almost certainly never going to happen, because TMNT is for CHILDREN. Perhaps the comic was a little more mature, but guess what... If it had never been turned into a cartoon, there is very little chance there would have ever been a TMNT movie. It would simply be an obscure comic book from the 80's. The comic is the original, but the silly cartoon is responsible for the worldwide success of TMNT.

I think he was, and now we're left with a totally useless and redundant character in the form of Harry Sacks- er, I mean, Eric Sachs. :lol:

I agree but hopefully they could build off of it, like people have stated on here, like him become the Rat-king.

If it really was a marketing ploy like they claim than why the hell is Eric Sacks the Shredder in the video game than?

The alien angle wasn't a rumor taken out of context. We literally saw the script where they were aliens.

You're entitled to your opinion.... but why, if you consider yourself any kind of TMNT fan, would want all of these needless changes to make a movie about them good? Have you that little faith in it? Perhaps you're into the wrong series and TMNT isn't really your thing.


Yes, TMNT was childish and silly.... though what exactly about Shredder being asian from the get-go and the fued between Shredder and Splinter made the old series childish? Hell, the fued between the Shredder and Splinter drives the series (in the comics even after Shredder died) so why take that core element out? Might as well have Bruce's parents survive and make him become Batman for the hell of it.

And if the movie-goers don't know who Saki and Yoshi are.... it's the damn movie's job to do so, just like the movies introduced people to SHIELD, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. There are people that still would have never heard of Bane because he was never in the Adam West show, that now know him because of the movie.

If the movie was messed up because they were forced to shoe-horn in extra scene of asian shredhead, then it's their own fault for screwing something most every tmnt fan knew knew so drastically. It's almost like having the Halle Berry Catwoman cram in some random scene saying her name is Selina and lived in Gotham, and have a random Bat cameo where you just see a shadow, in a weak attempt to tie it into the comics better... it would still suck due to how the rest of the movie was.

Even without the forced last minute scenes, the rest of the movie woulda been horrible anyway.

What? so if he was a TMNT purist, and wasted all his time on this forum even though he hated the movie, would that make him a true fan?

that does not define if your a true fan or not

I believe wiliam fichner voices shredder in the game

Might was well be, since Sachs was pretty much the main villain.
Shredder didn't really do much expect fight the turtles.

Now had Baxter Stockman(Joke here) put on the helmet, and the spikes and became Shredder in the movie, I would have a hard time enjoying the movie. You cant make change for change stake. We all know who Shredder is suppose to be, a ninja underground God Father from Japan. If he was some geeky science dude, I would never had accepted it myself. I still enjoy the movie.

I'm not saying he is or is not a true fan. I'm just wondering what makes him a fan if he has so little faith in the thing he's a fan of.

It's like me saying, I'm a huge fan of Iron Man. But I would feel if they ever made a movie with him, he should be more middle class income, not a smartass ladies man, and like, instead of wearing a metal suit, should like... just take his brain out and put it inside a robot... that's the only way such a movie can work, and I'm the biggest fan.

No.

Shredder seemed more like Sach's hired muscle if you ask me...

Pretty much, yeah Shredder in lines may seem like the master, but Sach did created the plan and pretty much pull the strings. Shredder was pretty much just there for the ride.

Other major problem was the Shredder's defeat. I can lived with Splinter taking out Shredder in the first movie, it was amazing to see, Splinter coming in and saving his sons, Shredder's own ego of taking the Turtles down with him in the 2nd film was great to see. The Turtles were smarter than Shredder here, were Shredder pretty much lost his mind and sense after the first movie defeat imo.

But in in the 2014 who takes out Shredder? Leo? Don? Ralph? Mickey? Even Splinter? Nope, April O'Neil. I loved April as much as the next person, but she should not have been the person to take down Shredder. Shredder I think will never let that one be lived down.

This thread should be "Would Sachs have been a more interesting character and/or made more sense to the plot if he had been Shredder?"

Now what do you guys think?

It would certainly make more sense if he was. When Shredder shows up in the sewers you can hear the hatred in Splinter's voice when he says "Shredder" But he had no reason to hate him or even to even know who he was.

I'm guessing its a line that was recorded and they just went with it. It will be interesting to see if the truth about this movie's development ever comes to light because there has to be a reason for all the inconsistencies.

Lmao movie shredder should have copied a page from Casey jones playbook and said 'yeah yeah Eric your plans are good and all.... But when do I get to break stuff?'

I think the scene with Eric Sacks shooting at April and Vern was a reshoot as well. Either that or it was originally meant to happen at another time. Also Sacks dies even though Fichtner signed a 3 picture deal??? That's because we WAS the Shredder and they changed it. Sacks was the best and most interesting character in the whole film. What happened with Sacks being "Obsessed with the armor"? What happened to "We find out that Eric Sachs is someone else too." Yes most of the time when asked if he was the Shredder, Fichtner would say "I play a character named Eric Sacks" but there were a few occasions where he flat out said "Yes". They should have kept him as the Shredder. Now with a sequel announced already, I doubt that we'll ever get to see an original cut of the film. Also it was never confirmed that the Shredder is Oroku Saki. He's just some Asian guy.

I don't think he died. He was just knocked out.

The original film would have been even worse. Unless Sachs original plan wasn't this stupid 'mutagen cures the plague' thing.

They could have changed the plan. What happened to "That's what your father and I were trying to do, create heroes"? Or what about that one teaser trailer where Leo says "We were created as weapons"? Not even a mention of this in the final film. I think they cut it up so much to change Shredder, that they had to change the entire evil plan. When I watched the film, I noticed that every time Sacks mentions the Shredder, it's always a cut away shot where you don't actually see him say it. I think "Project Renaissance" was changed.

Still woulda been a hell of a screw up. The turtles were never created by Aprils dad and shredder to be weapons. It still would have been a horrible movie. If anything the original film would have been a lot worse.

The funny thing is Sachs had a role that would have been better suited to either Karai or Baxter Stockman now.

Instead we have this pointless Eric Sachs character over someone else. I can't help but realize we missed out on having a great Baxter role in a movie.

If this character's role would have been filled Baxter instead of 'Harry' Sachs, about 50% of this movie's problems would've been solved. Shredder wouldn't NEED much characterization because BAXTER'S the main villian of this film, and Shredder's the boss in the shadows, who will gets his chance to shine in the sequel.

There would still be other problems, but that would've been a big part of it. He i Baxter in all but name anyway.

If he was, I sort of wish they didn't change it.

I didn't want him to be Shredder himself, just a student of Shredder while he was in Japan. The robo suit would of made more sense then.

I think after the whole alien thing, they panicked. I would love so much to see all the unused footage they have.

I think that's probably dead on. And remember Finchtner talking about, "Yeah, I'm Shredder. And Shredder goes through a lot of changes in the movie." Apparently that was behind-the-scenes too.

That's the really bizarre part. When did Shaloub record his lines? And when did they do the reshoots that likely added "Saki"? Were the changes made so late in the game that there just wasn't time to change that line?

Maybe I'm just trying too hard to make sense of a plot that doesn't make much sense on any level anyway? :trazz:

Wouldn't surprise me at all. I recall that whole sequence feeling especially rushed and sloppy.

I cannot wait for the in-depth behind-the-scenes articles about the production of this movie. Sounds like a complete train wreck from start to finish.

And it's getting a sequel!! Hahaha oh my god

So, that article more or less confirms what I suspected all along, that they kept what they could from the Blue Door script, more or less made up the rest on the fly, made it all up on the fly again at the last minute, threw it in a blender, and called it a movie. No full "script" or even basic idea of what the story was that they were trying to tell, because inside of a few months it went from being completely one thing into a completely different thing.

Nice. Nice. You know these guys shouldn't be making movies, right?

You make it sound like it was a bad thing but sometimes things like this can turn out a better product like say Samurai Pizza Cats, and from what we know of the original version, this version we got was much better.

I think, based on how the entire project was planned and executed over the last three or so years, that the entire thing was flawed from the start, because it was in the hands of exactly the wrong type of people, and there was nothing they could have made that would have turned out "good".

These guys should not be working. The way they make films is bad, thus, they make bad films. Their catalog of work more or less proves that the approach they take to film making is fundamentally flawed and that they are incapable of producing anything of quality. With or without the last minute changes, the movie still would likely have been underwhelming, simply because the people involved don't know how to make a good movie at all, regardless.

Either that or they either don't know crap about the Turtles... or have so little faith in the franchise they're basing the movie on, that they felt the need to make a ka-zillion changes in order for it to sell.

The people on this forum that applaud this movie are basically proving these guys right.

Am I crazy or does it sound like William Fichtner as Shredder at 1:03 in this French trailer?

Also, were these bits from the trailer in the final film?

April: Ninja Turtles?
April: These guys are heroes. People need to see this.

I’ve only seen the film once and it was in a theater filled with rowdy kids, so I don’t recall.

That sounds like a 100% accurate assessment of the situation, from where I sit.

It was never going to be a film. From the beginning, it was product.

I still dont understand why nickelodeon choose a company like PD to produce the film in the first place. It's like they wanted the film to be s**t from the beginning.