Michael Bay to Direct TMNT Reboot
 

April Fools







Sorry guys, I couldn’t resist,

I fell for it, since April 1st is almost over where I live :lol:

I mean, he's already producing it, so, not a far stretch. You could do better, yo.

Blue Door
 

New attempt with the Blue Door plot

This.

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Oh well, I keep forgetting he’s a producer as well.

On the positive side, I'm glad you chose a joke that would be a nightmare scenario, if it were to come true. Hearing "April Fool's!" after gives you a sigh of relief.

To me, that's more fun than "Hey everybody, Guillermo Del Toro and Henson Studios are collaborating on the new TMNT film, with a script by David Goyer! They're even consulting with Peter Laird! Isn't that great?? Just kidding! haha!" Sort of a dick move, if you ask me.

You got me. I hope that it doesn't happen for real.

Wow, that really got me.

lol Good one, because it's very easy to believe.

Now don't you go jinxing us. lol

I don't know. Given Bay's open disdain for the Transformers series before AND during their production, I honestly don't think he would ever "lower himself" to actually direct a TMNT movie.

I'd have to dig around but I know I have an interview in a magazine from before the first Transformers movie was made where he says something like "They're just stupid toys, who cares?", or at least to that effect. He only deigned to do them because he realized he could make a lot of things go "Boom". They TRIED to force TMNT into that mold with the last two movies and it just didn't work. TMNT stories are much smaller than Bay's typical fare.

I know he was extremely hands-on with the production of at least the first PD TMNT movie, to the point where he more or less "backseat directed" it, but I can't see him ever actually doing it himself unless he had a gun to his head. He openly hates this kind of thing. There's like no incentive at all for him to ever do it.

So basically the property is in the hands of people who don't actually respect it and just view it as something stupid to sell to kids...

wow, what a shock.

Well, to be fair, he said it about Transformers. Buuuuuuut, I think it's extremely safe to say that he holds TMNT in about as much "regard".

And yeah, we are absolutely living in The Darkest Timeline.

I didn't grow up with The Transformers so I didn't care about those movies. Whenever I see people online talking about them they always spam the gif where Megan Fox bends over to check on her car. I guess that's the most memorable part of the movie for most guys...

I didn't really follow it as a kid myself, but I thought it was pretty goddamn terrible that someone whose entire "philosophy" about making the films was, "It's stupid sh*t for stupid people, they won't know, f*ck 'em" was put in charge of it. I wouldn't wish that on ANY franchise.

Michael Bay technically did directed the previous TMNT movies. Even though he was a producer. He was pretty hands on with those movies. With the exception of Bumblebee. Which he had no input on.

Which is pretty funny, because to this day, most apologists will angrily insist that he was "just" the producer and thus had no real input. :roll:

There are many levels of being a "producer", but they generally have a lot of clout since they're the ones paying for the movie(s). Some are more hands-on than others, but at the end of the day, what they say is what goes. Like the old Superman films; Richard Donner (and Dick Lester) were the directors but they were infamously beholden to whatever Alex and Ilya Salkind wanted them to do. Conversely, Jon Peters was relatively hands-off with the 1989 Batman film, but that was because Tim Burton had built himself such a grand reputation that the studio didn't want to get in his way too much. But IF he had said to Tim, "Yeah, we really want Robin in this", for example, Burton would have had to accommodate him even if he didn't want to. And that kind of did happen, they just didn't have time to shoot it so it didn't go through.

The people who wrote and directed the first PD TMNT film have repeatedly and publicly said that the entire movie was redone according to Bay's whims at least once, so yeah, he was essentially "backseat directing" it even though he "just" had a producer credit. Happens more than people think. It infuriates me when people pull the "He wasn't the director, though!" card because it exposes that they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

Is this the interview?


To be fair I do not think we should hold it against him for not being a Transformers fan. I can understand thinking of them as just toys if you’re not into it already.

Honestly the Transformers movies are pretty decently made. Some of the criticism is valid but they’re really not a horrible adaptation. (Have not seen Bumblebee).

Plus it’s obvious the movie designs have successfully established themselves into the fan base regardless of what people think of the films.

Why... why... why did he pitch it to Michael Bay, of all people, instead of just keeping and taking on the project himself. (And then maybe moved on to doing the Turtles too.) Transformers were so close to being in the hands of greatness...

I would not have thought years ago that it was Spielberg's kind of fare, but after he did Ready Player One (which I guess technically already put our boys in a Spielberg film albeit for all of 15 seconds), eh, why not. That does kind of make me think he could handle it, and probably beyond a mentality of "just a toy movie." 'Ready' feels slightly superficial to me, but we already know he can handle depth in film making anyhow.

Being a fan isn't necessarily required, but for gods sake at least be passionate about film making itself, as Spielberg has always seemed, and care to do plenty of homework first, both in terms of lore and the fans of a thing. That Bay is just uninterested from the start and, while also making it likeable to the general public is fine, taking zero interest in the people who are MOST interested in giving you money, if it turns out well, is stupid. Like making a dog movie with cat lovers in mind and telling the dog people they can screw off...

If your first gut response is "nah," then pass it on to someone else, and not one of your lackeys.

That's not the same interview but I've seen that one as well.

I really think it should be.

It would be highly preferable, absolutely. The chance of that happening however...? :ohwell:

Maybe if the Turtles are ever public domain, but we're all gonna be long gone by then.


Thus I'd at least be willing to opt for someone who's passionate about film making enough to want to do it a good, justifiable job and put the appropriate amount of effort into the pre-production too.

If a person isn't a fan of something, they have no idea how to treat that thing with the proper honor and respect while handling it. That's true whether it's a Pop Culture Franchise or Grandpa's baseball cards.

Like I'm alright with telling stories, I know a decent amount about films, but I'd be a very questionable choice to make, say, a Transformers movie, because even though I damn sure would try and treat it more respectfully than Bay and his cronies did, I still don't have the "correct" knowledge on which parts of the canon are sacrosanct and what can be tinkered with. I was aware of it as a kid but I didn't really watch it, it wasn't my thing, although I was fine with it, I just had other interests. Unless I went back and quickly watched a bunch of old cartoons and read a bunch of old comics in the very truncated timeframe before production begins, I wouldn't really know where to begin. I might be able to pull it off, but I would be very uncomfortable the whole time, and part of me would be wishing that someone who actually knew more about the franchise had gotten the gig.

Keep in mind, nobody in Hollywood has anywhere near the awareness and integrity that I do. :lol:

It's like, when some big name people get their hands on Superman, for example, and you hear them say things like, "Well, does Krypton HAVE to blow up?" or, "Does he HAVE to fly? Flying is expensive", and things like that, and you realize that they really just have NO idea what is important and what's not, it reinforces the opinion that yes, only a fan should really be responsible for translating things like this. If you're not The Audience, you can be a film wizard and "be respectful" all day long... you STILL don't really know what you're doing. You can have Good Intentions, but you can still screw it up.

I'm sure J.J. Abrams had nothing but good intentions for Superman back in 2002, but he still thought that "Krypton doesn't blow up, but instead Superman goes back there to lead his father's army in the Great Kryptonian Civil War, and also, Lex Luthor is an X-Files agent, and he's ALSO from Krypton, too" were actual Good Ideas. J.J. Abrams is okay at making movies, but he's never read a comic book and thus didn't understand WHY his ideas were terrible. It's unavoidable. "Good Intentions" can only carry you so far. Thank God that movie never got made, but the point stands that to this day, he still has no idea what he was doing wrong. Because he was never "A Fan", he was just a guy hired to do a job.

You have to have been in the audience at one point to have even the simplest idea of what The Audience wants. It's just that simple. On the TMNT side of things, a bunch of people who never were fans just look around and go... "Ummm... sooo... pizza? And... 'Cowabunga'...? We got that, right? Alright, we got this in the bag!" Because they don't know any better. And they don't care. They know you'll be in the theater no matter what they do, so as long as that keeps happening, they have no incentive to aim higher.

I mean, YOU'LL be in that theater, but I won't be. :lol: I will NEVER pay money to see a TMNT film in this lifetime, and you can mark that in stone. Not unless by some warlock's magic, Nick/Viacom decide to go back to the style and tone of the 1990 film. And they ain't ever gonna do that. They might make a "better" movie than the last two - wouldn't be hard - but will they ever make a GOOD movie about TMNT?

((Shakes Magic 8 Ball))

"Don't Count On It."

Well, that's good enough for me.