Netflix could do a fairly good TMNT live-action show
 

Netflix's Marvel Comics shows - Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage - feature a street-level crime story format. While TMNT is generally a superhero adventure tale with aliens and spirits and all, this noir format was how TMNT started out originally and thanks to these shows this more adult-themed format could now work out with more appeal. (And TMNT was inspired by Daredevil, what with ninja vigilantes going up against a mobster)






The 1990 TMNT film was fairly street level, with the Foot Clan focusing on tempting and entrapping children to boost its ranks. At first I was disappointed because I expected more from the Foot. But over time I came to like it, since it defined the Foot as not really all-powerful but starting out in taking control over New York, and kept the Shredder on the ground handling things with more involvement and supervision rather than him sitting on a throne in a lair giving orders, like how the Kingpin in the Daredevil serial operated.

Do you think Netflix could attempt a live-action TMNT show?

I prefer to keep TMNT in animated form since I don't see netflix doing stuff like time travel or kraang right in live action so less Marvel but more Voltron

You're preaching to the choir. Yes, absolutely they should. But unless the failure of OotS has Viacom/Nick "scared straight," they have shown almost no willingness to cater to audiences older than the age of 5.

And no, the TMNT aren't superheroes. At least, they were never intended to be and... why would they be?

A show about the Foot Clan & it's origins or Casey Jones, yes. But full fledged TMNT focus? No way, it'd cost far too much to make them look decent, be it CGI or practical effects. & do we want a show where they're not the stars? Eh, probably not.

TMNT needs its own "Gotham" experiment!
(I jest)

In a fantasy world, yes please. But like Powder said, it would be crazy expensive and ultimately not worth it to Viacom or whoever would be on he hook for such a thing.

How's about they do it like the American Sailor Moon? Half animation, half live action!

No. That sucked. It would be cool to have another live action series though.

The truly sad part to this is that even while Netflix is reeling in the cash from comic book properties being made into TV shows right now... they would look at TMNT crashing and burning with the latest "film" at the box office and be very worried about even the most basic costs in bringing it to light.

Though there wouldn't be too many costs in a Netflix "TMNT: Season 1," as long as the CGI/mo-cap is limited to the TMNT themselves (and it should be). If they're worried about animating Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang and Dimension X they've already shot themselves in the foot, possibly the head.

I'd love a 10 episode mini series taking cues from #1 to RTYN. Akin to what the 1990 movie did only more in detail.

I do think they could have done it competently with practical costumes for the Turtles and Splinter, maybe shave off some non-costume budget by filming in Vancouver like CW shows do.

It would probably be a bit harder to do the more sci-fi stuff, though. Unless they do something similar like Dr Who and Legends of Tomorrow.

I'd love nothing more than to see that. And the business model would be simple... if Season 1 moves the meter, future seasons could be afforded larger budgets to tackle the more sci-fi/time travel kind of stuff. Season 1 doesn't need a huge budget.

Thank you all for your comments.

You can't really have good mutants and not have evil mutants.

I'd probably keep Bebop and Rocksteady around and maybe other mutants too, similar to the 2012 Foot Clan's ranks.

The other-dimensional stuff could perhaps not appear? :-?


I agree fully with this, in fact with Splinter he can just be puppetry/animatronics since he doesn't fight too much.

i think they've been at this cross roads before.
After tmnt 3 tanked, and the cartoon cancelled..... next mutation was the next incarnation.

A netflix made one would be awesome...

Yeah, you can. Mirage & 4kids say hi.

Ew, you got that formula backwards. Keep the sci-fi, ditch B&R. They have no place in a live-action universe.

*facepalm*

Yes. Yes, you can.

Words fail me. The sad thing is people with your very opinion are the people pulling all the strings at Viacom, and it's killing the franchise quicker than they killed Avatar.

Unless there was an incredibly good budget behind this, this idea would never work.

I'm not sure Viacom would want a first run show on a network they don't own. I think it's technically possible to do it with rubber suits on TV, but it would cost a lot, and I'm not sure the audience is there for a mature rated TMNT show.

A writing buddy and I are actually thinking about pitching some of our own original show ideas to Netflix down the road. If by some crazy miracle things worked out and we got some clout with them, it'd be fun to use my Archie comics based idea that I posted in this other thread - http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sho...0&postcount=11

Of course I seriously doubt it would work in live action format. At best I could see it being some form of rotoscope animation.

I don't think they'd be worried about the TMNT movie failure. Honestly, Ben Affleck's "Daredevil" is still known as one of the worst superhero movies of all-time yet Netflix gave it a shot. I do think the timing is wrong though. A series would need time to separate itself from the movies. So if there won't be a third movie from Bay's production company a release for a Netflix TMNT series should come out in 2018 Fall which means they'd pretty much have to greenlight the series now anyway.

I agree that Season 1 should focus on turtles fighting the gangs of NYC with perhaps an occasional appearance of some CGI baddie but overall it's not needed. A human villain (not only Shredder) could work great for the series anyway. TMNT would be a handful to take on as a series in order to get things right and appeal to general audiences but it is possible.

Having said all of this I do think an animated show with perhaps a more serious tone would still be great to see. The current show is pretty much coming to an end I'm pretty sure. They're most likely going to make 1 more season and wrap things up and in this day and age a franchise like TMNT will not take long to be "rebooted" once again.

Well, they do have ninjas to work with. Karai. Hun. The mob not too happy that the foot is taking their business. Plan it out right and it can work.