Supposedly Someone Who Has Read The Script Had This To Say About It

[Powder]

I actually thought the part where Leo used Mikey's shell as a shield to be hilarious. Laughed out loud at it.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Powder

I actually thought the part where Leo used Mikey's shell as a shield to be hilarious. Laughed out loud at it.

Funny because of how ridiculous?

[Leo656]

After going back and slowly reading the entire script, I can't say *all* the ideas are terrible but none are presented well, the dialog is atrocious on all levels, and it's way too close to the "Transformers" stencil. "Paint-By-Numbers" indeed (although doing a literal rehash of Mirage #1 or the first movie would be just as bad from the opposite direction). The ending beats you over the head far too hard with the sequel, and the entire second half rests on a plot twist at least half of TMNT fans would hate and reject on its face, and the sequel pomises to be even more of that (plus "Venus"). The tone was all over the place, with characters from the OT mixed with adult situations and dialog/language. It just seems like a flawed design that could not have been pleasing or fully satisfying to ANYone. Let's hope it gets a lot of work.

If anything, it reads like a sort-of decent "Elseworlds", the old DC "What If?" line. The reason for "Elseworlds" was essentially that none of it would ever be acceptable as canon regardless of how interesting or well-done the ideas were, and that's how this script reads. An interesting issue or three of "Tales" by a fill-in guy, but never as canon and not as the basis for a new series of films.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters'

Aw, com'on Zarius! Even you recently admitted that the comic has gotten a lot better since it began in 2001! And remember, way back then we fans had very few incarnations of the TMNT for our imaginations to play with.

I said the pictures were pretty. I still think the story is a little off-the-cuff and is your typical "angsty reinvention" of a cutesy kid's cartoon. I gave up on it the instant Shredder mutilated Krang.

[Jester]

Yeah, I almost felt the whole script was just a "Find/Replace" for a rejected Transformers script:

Int. Elevator - Night
OPTIMUS PRIME, USING BUMBLEBEE'S BODY TO DEFLECT INCOMING BULLETS!!!
As the bullets PING off his body, Bumblebee GROANS awake. He realizes he's being used as a shield:

BUMBLEBEE
(to Prime)
Seriously?

But Bumblebee isn't the only one surprised by this--

SAM
(re: Bumblebee's Body)
You're bullet-proof?
BUMBLEBEE
Bullet resistant is more like it.
It still hurts like a bi--

See...

[Allio]

Originally Posted by Jester

Yeah, I almost felt the whole script was just a "Find/Replace" for a rejected Transformers script:


See...

yeah... maybe if you look really hard... squint your eyes... close your eye... turn your head... close your other eye... then maybe I can see something

[Drose18]

Wait so the script we read is the one that is being re done and is why the movie was pushed back. Right?

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Donnie DBERG

Wait so the script we read is the one that is being re done and is why the movie was pushed back. Right?

We don’t really know why it was pushed back, but I have a sneaky suspicion it was more to do with the budget than anything else. Paramount, the studio, has been pushing back so many films lately. Anyway, I suspect it was to get the budget down and to rework the script to accommodate that. After all, if you want to get the budget down, you’ll need to make changes to the script. The first draft reads like it would make a very expensive film. Apparently the budget was at a whopping 150 million dollars, and according to the article that broke the news, Paramount wants to take between ten and twenty million off of that. Either way, we're looking at a very high budget film.

[the_minimizer]

My advice to any serious TMNT fan is not to take the movie seriously. It's not TMNT anyway because the turtles aren't mutants. Second of all, if enough fans don't take it seriously, it will never be recognized as being part of the TMNT universe. Plus since it has the Technodrome in it, people are going to find these forums and possibly learn more about the franchise.

[The Stryker]

Its not a movie yet. Jesus H Christ.

Why are we acting like this script is EXACTLY what the movie is going to be?

And yo, guess what? If it has a TMNT label on it and has 4 turtles named Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo it's part of the pantheon whether you like it or not. Sorry.

Originally Posted by Jester

Funny because of how ridiculous?

Right! Because in a movie featuring 4 humanoid turtles in bandanas fighting criminals using ninjistu they learned from a rat, I demand realism!

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Powder

I actually thought the part where Leo used Mikey's shell as a shield to be hilarious. Laughed out loud at it.

Originally Posted by Jester

Funny because of how ridiculous?

That shell nonsense, especially the aforementioned scene, honestly reminds me of a badly written segment of the Next Mutation.

Originally Posted by The Stryker

Right! Because in a movie featuring 4 humanoid turtles in bandanas fighting criminals using ninjistu they learned from a rat, I demand realism!

HA! That argument is a such an overly used cop-out, a badly attempted response driven at nothing but the need to piss people off. Get off it, man. It's called respect for the source material and the fans who propelled it into stardom to begin with. You do not take something so special to others and enervate it to the point of bastardization.

Only goons would be cool with that. Oh, wait...

[sgtfbomb]

There is a difference between realism and believability. Usually, as long something seems to follow the law of thermodynamics and looks convincing enough, it can be perceived as believable in terms of film logic. Realism, on the other hand, doesn't exist in film. Sorry, most things are typically over-dramaticized, including movies based on true stories or even mundane stories involving mundane people, liberties are always taken. For example, I always laugh when someone runs into a fire and is able to make it out alive, even though they never dropped down to the floor and managed to somehow see through all the smoke. On the Backdraft DVD, I seem to recall them talking about realism, and yet, at the end of the movie, the characters are standing on the roof of a burning building, that is supposed to be taken on defensively, meaning that you fight it from the outside.

We don’t really know why it was pushed back, but I have a sneaky suspicion it was more to do with the budget than anything else. Paramount, the studio, has been pushing back so many films lately. Anyway, I suspect it was to get the budget down and to rework the script to accommodate that. After all, if you want to get the budget down, you’ll need to make changes to the script. The first draft reads like it would make a very expensive film. Apparently the budget was at a whopping 150 million dollars, and according to the article that broke the news, Paramount wants to take between ten and twenty million off of that. Either way, we're looking at a very high budget film.

I about brought this up in the other thread, but what elements do you guys think might go in order to drop the budget. CGI is a big thing, it's expensive. So, obviously, a lot of it will have to do with that. Clearly, their going to want the action scenes. I'm not sure that they are going to give up on the Dimension X thing, but that would be an easy way to drop the budget down. Another way is to drop Bebop and Rocksteady. At least, in this script, they don't do much. Or perhaps, they could drop Shredder/Schrader as an alien. I'm not convinced that these are the changes that will be made, I'm just brainstorming.

[Cryomancer]

Originally Posted by Jester

Yeah, I almost felt the whole script was just a "Find/Replace" for a rejected Transformers script:


See...

I was thinking along those lines as well, and it occurred to me that with fairly minimal rewriting this could totally become a Battletoads movie. The tone would probably be more correct.

[sgtfbomb]

Originally Posted by Cryomancer

I was thinking along those lines as well, and it occurred to me that with fairly minimal rewriting this could totally become a Battletoads movie. The tone would probably be more correct.

I thought the same thing!

[Bob]

Originally Posted by sgtfbomb

I brought this up in the other thread, but what elements do you guys think might go in order to drop the budget. CGI is a big thing, it's expensive. So, obviously, a lot of it will have to do with that. Clearly, their going to want the action scenes. I'm not sure that they are going to give up on the Dimension X thing, but that would be an easy way to drop the budget down. Another way is to drop Bebop and Rocksteady. At least, in this script, they don't do much. Or perhaps, they could drop Shredder/Schrader as an alien. I'm not convinced that these are the changes that will be made, I'm just brainstorming.

I don’t think we’ll be losing Dimension X or Bebop and Rocksteady anytime soon, as the inclusion of these things (as well as Krang) seem pretty integral to the overall plot, particularly Dimension X and Krang. Also, like Bebop and Rocksteady, they seem like the necessary “gimmicks” to achieve blockbuster status, which is certainly what Paramount wants more than anything. I don't think the story itself will change, so the alien aspect will almost certainly be kept. I think people have to get used to that.

The kinds of things I can see changing is Shredder. I actually think the whole General Schrader thing might either be omitted completely or seriously altered. I also think, story-wise, the focus will be flipped from Casey to April. I also think they might get rid of the whole “Turtles leaving New York to train with the Warrior Turtles in Dimension X” aspect.

On the other hand, although it is, admittedly, doubtful to happen, I really wouldn’t be surprised if they toss away the alien revelation completely and leave it as something that they will confirm in a later sequel. Although I do admit that that probably won’t happen.

Other than those, I really don't know. The word is that Paramount wanted to shave about ten to twenty million off the budget, which for something like this, isn't really that much. What changes can you see, being as realistic as possible?

[The Stryker]

Originally Posted by Donnie

HA! That argument is a such an overly used cop-out, a badly attempted response driven at nothing but the need to piss people off. Get off it, man. It's called respect for the source material and the fans who propelled it into stardom to begin with. You do not take something so special to others and enervate it to the point of bastardization.

Only goons would be cool with that. Oh, wait...

Who are you again? Hi, I'm Stryker. Best in the world. How you doing.

Maybe it's just me but I've never looked for believability in Ninja Turtles because the core premise is completely silly. You can try and act like it isn't silly now but it is. Once I have bought the concept of 4 humanoid ninja turtles I can go along with a bunch of other things, deflecting bullets with shells? Why the hell not. They're fighting an alien pig next. It's when it tries to be serious that it falls apart for me. Serious melodrama involving Casey and Shadow's mother one minute and vampires the next.

Again, I'm not going to get mad and hyperbolic over a first draft script that may or may not be real. Until any of this is confirmed we might as well attack fanfiction writers for having Splinter and Michelangelo do the deed with eachother.

[CyberCubed]

Shredder better be a human. And the Foot are ninja's, not Call of Duty rejects.

[The Stryker]

I'd be fine with them being random thugs. Where do you find thousands of expendable ninjas anyway?

Or robots. Robots would be cool.

[sgtfbomb]

Originally Posted by The Stryker

Maybe it's just me but I've never looked for believability in Ninja Turtles because the core premise is completely silly.

Yes, the concept is silly, but that doesn't mean the Turtles should be able to stop bullets or be able to do anything and everything.

[The Stryker]

Of course not. I'm not saying they should be flying and have ice powers but I'm just saying that deflecting bullets with the shell isn't THAT nuts in context. I mean, they ARE from another dimension.