Was Eric Sachs originally meant to be The Shredder?

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Xiewin

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.

Honestly? If I had to take an educated guess, I'd say it was because Platinum Dunes promised the quickest turnaround with the lowest budget. The movie was a huge risk and Nick had barely acquired the property. They didn't want to commission a movie, then spend a ton of money on it, and five-to-eight years developing it and finally release it only to have it possibly under-perform. PD probably said they could have it out inside of three years for under a certain price, other companies probably said it would take longer or cost more, so Nick went with the company that brought with it the lowest amount of risk. Other "safe" moves included having Bay and Fox involved, knowing there was a built-in audience there.

"We can get it done quicker, and cheaper, than anyone else." That was probably the line that got Nick behind them.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Honestly? If I had to take an educated guess, I'd say it was because Platinum Dunes promised the quickest turnaround with the lowest budget. The movie was a huge risk and Nick had barely acquired the property. They didn't want to commission a movie, then spend a ton of money on it, and five-to-eight years developing it and finally release it only to have it possibly under-perform. PD probably said they could have it out inside of three years for under a certain price, other companies probably said it would take longer or cost more, so Nick went with the company that brought with it the lowest amount of risk. Other "safe" moves included having Bay and Fox involved, knowing there was a built-in audience there.

"We can get it done quicker, and cheaper, than anyone else." That was probably the line that got Nick behind them.

Hey Leo, do you predict sales for this movie to drop drastically this weekend, or keep going strong? Word of mouth should have gotten around and spread like wildfire by now. I assume Expendables 3 will kick the crap out of it.

[Leo656]

Oh, I'unno, I barely pay attention to that stuff, honestly. I know it started out strong but a lot of movies this year started hot but fell off fast, and a lot of stuff didn't meet predictions, so I don't know who could say, really.

[Midnight Mutant]

You can tell he was. At first, I thought maybe they did it as a marketing ploy...but that's really risky to do after so much negative feedback from the alien thing.

When you watch it, it's so obvious Oroku Saki was slapped in.
1. No Shredder history
2. Oroku Saki would not need a mech suit, he's already bad ass with minimum armor. Sachs seems like he would need that armor more updated because he probably isn't as good
3. Saki would have heard April running up behind him in the 'Shredder vs Splinter' fight. This mistake seems more like a Sachs thing.
4. With how they show Saki being very close to his Japanese roots, I don't see him needing or wanting a military food clan, again that seems more 'rich business guy'.
5. It was pretty much Sachs' plan, that plan wouldn't be something Saki would care about, nor is it really honorable. Saki doesn't have a lot of honor, but he does have some and he has pride. I don't think that's how he would want to take over a city.
6. Saki has no reason to be in NY or want to take over NY. Sachs does.
7. How in the hell does Saki know Raph's name? He wasn't partaking in the experiments or the project and even if he knew the turtles were named after the artists, how does he know which is which? Sachs would know, because he knew the colors with the name.

I mean, you can just tell when you watch it. Saki/shredder felt like a henchmen but he was suppose to be the main villain. Sachs felt like the main villain but was suppose to be a henchmen. William also said he was the Shredder and talked about stunt doubles. I didn't see Sachs doing anything that required stunt doubles.

So to answer: Yes.

[sethmartin]

Also, they never address him as Oroku Saki. They only call him "shredder" or "master shredder". I don't think it even is Oroku Saki. Just some Japanese dude.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by sethmartin

Also, they never address him as Oroku Saki. They only call him "shredder" or "master shredder". I don't think it even is Oroku Saki. Just some Japanese dude.

Its obviously Oroku Saki since they made him Japanese. They didn't mention Yoshi so they had no reason to mention Saki.

[Bry]

Originally Posted by Leo656

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.

Hey, I'm 100% with you. They're terrible at their jobs and they make awful films. But audiences just keep throwing money at them anyway.

Folks get the filmmakers and films they deserve.

[Lou 500]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

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 think it's okay for it to be a product. It's just a poorly made product dressed up in fancy wrapping.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Bry

Hey, I'm 100% with you. They're terrible at their jobs and they make awful films. But audiences just keep throwing money at them anyway.

Folks get the filmmakers and films they deserve.

Then we have people with the 'wait and see' attitude that allows this crap to happen. Mostly in this forum, with every new piece of info we were getting that just felt like a wrong step for any kind of tmnt movie, everyone had the 'wait and see' attitude. Now that the movie is out and it's horrible... People are still stick on the 'wait and see' for the sequel hoping it will clean up this mess.

No. Stop allowing crap like this to be made. How far down do the directors have to sink to wake people up that this movie sucked. Do they have to add Venus? Do they have to have Megan make out with mikey? Do they have to have shredder do an evil song and dance number? When will it cross the line that even the most rabid tmnt fan will say 'hell no' and admit they don't like this.

[NinjaPug]

This was nothing but a money grab for Platinum Dunes. Why would they care about the story? They knew people would see it no matter what.

[Lil Karai]

Page 185 of "TMNT, The Ultimate Visual History" confirms this theory. There is a page dedicated to the 2014 movie Shredder with pics of Eric Sachs. A couple notable exerpts from this page:

"April suspects there is more to Eric Sachs than meets the eye" (caption of a pic of Eric Sachs talking to April and wearing Shredder armored glove)

"Keeping with the classic Turtles vibe, it was announced that the Shredder would be returning, this time played by veteran character actor William Fichtner. The man behind the steel plated mask is Eric Sachs, which many TMNT fans may interpret as a westernized version of the character's original name "Oroku Saki". Fichtner was reluctant about the role at first, but his nephew and a compelling script convinced him to take on the Shredder's mantle."

[The Boston Ninja Turtle]

Originally Posted by Lil Karai

"April suspects there is more to Eric Sachs than meets the eye"

robots in disguise?

[Raven]

Any one claiming Sachs was never suppose to be shredder is clearly in denial. Most scenes involving him was really pushing the idea that he was going to be shredder.

Honestly, I wish they would have kept Sach as Shredder and revealed he was the American branch of the foot. Then at the end reveal Saki, the true Shredder.

That asian dude pretending to be Saki was pointless. His whole plan to bring victory back to the foot was meaningless. How did they loose in the first place? Why did they need to regain it?

[Xav]

Originally Posted by Blips

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

Yeah that does sound like him. That makes me wonder if other country's will get different cuts of the film? Like if the Chinese are offended by a Japanese villain, will they get the version of the film with Sacks as Shredder?

[thebrownranger]

Of course Sachs was originally meant to be Shredder. Listen to William Fichtner's early interviews. And, remember the last minute reshoots? There's no way the idiots behind this film could hide that.

[Galactus]

It strikes me that Bay and co really wanted a black ops military leader and were set for that no matter what.

What is weird is if they did a bit a digging they'd have seen an established fan favourite villain who fitted the bill perfectly Bishop. Even the idea that he wanted their blood for the mutagen fits with his agenda.

They could have even worked Shredder in somehow. There's any number of scenarios that you could work Oroku Saki in but I doubt anyone making this movie is bothered with anything that isn't from the Fred Wolf show.

[Leo656]

Yeah, the cat from Latino Review said he saw Fox shooting fight scenes where she was fighting off Foot soldiers with a sai, and that was filmed way back during the original shoots. So the claim that they needed to re-shoot her doing stuff she couldn't/didn't do back then because of her pregnancy is a laughable, blatant lie. They were just in full-blown panic mode and needed a cover story for the real reason, that they were making major last-minute narrative changes.

Shameful.

[Tuxedo Moroboshi]

This article confirms that he was supposed to be the Shredder originally.

For those that wanna just read the part where it's confirmed:

…when I was on set, I saw TCRI ooze being fed into a bunch of Ninja-looking Foot Clan thugs (NINJA looking, not Mercenary Masked). Also William Fichtner was The Shredder. He wasn’t working WITH Shredder, he WAS Shredder. … Basically, even when I asked what was being re-shot during TMNT 2014’s re-shoot period, I was just told that it was stuff Megan Fox couldn’t do earlier because of her pregnancy. However, I watched them shoot a scene from multiple angles where April fought some ninja with a sai and Will Arnett’s Vernon did some brawling too. With ninjas on gurneys all around.

[neatoman]

I'm going to paraphrase Yahtzee;
How is that bear ******** in the woods these days?

[THGhost]

Clearly he was meant to be. But fans moaning online made sure that never happened.