If You Directed TMNT 4

[Zelda]

I SECOND DANNY ELFMAN! He's fantastic with giving movies just the spiced atmosphere they need and TMNT definitely has an interesting atmosphere to capture (:

[Ramboraph4life aka Matt]

If I directed the new movie, I'd do the following:

I agree with many by trying to take the direction into the gritty, dark, Mirage tone for the story.
(Some based on a script I read a couple of years ago) I would most likely use the City at War story arc. The four turtles try to keep a city at bay. Not only would I include Karai and the such (the Foot Clan from Japan), but I would also include a third party. Hell, maybe the Yakuza (japanese mob). Although Jet Li is Chinese, it would be neat for him to play the head boss. In the first part of the movie, the turtle would battle thugs and the Karai/Foot members for control. But then the Yakuza (who would use guns as well) starts moving in and becomes too powerful. In the second part of the movie, Karai and the Foot join with the Turtles to battle the Yakuza. Somewhere they eventually split up (have Don, Karai, and Leo with others go one way, while Raph, Mike, and Casey go the other way) Only in the last 10 to 15 minutes all hell breaks loose as it suddenly becomes every man/turtle for him/herself. For now I'd think of Leo fighting Karai and Raph(hell, he IS my fave after all) fight the head boss (Jet Li).
I would try to go for a John Woo style. Kinectic energy with some well done slow motion. I'd go for a R rating, and it being john woo style I'd have to have Raph use a gun or two at some point (that's just me talking though).
Music wise: For scoring I like Hans Zimmer (especially for his score in Broken Arrow), while song wise maybe some Saliva or Rob Zombie.
Between the action, I'd like the see the turtles grow even closer during the course of the movie, and maybe grow a little. Mikey a little more serious, Raph more levelheaded, etc. I'd also include a lot of humorous banter between Raphael and Mikey. I think that would be absolutely hysterical.

[Zachatello00]

I'd introduce city at war starting because of Super Shredder's death in TMNT 2. Yeah, the NM was supposed to be a pick up of the movies, but the NM itself never was a movie, plus they never explained how Shredder was alive again somehow, so it wouldn't bother me going against this.

We'd have to bring in Karai, cast Brendon Frasier as Casey, Alyson Hannigan as April, and bring back as many of the original TMNT voices as possible. I'd try to find a sensible way to bring Rocksteady and Bebop into it (as purple dragons, not as mutants). Someone said earlier that there may be a problem with rights and stuff, but there shouldn't be as mirage owns the rights to all TMNT characters ever. I'm not sure if I would have Shredder come back or not at the end as they did in the toon. It's easier to explain his being alive since he was an utrom, but you can do the bio-cytes thing with the S.Shredder's death.

Did it ever bug anyone else that Super Shredder was way too easily killed?

[bufo]

The only problem with the first movie to me was the fact that Leo and Raph couldn't freely hack & slash with their weapons. Don & Mikey could, because their weapons don't have any sharp edges.
I don't know what kind of movie I'd make, but I would surely make Leo & Raph cut some thugs up with their weapons

[Zelda]

LETS HAVE SOME BLOOD!

(okay enough violent side)...

Definitely agreed...Super Shredder was killed WAY too easily... he's super ultra muscle mutated, he should be able to survive that!!

[Jephael]

As much as I liked KROW's TGRI/Utrom plot, it's already been done so perfectly in the new show and I fear that as a movie it was just come off as more of a blatant Star Wars parody.

Originally Posted by Mondo J. Gecko

I'd make it very 80's retro... and keep it a cartoon... I'd have lots of fun with it... everyone would probably hate it, but I would have as much fun as possible with it... bring back the old toon!
...

(oh yeah... and I'd have Mondo Gecko in it too )

Now that's an awesome idea! I would love it if they did some kind of animated TV movie with the voice cast of the original cartoon. I bet you could have lots of fun with a plot like that!

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Zelda

If it was live action, I'd have it pick up where the old movies left off--Shredder's dead, etc etc but probably combine the best elements of the universes. It would also likely pick up the TCRI mystery--in the 2nd movie Donny was complaining that he didn't believe Perry, that there had to be more to it and Splinter said don't confuse the specter of your origin with your present worth *but also* that the search rarely has so easy an ending. The Utrom thing could possibly be incorporated though obviously no Utrom Shredder since Shredder is dead. I'd want to keep it on earth as much as possible, leaving the sci-fi aspect dark and mysterious and also to avoid getting lost in all the special effects and then loosing the story and the 'specialness' of the turtles being turtles on a planet of all humans.

Lots of April and maybe as much or more Casey, but still mainly turtles. And I agree that the other movies focused a LOT on Raph so give someone else the spotlight. Mikey or Leo, or Don he never seems to get ANYTHING poor guy... but ^_^; no offense to Donny fans but he never really interested me at all... though he's getting better development with the new toon so he's growing on me (: Leo is kinda...normal though ;p dunno what the focus would really be. Mikey though, could get a more serious side shown of him--some sideplot thing where something really affects him the new toon's been hinting that he has that side that he's intelligent under the goofiness so it'd be interesting to develop.

I love this idea....and donny could get focus (though raphie is my fave donny is nosesing his way in to second ahead of mikey...leo always ranks last...IMHO) Donny could, as said in 2, have serious doubts about Perry's tale of the lost canister, so he and the boys investigate. they find out TGRI (keep the name it's movie cannon now) is lead by an evil alien bent on world domination....perry is his prisoner....forced once again to create mutants for this evil alien warlord and his hords....(enter bebop and rocksteady) Krang (evil alien) leads a rag tag team of conquring utroms who by movies end are stopped by Perry, the tmnt and utromian police (Perry could be an agent of the utrom police who created the tmnt as an attempt to stop krang....15 years ago.....and the foot was just a test of their skills....as was the septer....ohhhohhhhohhhohhhhh) may not work may be to complicated but hey.....

[Zelda]

Complicated = INTERESTING!

And you could even use it as an explanation for why there's TGRI and TCRI... they could've changed the name to TGRI as a way of hiding what it was.

And Perry could be an Utrom in hiding OR there could be a whole backstory that he's a normal human but he's working with the Utroms because blahblahblah And with the connection to the Utroms the whole story makse a lot more sense than just "well..a few random chemicals came together..."--isn't that what he said in the movie? That doesn't even make sense unless it's a HUGE amount of chemicals, that room was FULL of canisters... and how do you accidentally put together that much random chemicals? Or even ANY unknown chemicals? Unless it's one really messy lab with really slack procedures....

Poor Donny never seems to get focus ;_; he deserves some spotlight too!

I also LOVE the idea of a live action Krang, with technology how it is now it could be done REALLY REALLY well... make him dark and creepy.. less silly than in the original series (though actually he was one of the more serious characters from what I remember... ).

[bufo]

totally feeling that krang part, he must be some kind of horror figure

[laterdayz]

one thing i would do is have shots of the turtles growing up over the years. i loved the scenes in the first movie of the turtles as babies learning to walk and to talk. i would show scenes in the beggining of the movie of the turtles as babies, little kids, preteens then fade out till we see them later on in the film as the teenagers we all know and love.those scenes would be of the turtles learning to fight and scenes that show how their personalities developed. maybey leonardo staying close to splinter meditating, donatello reading science books in a corner,his face in awe, mikey glued to the tv set,with huge eyes sucking up everything he is watching, and raphael training furiosly, seeing him getting frustrated at the little things, i.e not mastering certain moves.

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

Well, if it was a direct sequel to the existing movies, I'd base it on "City At War", have it replace TMNT2 (and anything afterwards) in the continuity, and cast Brigitte Lin as Karai.

But, I'd much rather start fresh, and do a trilogy of animated TMNT movies, each one about 2 1/2 hours long and PG-13 (R is too much and PG is too little).

I'd want it to be traditional cel-animated (nothing against digital cel, or CGI) to give it a gritty 1980s look, and base the style on the first few issues of the comics (Including the all-red-bandanas!!!) I'd also try to get the feel of the comics and first movie down as much as possible and even set it in the 1980s! The characters personalities would be portrayed as in the comics, too, so no "Surfer Mike" here.

For the musical score I'd have to go with Yoko Kanno. I don't know who these other composers are (except John Williams and Danny Elfman), but if they're who have been scoring adventure movies lately then NO THANKS. I'm a little bit tired of music in action movies always sounding like either wanna-be-classical or goth-metal. Yoko Kanno's music is excellent, and is very different from the other stuff. (And would sound good in a TMNT movie)

As for the cast, I'd have the VAs from the first movie as the Turtles and Splinter. Judith Hoag and Elias Koteas as the voices of April and Casey, Sonny Chiba as the voice of Shredder, Steven Jay Blum as Nobody, Victor Williams as the Rat King, Matt McKenzie as Baxter Stockman, and Brigitte Lin as Karai. With the casts of the old and new cartoon as any Background characters who speak.

Part One's story would basically start with the Purple Dragons Battle from Issue #1, then a cool opening sequence, then the Turtles would go down to the sewer and Splinter would tell them their origin and send them to challenge Shredder and of course their would be the first battle with Shredder ending in the thermite grenade.(So far everything from Issue 1) But when the Turtles go home they find Splinter is missing and the sewers are overrun with mousers.
They fight their way, out of the sewer, through mousers, and find April scarred and cornered, so they rescue her, but she's shocked at her rescuers appearence and faints, so they take her to the Lair (the only part of the sewer not crawling with mousers, and when she wakes up they tell her their origin, and she tells them (in flashback) about Baxter and the Mousers, etc. Believing Baxter has Splinter, the Turtles and April go to Baxter's Lab and shut down his operation, but when the Turtles question him about Splinter they find he knows nothing.
April, lets them stay at her place until they find Splinter, Raph goes out to work out his frustration and ends up fighting then befriending Casey. Meanwhile Leo, looking for some clues for Splinter finds the TCRI building and when Raph returns, the Turtles plan to check it out.
The Turtles break into the building and find Splinter's cane and the Utroms! Believing the Utroms killed Splinter the Turtles attack and a battle of misunderstanding ensues until Splinter walks out of the darkness and halts the fight. He then explains that as he was driving the mousers away from the Lair he was injured and met the Utroms who took him in and tended his injuries etc.
After a joyous reunion, Splinter, and the Turtles are at April's place (except Leo who is out training) when suddenly the Foot attack, and an unconscious Leo is thrown in through the window. Then Shredder appears! A huge battle takes place. During which Casey shows up to help our heroes, but in the end the Foot burn down April's building and they're forced to flee to Casey's farmhouse!
The movie ends with an adaptation of "True Stories" from issue 11, where April's diary narrates how everyone is recovering from the defeat. Ending with the heartwarming closing line. "Life is Good, and Life goes on"
"To Be Continued" is displayed and credts roll

Part Two's story would start with a recap of the first one, maybe Raph or Mike recalling the events while training, implying that they've been there awhile, then a cool opening sequence. Then an adaptaion of "Nobody's Fool" but on the way home the Turtles find the "Haunted House" where they meet the Rat King as in "I, Monster".
The Next day Raph gets fed up with hiding out and "Return to New York" begins. (Would have to skip the Zog parts) The final Battle between Leo and Saki should be very dramatic. Then as Saki's body Burns Leo debates to himself if things are really over.
"To Be Continued" is displayed and credts roll

Part three would have the Turtles telling the tale of Shredder's final defeat (and second death) to Splinter, April, and Casey (as a recap), Then a cool opening sequence, then just do adaptations of "Shades Of Grey", and "City At War"
Display "THE END?", then roll credits.

Well, at least that's what I'd do. So What'cha Think?

[Mr. Stay Puft]

Start the thing from scratch as a live-action trilogy. I'd like to see the turtles be a mix of live action and CGI, similar to the Spider-Man movies. The first movie would be very similar to the first half of season 1, minus Nano, Garbageman, etc. with various Mirage elements mixed in. I'm more of a fan of turtles on earth, so I wouldn't want it to get too sci-fi.

Part I: Opens with the Purple Dragons fight. After defeating the gang, Foot ninja swarm in. The Foot soldiers are taken out. When Shredder finds out about this, he demands more information about the turtles. The Foot begin tracking the turtles' every move. After careful study, Shredder realizes that the turtles' fighting style is strikingly similar to that of his old foe, Hamato Yoshi. He decides to try to gain the turtles as allies, and almost succeeds, until Splinter reveals the truth about Shredder. The turtles decide it's time Saki/Shredder pays for his crimes. After a royal ass kicking in their first fight, they begin training harder. They face Shredder a second time and defeat him. The thermite grenade included in the final fight. The first movie would focus mainly on the turtles, Splinter, Shredder and the Foot.

Part II: Recap of events, maybe in clips during the opening credits. The movie opens with Foot ninjas raiding the sewers. They manage to get Splinter and the turtles are driven from their home. with nowhere to go, they wander the sewers and back alleys aimlessly until they find a young woman being mugged. They thwart the mugging and meet April O'Neil. Everything goes as it did in the comics/cartoon, minus the mousers. April offers to let the turtles stay at her place. They begin planning a way to get Splinter back. Raph takes off and meets Casey Jones. After the Raph/Casey fight, Raph returns home. Foot ninjas follow him. The next morning, Leo goes on a training run. He is confronted by the Foot. They beat him senseless. Everything goes the way it went in the comics. In Northhampton, the turtles train and decide to go back to New York. They fight through the Foot complex and Shredder reveals how he returned from the dead. The big fight ensues and ends with Shredder's decapitation and burning.

Part III: City at War. The turtles set out to fix the damage done after Shredder's death.

That's how I'd do it. My idea probably sucks, but, eh. I'm a musician, not a screenwriter/director/casting director.[/b]

[Spitfire]

If I made a turtles movie I would find the best stunt men to play the turtles so no stunt was limited. I would find the best costume disginer so the costumes would looks awesome(Special effects have nothing on a good old costume) Then I would try to retain the cast of voice actors. If I couldnt find them I would use the voice actors from the show. For the rest I would let my casting girl find them
I would it with my own story loosely based off of the comics. For the intro I would have a girl(April) running away from some foot ninjas. She runs into a dead end and at the last second before the ninjas get her 4 turtle shadows fall from the roof top above and thrash the ninjas. They step into the light and she sees what they are and faints. They take her to Splinter who revives her and tell her their orgin. As he is telling her the orgin I would show the cast and crew. At the very end of Splinters tale he would say "And now they are the Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles" And then the name of the movie would show
I would pan out to a shot of Saki sitting in his Dojo trainning his foot ninjas. After that scene the turtles take April home. Raph bored at home goes out for a evening stroll. He runs into a psycho with a hockey mask who is beating on some crimals in the middle of the street. Raph stops him and trys to talk to him. Casey refuses to listen to anything Raph says and runs off. Raph chases him and tackles him. They start wrestling around and then the two stop and start laughing. Realzing how stupid it was for them to be fighting like that in front of all those people. This is where their friendship starts
Slowly as the movie progresses the turtles find themselves stopping more random crimes. Eventually the turtles run into Foot Elite Ninjas. They have a feirce battle with them and the ninja vanish. As their on their way back home a gang on mobsters jump them. They try to fight them off but they get over powered. Just when the mobsters go to finish them off Casey arrives at the scene and whacks them all away. After the rescue the turtles realize their brother Don is badly injured. One of the Elites had sliced his shell with his ax and it damaged him badly. Now the turtles must heal Don. They stay low for awhile only going up to get supplies. Once Don is healed they begin their fight against the City at war again. April gets captured by the Shredder and Shredder leaces a calling card for the turtles(He staples a picture of April to a dead body and throws the body in front of a sewer lid) The turtles and Splinter go to rescuse April and find themselves in the middle of the biggest gang war of all time. There are guns blazing everywhere. The turtles and Splinter finially fight their way to the lobby of Shredders fortress. Before they go in Casey Jones Joins them. They enter only to find Hun and a bunch of foot Tech ninja waiting for them in the lobby. They fight them off and make their way to the elevator. They go up a few floors and end up in a large room with strange markings all over. The foot mystic ninja appear and they have a battle. Casey gets captured by the Earth ninja and drug off. The turtles finially defeat the mystic ninja by dodging their attacks and making htem hit each other. They go up to the top floor and see April and Casey tied up on a wall to the far right. Splinter warns his sons about traps in the room. Raph doesnt listen and runs ahead only to trigger a explosion. When the smoke clears 3 Shredder clones appear and they do battle until the turtles win. At this point the turtles are beat but they must press on. After saving Casey and April they make their way to Shredder's Dojo. When they get inside they find Hun, Elite Ninjas, and a bunch of foot soliders waiting for them. Shredder calls them off and begins to battle with the turtles. Shredder throws Spilnter out a window and Leo rescues him. They fight and it slowly moves all around. Outside, inside, at one point Shredder gets thrown off the top of his building and into the warzone. The turtles quickly run down to the bottom of the building to see that Shredder is gone. The cops arrive and the turtles quickly get Splinter and run for it. They return home and have a nice family moment with Splinter, April, and Casey. Just before the movie ends you see Shredder stumble into his Dojo battered and beat up. He removes his armor and collapes on the floor. Hun comes intot he dojo and finds Shredder passed out and quickly calls for help. Then it flashs "The End?" and the credits roll. During the credits there are different out takes and some scenes of the turtles fighting foot soliders that werent in the movie. Thats what my movie would be like but it will probly never happen

[Lord Nightwalker]

I would do it as a stand alone story. We all know who the Ninja Turtles are. I would a few flashback moments to explain things that might occur that need to be explained. It would be a violent Drama, A very dark,grim action story. And the story would be important to the film, It wouldn't be just eye candy. However, I would bring in the best effects team I could possibly find, and hire Stan Winston to do the most awesome Ninja Turtles costumes ever envisioned. I would have serious hand to hand combat in this film, a very good mix of all out CQCB and "wire fu".
I like elements from just about everyone's thoughts on this. I would have sci fi and horror elements, But I realy want to stress the fact that the are Ninja, and Are excellent hand to hand combatants. I want to capture the best aspects of each Turtle. And I want to have a fight sence with Splinter that show's the old Rat can still kick a$$. Something even Yoda would be amazed by. It would have to have a moody, dark musical score. Maybe I'd bring in the orchestra that worked on the first Crow film. Or maybe the crew from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

Live action
PG-13- about the same level of violence as The Lord of the Rings trilogy.


Where to start? You can't have a TMNT movie without April, but how do you introduce her when we have 4 different versions of their first meeting alkready depicted?

Well, I would start with a few references to hre job with Baxter stockman, but not show it. The first issue of the Mirage comic made an impression on me in that we see that Shredder walks around in a suit and tie most of the time. I would have the story be that Shredder is a corrupt businessman who as the secret leader of the New York Foot Clan, uses his power to enforce his will. I would introduce him as he is making a deal with another mobster. He speaks Japanese and its implied that he can't speak English. So when the mobster asks his bodyguard to leave the room, they're alone with the mobster, his own men, and Shredder. HE makes som disparaging comments about Shredder, calling him a nip. Suddenly, Shredder leaps to his feet and smashes the windpipe of one bodyguard, and caving in the other's face with a palm. He then speaks English- a few words to establish his character. Then he kills the mobster.

Oroku Saki is trying to buy off several city blocks, and April will not sell her building. Some Foot Ninjas try to kill her, and Casey Jones comes to her rescue- earlier in the movie he is established as her weird neighbor, and we realize that he is the self-styled vigilante that we see mentioned in news reports. But he's not skilled enough, and the turtles come to their resuce.

Splinter

Details:
- Splinter would be voiced by an actual Japanese actor, as fake Asian accents grate on my nerves (though I like Splinter's current voice). Perhaps Takeshi Kitano from Battle Royale or Ken Watanabe from the Last Samurai.

-Actual details form Japanese society, such as Splinter's mediation practices, and his chamber- have you seen the sliding wooden doors with the paper-like material in Japanese movies? He would use these.

-One thing I always thought as a kid: when they finally make human friends, they have a little more freedom for the little things in life- if they want something, April or Casey could go get it for them.

-keep the Saki/Nagi subplot. What is honor? Is the concept outdated in today's world? Or does it simply change with the times. Yoshi killed Nagi to save the life of his love. It was not murder. Honor stated that he should take his life, and he decides that honor is what drove him to do it. Nagi trying to kill Tang Shen was itself dishonorable and a betrayal. Was it honorable for Shredder to kill Yoshi, even if he knew what his brother had done? I have in mind the scene: Nagi attacks Yoshi after Yoshi tells him to get away from Shen, and Yoshi slashes his throat. Nagi staggers out through the open door, blood gushing from his throat, and we see that the young Saki saw the whole thing. All that blood would break the PG-13 rating, but I still like the idea.

-despite all of this heavy handed talk- make the movie FUN!

[bufo]

You have quite some good ideas but this one:

Originally Posted by Bug-Eyed Earl

He then speaks English- a few words to establish his character. Then he kills the mobster.

is already used by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill vol.1

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

Originally Posted by bufo

You have quite some good ideas but this one:

is already used by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill vol.1

Uhhh...the whole premise of the scene is that he's not letting on he speaks English, then he kills a guy who was planning to double-cross him. He doesn't stand up on a table or give a speech, nor is the boss one of his subordinates.

I would have to write the whole scene for you to see what I mean.

[Zelda]

(He staples a picture of April to a dead body and throws the body in front of a sewer lid) <-That'd be neat. Also would be cool to see live action versions of the Elite.

Definitely make it PG-13. More swearing, more blood.

Yes! Show that Splinter can still kick it!

is already used by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill vol.1 <-.... as well as in other movies, books, tv shows before that. But it could be done uniquely.

I definitely DON'T want to see the whole origin deal recapped YET AGAIN. I like the idea of using some flashbacks to remind people of the origins and explain for anyone who doesn't know. I also would prefer a different villian than Shredder. Have the turtles be older, having already defeated Shredder but been left scarred by him.

If it was live action, I'd keep to the timeline of the original movies but I wouldn't use flashbacks pulled from those movies unless the costuming/voices/etc of the new one were similar enough so it wouldn't look stupid.

I'd have it darker but probably not as dark as the comics--it can be intense but still FUN, still entirely quotable.
Have a lot of character depth but not constant flashbacks and angst.