The cgi movie that was turned down

[The Terror of Death]

Taken from the 5th turtle blog:

"DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. MANHATTAN SKYLINE AERIAL VIEW FROM NYC HARBOR - NIGHT.

Raphael poses dramatically on the ledge of a terraced skyscraper. All his senses are acute, attuned.

RAPHAEL (V.O.)
Ah, the night air... I love it! I despise the dank, dark underground. My brothers don’t seem to mind it...

FAVOR as he scans around, sniffs the air, looks up the sky.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
...but this is where I belong. Such a feeling of freedom, so much room to move about!

TIGHT on his face.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
I am Raphael, ninja turtle... and master Splinter chose me for this task...

WIDER as he prepares to leap.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
...to deliver a message of challenge...

WIDER as he leaps off the building ledge into the night air.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
...to the Shredder.

FOLLOW as he acrobatically, gracefully, twists and turns through the air before silently landing on another rooftop.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
Splinter told me to infiltrate the Shredder’s headquarters...

FOLLOW as he leaps to the ground, an alley near the city’s docks.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
...and deliver a calling card.

WIDE as he silently leaps up and over a high, barbwire-topped fence.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
My pleasure!

PULL AWAY to show him land silently on his feet, some twenty yards behind two FOOT NINJA GUARDS.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
Two guards on the right...

REVERSE to over-the-shoulder shot past Raphael to an expansive view of the grounds of the Foot Headquarters. The two guards are to our right, on one side of a low building, a third stands to its left side. Each guard has a sheathed katana blade strapped to his back.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
...one on the left.

REVERSE to tight on Raph’s face as an intense, grimly mischievous grin spreads across his features.

RAPHAEL (CONT’D)
They’ve all got to go.

Recognize the above? It’s a passage from a screenplay adaptation of Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 that I was hired to write back in September.

The idea was to release a direct-to-DVD CGI film version of the comic in May 2009 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the TMNT. The DVD would act both as an anchor for other licensees to sell and market their product around, as well as to provide a “bridge event” leading to the second theatrical CGI film slated for March 2010.

Imagi Animation, producers of the recent TMNT film, agreed to come on board. Peter Laird (and/or Mirage Licensing – I suppose the two are interchangeable when it comes to money) would finance the film almost solely out of his/its own pocket, with the hope of recouping the investment back from direct sales, the sale of broadcast rights, and potential cross-sell partner promotions (say, from heavy hitters like Ubisoft).

Mirage hired me to write a screenplay adaptation of the first issue – nothing fancy, no new frills, no additional scenes or dialog – straight. I did. It met with approval. The execs from Imagi flew in from Hong Kong to discuss both the creative and business ends, and it was decided that since the first issue (and resultant faithful screenplay) had certain idiosyncrasies that might be problematic for a film – a preponderance of voice-over; an extended flashback sequence that takes up nearly half the running time; a story that only spotlights two of the four turtles, practically ignoring the other two – I was asked to do a major rewrite, one that would strip away all the voice-over of the primary story (revenge upon the Shredder) and minimize as much as possible the voice-over of the flashback sequence, while also creating additional dialog for all four turtles that at the very least would give us intimations of their personalities (as those personalities had developed later over the course of the comics, etc.).

I did. The new draft was well received. Pete then decided that the DVD would run both versions of the story. The “A” or lead story would be the latter one, while the “B” original straight adaptation would be included as a DVD extra. Cool idea. To minimize production costs, A would utilize as much of the B footage as possible (I would then re-write A with this in mind; which I did). To further minimize costs, the soundtrack would utilize the originally commissioned Marco Beltrami score that was written for TMNT but that was later discarded in favor of Klaus Badelt’s less (shall we say) dark and moody score that accompanied the film. And of course both A and B versions would use as many “assets” from the TMNT film as possible (existing sets, backgrounds, etc.).

But when Imagi finally crunched the numbers and worked the DVD film’s completion time into their studio’s production schedule, things began to look a little dicey. For one, the budget for an all-CGI film would be between $5-7 million, even given the aforementioned “short cuts.” Everyone then agreed that the logical spot to make cost cuts would be to the flashback sequences set in Japan, and we all began to look at more traditional (non-CGI) ways to animate those sequences – everything from the type of animation used in Kill Bill, to a barely animated woodblock style similar to what is found in some traditional Japanese art, to “stage play” live action sets like those used in the “book excerpt” portions of the Paul Schrader film Mishima.

Yet even with this reduction (in whatever form it might take) in the CGI running time, the budget didn’t drop that substantially. And once it was determined that Imagi “quite possibly but not definitely” would deliver the completed film in September 2009 (they would shoot for that date, but there are almost always potential production problems to every film that could extend completion time), things began to look even more dicey. After all, the actual anniversary is in May, not September, and while that difference in a few months may not seem like that big of a deal, the prospect of the film coming due even a bit later in the year, beyond September, did not bode well for the ancillary licensing program that would circle the DVD’s release, all of which has to be choreographed as tightly as possible so as not to create a situation where licensees lose money should they release their product earlier than the film’s on-shelf sale date.

Given all this, Mirage CEO Gary R made the recommendation to not go forward, and thus Peter Laird made the subsequent decision to pull the plug on the project.

The major event anchor to the May 2009 anniversary was thus, uh, sunk. However, another, less potentially exciting (but nonetheless interesting and fun) idea has been developed, one that involves neither Imagi nor myself, one with hurdles of its own to overcome, and which, of course, I am not yet allowed to discuss in a public forum. Time will tell….

Personal epilogue: I did, at least, get paid. The rights to both screenplay versions belong to Mirage (it was, after all, a work-for-hire deal). Oh, and the working title of both screenplays was a nod to one of the favorite Bruce Lee films of my youth: Enter the TMNT."


http://the-5th-turtle.blogspot.com/2...-got-away.html

This is unfortunate. I hope the new idea they are working on right now is even better and actually goes through. I also hope the fifth movie is actually released in 2010.

[AquaParade]

I have to say that this news really crushes me...look through the forums and you will see that I was really expecting some kind of 25th anniversary direct to dvd in the mirage style, and as soon as we find out we almost got it, it's cancelled. Real bummer, it leaves me not able to find much excitement for whatever else is in store...but I am anxious to find out.

[Andrew NDB]

Rat fink bastards. That would have been awesome.

[gobo]

I was too upset to comment earlier. This release would have been so damn awesome...

[turkishproverb]

That would've rocked. Suh a shame.

[Ninjinister]

My inner child weeps...

[Tinuvielsdreams]

sad news...but at the same time I am glad to hear the ideas that have been out there. That Straight to DVD project really would have been beyond awesome though...

[Revan]

That would have been kind of cool. Sort of like the prequel comics for the 2007 movie.

[thebrownranger]

Man, this is what pisses the living $h*t outta me. When my hopes go up, some idiot pulls the plug on the damn thing and its done. Sorry to say that I was talking about Gary R. didn't really want to say it, but thats that. this would've bean so freakin' cool. probably better than the real cgi movie *sighs*

[CyberCubed]

Well, the one good piece of news out of this is Imagi is still interested in the TMNT. Still sounds like they're very interested in doing a movie sequel if all goes well.

[Dragon Turtle]

Originally Posted by LeoInRed

I have to say that this news really crushes me...look through the forums and you will see that I was really expecting some kind of 25th anniversary direct to dvd in the mirage style, and as soon as we find out we almost got it, it's cancelled. Real bummer, it leaves me not able to find much excitement for whatever else is in store...but I am anxious to find out.

Yeah, it will be hard to top an animated feature, but it'll be interesting to see Mirage give it the old college try. I still believe there will be some sort of direct-to-dvd film in the future, most likely a 2-d animated feature, especially considering Peter Laird/Mirage were willing to finance the project out of their own pockets.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Well, the one good piece of news out of this is Imagi is still interested in the TMNT. Still sounds like they're very interested in doing a movie sequel if all goes well.

Imagi aren't too big to turn down $40 million dollar projects just yet.

[Andrew NDB]

With all respect to the Murph and all, though, I'm left kind of wondering, having only read that excerpt alone.

What about the rest of Vol. 1 #1? Were the action scenes censored/withdrawn? Does Raph just hit the Foot with the butts of his sai rather than the business ends, does Leo just give Shredder a hard knee to the midsection rather than impaling him with both katana?

[AquaParade]

I have been wondering the same things myself...I wonder if Murphy would be allowed to give us whatever info he has on it...if they reallllly arent gonna use it...then wouldn't it not matter for us to hear all the little details?

On another note, I am holding out hope for some kind of 25th anniversary direct to dvd, one based in the mirage universe...lets not forget, that's the actual anniversary we're celebrating. The one way I could see this turning out better in my opinion, was if they do something really neat with mirage using 2-d animation. I'd love to see some real slick hand drawn ninja action I'm glad to see others thinking that the dark knight anime would be a good example of how to do tmnt justice...it's perfect, with so many different mediums I can't think of a better way to show off all the sides of the tmnt.

[TMNT]

As already mentioned, it's rather unfortunate that this project (and all that would follow it) never made it past the initial stages. After reading the excerpt and imagining just how amazing it would sound using the TMNT voice actors, one can only hope something, at least something that can evoke the same response, is on the horizon. I would love to read Murphy's original (and even the rewrite) adaptation. I doubt that will happen so at least I hope we get a few more excerpts to see where this was headed (perhaps an answer to Andrew's question). I'm assuming the first cut was right on the money (he mentions that it was a straight adaptation of the comic with nothing new added in) and that the second cut was altered (to cut down on voice overs and flashbacks not to mention the addition of equal lines for each turtle to show individual personality). All in all, some very sad news. But Murphy mentions that they do have something else planned. All we can do is marvel at what could've been.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by LeoInRed

On another note, I am holding out hope for some kind of 25th anniversary direct to dvd, one based in the mirage universe...

I'm holding out zero hope for such a thing... but it would be brilliant.

[GreasyBoi]

Playmates won't make toys related to this, right?

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I'm holding out zero hope for such a thing... but it would be brilliant.

It honestly appeals to me more then any other form of tmnt that could be put out right now. Direct to dvd is our best chance at a pretty looking more adult themed tmnt.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by LeoInRed

It honestly appeals to me more then any other form of tmnt that could be put out right now. Direct to dvd is our best chance at a pretty looking more adult themed tmnt.

Probably true. It would open some eyes to the TMNT of its own source material, at the very least. Something the TMNT at large sorely, sorely needs.

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Probably true. It would open some eyes to the TMNT of its own source material, at the very least. Something the TMNT at large sorely, sorely needs.

It's frustrating being an older tmnt fan these days. I always feel like we get so close to what we want, only to be kinda dissapointed or have it pulled away.

......petition!

[sdp]

did I read this wrong or does this not semi-confirm a sequel for march 2010?

as well as to provide a “bridge event” leading to the second theatrical CGI film slated for March 2010.