By Rudie Obias | 8 years ago

In a recent interview, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Kevin Eastman talked about his love for the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but more importantly, the TMNT comic book series and cartoon, and upcoming Ninja Turtles movie produced Michael Bay. Maybe it’ll make you feel a little better about what they’re doing on the reboot, should they ever restart it.

Keep in mind that this interview was conducted before Paramount pushed back the Ninja Turtles release date and shut down production on the redo.

Eastman addresses fan’s concerns about Michael Bay being part of the production but assures that Bay is a top-notch filmmaker and cites how amazing his movies are. He also brings up the strong possibility Ninja Turtles will have motion capture Turtles like The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He continues to discuss the brilliance of Andy Serkis in movies like the Lord of the Rings and King Kong. A concern here would be the tangibility and textures of motion capture turtles versus motion capture apes; apes have fur and hair, turtles are smooth and wet. It seems like motion capture apes are more believable than motion capture turtles.

Eastman also talks about the fight style of Ninja Turtles mirroring something like Gareth Evan’s 2012 film, The Raid: Redemption, a film with brutal and intricate fight choreography. This is where motion capture turtles would come into play as this type of action would be overly complicated with stuntmen in rubber suits. But if the Ninja Turtles movie would have action and fight sequences like The Raid: Redemption then they might want to reconsider the “family friendly” angle Paramount and Nickelodeon are looking for.

(51:15) – Discussion of Ninja Turtles.

(1:01:30) – Ninja Turtles will not feature a teenage April O’Neil like the comic book or cartoon series.

(1:05:00) – The original live-action film fills in the gap between the black and white comic books and the cartoon show.

(1:07:55) – Kevin Eastman wants Ken Watanabe to play Shredder.

(1:31:00) – Motion Capture Ninja Turtles like The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Ninja Turtles was set to be released in December 2013 but with Paramount halting production due to script problems, the movie most likely won’t see the light of day until Spring or Summer 2014… if at all.