Calm yourselves down, TMNT fans. Just because Paramount has delayed Michael Bay's Ninja Turtles flick until 2014 doesn't mean it's suddenly going to go away. In fact, development continues steadily as the script and budget get ironed out. Those hoping that suddenly the studio will do an about face and not make our beloved Turtles a bunch of aliens are going to be disappointed, as TMNT co-creator, Kevin Eastman, continues to champion the idea. Not only that, it may have been his plan for the Turtles all along.
That's not the most interesting part, however. During a rather lengthy conversation with The One Ring, Eastman revealed that the fighting style employed by the Turtles in the film will be inspired by the pencak silat style used in The Raid, and the wuxia martial arts of Jet Li's Fist of Legend. So...the ninja turtles won't even use ninjutsu? Doesn't sound like it.
This, along with the myriad of other changes Bay and director Jonathan Liebesman have in store will no doubt piss a lot of people off, but to me it's simply not worth getting upset over. For one, Eastman makes a pretty compelling argument for why the whole "alien origin" thing makes some sense, and it revolves around the mutagenic ooze that has been at the heart of the TMNT story since the beginning. As for the fighting style, nobody seemed to care when the Turtles were fighting on skateboards and shit, so why complain now at something that sounds so much better?
Eastman also goes into some other aspects of the film,such as the age of April O'Neill; the possibility of bringing back Ernie Reyes Jr.(TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze) as a Foot Clan soldier; and maybe seeking Ken Watanabe(Inception) to play Shredder. Yes please. He also discusses the motion capture aspects of the film just a little bit, and drops some clues about a Tolkien-esque project he's been working on.
Ninja Turtles is now slated to open on May 16th 2014. Check out the video below...
