Paramount Delays ‘Ninja Turtles’ Reboot

The news was initially broken as if Paramount and Platinum Dunes had indefinitely suspended their reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — or Ninja Turtles as it's to be called — but those who were hoping Michael Bay's plans for their beloved green heroes would die aren't quite in luck.

As with two other upcoming tentpoles Paramount has recently run into problems with, THR says it is script issues that have caused the studio to halt pre-production. The studio pushed G.I. Joe: Retaliation from next Friday to March 2013 just last month, and a couple weeks back, we learned that zombie outbreak film World War Z would need extensive reshoots and get a rewrite from Prometheus writer Damon Lindelof (though it is still expected to be ready for its June 2013 release).


Ninja Turtles will no longer come out Christmas of next year as planned, but more likely the following summer, so May 2014. It's quite possible the shift in Paramount's release schedule could be part of the reason Ninja Turtles will have to wait, not simply the script problems, which may or may not have been exascerbated back when Bay said the Ninja Turtles in the reboot would be of alien origin.

"Turtles" creator Kevin Eastman has been working on the script with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec.  Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans, Battle: Los Angeles) was set to direct and there's no indication the delay will cause him to abandon ship.

In a new and interesting note, Eastman said in a recent interview with The One Ring that the fighting style of the turtles will be inspired by the recent Indonesian action flick The Raid: Redemption, which showcases the martial art of pencak silat.

All that in mind, are you hopeful or still ashamed of this "Turtles" reboot?