The studio has hired Andrew Dodge, whose credits include the Jason Bateman comedy Bad Words, to write the script. Producers are Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller through their Platinum Dunes production company. The movie is slated to start production later this year.
The studio is aiming to reboot the movie arm of the franchise through the third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project.
“We’re doing a reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Paramount. That is looking like production at the end of the year,” Form told Variety Sunday at the Critics’ Choice Awards.
“Did you just give something away?” Fuller said. “Oh boy. We did the preceding two Turtle movies, but I didn’t know that we were saying that we’re making it, but that’s good to know!”
'A Quiet Place' producers are rebooting the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' again! Production could start as early as this year #CriticsChoiceAwards https://t.co/wdsQUeuspo pic.twitter.com/IxbalX6Gxm
— Variety (@Variety) January 13, 2019
Paramount has made two movies are based on the 1980s cult comic by Kevin Eastman and Kevin Laird about four wisecracking bandana-sporting pizza-loving turtle superhero brothers named after the Renaissance artists Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo and Donatello, who, mutated by an experimental ooze, use ninja skills acquired from their sensei, a mutated New York City rat named Splinter also mutated by the mysterious ooze, to protect New York City. Both films performed decently at the box office. The first movie, released in 2014, grossed $493 million worldwide while 2016’s installment, subtitled "Out of the Shadows", earned $245 million. Both films starred Pete Ploszek as Leonardo, Alan Ritchson as Raphael, Noel Fisher as Michelangelo and Jeremy Howard as Donatello, as well as their Megan Fox (Transformers) and Will Arnett (Bojack Horseman) as their human allies, April O'Neil and Vern Fenwick, respectively. Both movies were also produced by Michael Bay with Platinum Dunes.
However, due to the sequel's lower gross, the future of the TMNT movie franchise was put into doubt, with producer Andrew Form saying back in October 2016 there were no new plans for the franchise, but with Jim Gianapulos stepping in as Paramount CEO, a push for more quality content across all of the studio’s films and franchises has factored into the planning for the Ninja Turtles.
New Line released three low-cost Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies using actors in practical suits in the early 1990s. The first film was a hit with $201 million worldwide, while the second grossed $78 million domestically, and the third took in $42 million.
Across six movies — five of them live-action, one a CG-animated big screen reboot that failed to take off in 2007 — the Turtles have earned more than $1 billion dollars in box office totals since their theatrical debut in 1990.
Dodge’s script for Bad Words was named to the Black List. He’s worked on Space Jam 2 and O’ Lucky Day. He is repped by CAA, Grandview and Gang Tyre.
Form and Fuller last produced horror hit A Quiet Place for Paramount, which has a sequel dated for 2020.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot joins Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures upcoming line-up of movies, including: Wonder Park (March 2019), live-action Dora the Explorer (August 2019), Are You Afraid Of The Dark? (October 2019), The SpongeBob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge (July 2020), and CG-animated/live action hybrid Rugrats (November 2020).
The news comes as Nickelodeon recently relaunched a refreshed TMNT animated series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which will follow the band of brothers as they discover new powers and encounter a mystical world they never knew existed beneath the streets of New York City.
More Nick: 2019 on Nickelodeon | New Shows, Specials, Events, Movies, Episodes, and More!
Originally published: Monday, January 14, 2019.
Additional sources: ComicBook, SuperHeroHype.
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