Michael Bay's 'Turtles' Reboot Gets New Title
The upcoming Paramount/Platinum Dunes reboot of the 80s comic/cartoon/toy line 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' has not been the most popular of in-development projects. While it is being directed by Jonathan Liebesman, it is producer Michael Bay
who has been attracting so much negative attention. When it was
announced that the characters were being fundamentally changed to alien
beings and that the title of the new movie would be 'Ninja Turtles,'
fans reacted, shall we say, unfavorably. Bay offered no quarter, and
actually scoffed at upset fans on his website. The casting of Megan Fox, with whom Bay had worked on two of the 'Transformers'
films, did little to quell the outrage. Now however, it seems there has
been a shift. It has been reported that the title of the film has been
changed back to 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.' The change was
revealed during Paramount's presentation at Las Vegas CinemaCon. They
unveiled the first logo for the film, which clearly bore the classic
title.
Just last night, one Spillio asked me via Facebook why any of us should care about the 'TMNT'
reboot given that those involved clearly don't care about the fans. I
don't think we can say any longer that this production is completely
apathetic to the fanbase. Sure, we may not be Bay and Liebesman's
biggest concern, but they clearly can't ignore fan outcry either. The
backlash was evidently strong enough to warrant a reconsideration of the
film's official title. This news comes almost simultaneously with Bay's
strange public apology for what he calls the inferior third act of 'Armageddon.'
Has the man learned a lesson from all this? Has he gained some
humility? That remains to be seen, as does whether the idiotic aliens
conceit is still a go. Does this new title suggest that perhaps the
recent rewrite by Evan Daugherty ('Snow White and the Huntsman')
has eliminated the extraterrestrial elements? It's not definitive proof
by any stretch of the imagination, but I remain optimistic that this
apparent concession by the studio means fans are being heard more than
they think.
What do you guys think? Happy the original title is back? Do you think the alien stuff will still be a part of the plot?
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