Pictures seem to be popping up all over the internet from the set of Michael Bay's TMNT reboot.
The film was hit with extreme prejudice when it was first announced that Michael Bay himself would be helming the reboot. Later as time progressed we would learn that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were not mutants at all and would drop the 'Teenage." Shortly before the film was silenced and deemed postponed until further notice, we learned that the turtles were actually aliens rather than mutants and the title was simply "Ninja Turtles."
Through small corners of hope I heard it was leaked that the original script called for the turtles to actually come from Dimension X, which is core to the turtle mythology.
I have always enjoyed Michael Bay films and the Transformers movies remain some of my favorite movies of all time. I held strong and had faith that we would not be let down. I know that Michael Bay always seemed to lead a campaign of misinformation in order to keep his projects secret. Even on the set of Transfomers 3 he kept repainted versions of the Twins from Transformers 2, the duo that helped the movie, yet they were never in Dark of the Moon.
As the set images come in we still do not have a lot of information of how the movie will play out but below are a few pictures that will tell us more.
First and foremost, we have Megan Fox casted as April O'Neil. While Megan Fox would not have been my first choice, I do believe she will be a decent choice.
When she was removed from Transformers 3 for some comments she made and then reconciled with Michael Bay I figured we haven't seen the last of this combo and here we are.
April O'Neil has a signature look of red hair and a yellow jumpsuit, made famous from the 1980's cartoon series. That look has carried on and here she is with tinted red hair and a yellow jacket. Modernized for today's look I fully accept the yellow jacket. I mean, it's partly how we know she is supposed to be April. Her hair, not so much. Megan Fox has brown hair and since it is only tinted we don't get the feeling that April is the redhead that we all know and love.
Ofcourse a few other things we can take from this picture is that she is standing behind a news van. Yes, that's right, I'm going to make the assumption that April O'Neil will be a news reporter rather than other recent iterations of her that we have seen such as a high school student or a scientist. Also take note that the van has a New York license place also leading to believe that yes, just like the core material, it will take place in New York City. (If it didn't I would lose all faith in humanity.) Lastly, although you cannot see his face, the person facing her is comedic actor Will Arnett. Will Arnett has been recently listed as playing Vernon Fenwick, April's camera man and rival news reporter, further insisting our core material to be the 1980's cartoon canon.
Fellow SNL alumni Abby Elliot is also listed as being casted for an unknown role. My guess is she may bring April's sidekick Irma to the big screen for the first time.
Here we have the new Foot Clan. As you can see some liberties have been made but I don't think it really detracts from where they come from. You can see in comparison to the original TMNT movie there is quite a difference as they now wear some kind of armor. The face masks are even different, however now they lend the idea that they actually originate from ancient Japan. The poles they are carrying don't have anything to do with armament (I hope) but are more of what you find your local dog catcher using (more on that later). Overall, I think the new look for the Foot Clan brings them up to date however unlike the 1980's cannon I don't have a sense that they are robots and with the new appearance, they look more like thugs.
In this picture we see some more Foot Clan with some assault rifles in the top left. It makes me wonder if the Foot Clan will lose it's history as being a ninja clan in lieu of a clan that offers a protective detail and attack force for the Shredder. This picture also shows the Foot Clan operating during the day time so that also leads me to believe that they may not operate under the cloak of night. Lastly in this picture we see 3 motion capture suits with shells so that means only one thing, they've taken the turtles!
This is yet another very telling picture to me as far as the plot is concerned. We see three motion capture suite turtles shackled. We now see why they have the poles. We also see elaborate shackles for their hands and feet which would prohibit movement for the turtles. Looking even close we can tell which turtles have been taken hostage, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Donatello. Motion capture suits also create a wire frame based on points located on the suit. Looking at this picture, I notice Donatello will have a smaller frame than the rest of the turtles, which tells me that he may be on the lankier, nerdy side we see in the new TMNT cartoon or he may actually be a she! Yes, part of the problems with the first bit of information is that Donatello is actually Donnie, a sister turtle. Of course we won't know that until we actually see mock ups of the turtles. Last but not least, we only see three turtles, not four, and the only one missing is Raphael, who may have escaped capture if not captured previously.
Lastly I want to leave you all with this. The reboot eventually dropped it's name to simply Ninja Turtles, which was too broad of a title and left a lot of room for liberties that were taken. In the end it still seems some liberties may have been taken however so much has stayed true to it's core so I am remaining with high hopes. With the outcry of fan disapproval they pulled the movie back for rewrites and made changes however we will not know for sure until the movie goes to press. What I can give is faith restored that, as if a backwards pedal, even the initial title has been restored!
-Nurd
On December 19th a select lucky few who are in the Xbox Preview Program, like myself, were given special codes to enter the Beta during that weekend. Rest assured, I unfortunately missed it but I'm overly excited for it. Be careful out there, others have already had their hands on it for a weekend so the bar has been set.
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