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We won’t actually see the Michael Bay-produced Ninja Turtles until 2014 or so, but in the meantime Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman is keeping the hype machine rolling by naming all sorts of other movies that Ninja Turtles will be like. Among the titles he’s previously name-checked are The Raid: Redemption, Fist of Legend, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Now he’s also likening Ninja Turtles to The Avengers, in terms of “scope and roots origin.” Lord knows there’s a world of difference between emulating The Avengers and actually being as good as The Avengers, but at least they’re aiming high, I guess? Continue reading after the jump.
Whereas co-creator Peter Laird has expressed his unhappiness with the reboot’s direction, Eastman’s been much more enthusiastic. After the filmmakers’ decision to turn the mutants into aliens sparked massive from fans, Eastman defended the move and gushed that what he’d seen so far of the movie was “AWESOME.” Months later, even following rumored script issues and a delayed start date, that excitement does not seem to have waned.
In a recent interview with NBC 5 Chicago (via Comic Book Movie), Eastman spoke highly of director Jonathan Liebesman‘s vision:
Jonathan Liebesman is going to make a great film. From what I’ve seen of the script, it’s fantastic. Michael Bay has made some great and intense movies. We’re talking about being inspired by movies like ‘The Avengers’ for scope and roots origin and ‘The Raid: Redemption’ for fight scenes and ‘Rise for the Apes’ as far as computer-quality style.
Eastman also referenced The Avengers in a separate conversation with The Examiner:
I like to answer this by basically telling the fans first and foremost not to worry, this will be a great TMNT film. Much like many thirty year old concepts, the TMNT’s have been re-invented a number of times, some were stronger than others, but if you look at what Viacom/Nickelodeon has done/allowed to happen with the new TMNT animated TV series, and the new IDW comic series, each has a slightly new and refreshed take on the “core concept,” the new film with be the same, a film “well placed” in the TMNT lore the fans will enjoy. If we learned nothing else from one of my favorite comic book based films, The Avengers, that there’s a lot to be said about never forgetting that core concept and core fan-base.
It’s no wonder Eastman hopes Ninja Turtles lives up to the standards set by The Avengers, which raked in $1.5 billion by pleasing established fans and attracting new ones. But the choice to cut out the “teenage” and “mutant” parts of the Ninja Turtle backstory already has lots of TMNT lovers sore, and the negative buzz surrounding Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec‘s script doesn’t bode well either. I’m sure fans will come around if the film turns out to be a good one, but so far the project is off to a shaky start.
