When we heard that Platinum Dunes and the director of Battle: Los Angeles were planning on rebooting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it was pretty easy to jump to conclusions about what type of film they would be making: gritty, lots of shaky-cam, and like most modern action filmmaking, trying to ground ridiculousness as much as possible.
But Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller tells us that we should definitely expect a grounded, but not “gritty” take on a movie with alien turtles coming to Earth. Fuller also shared that a part of this “grounded” version may come courtesy of motion-capture. Based on Fuller’s tone and his love for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it would be a shock if the filmmaking team behind the project do not go with mo-cap Turtles.
Here’s what Brad Fuller had to say about Ninja Turtles:
Were you and Andrew [Form, producer] always thinking of jumping into tentpole filmmaking?
We had signed our deal with Paramount, and they had mentioned the title to us two years ago. We were fans of the Turtles. I personally love martial arts films, cheesy and great. When Andrew, Michael [Bay], and I sat around and talked about it it seemed like a cool idea. When we saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes we were blown away by how realistic that looked, and it really had an impact on us. We said, “Wow, if they could look like that…” Well, they’re not going to look like Apes, but if the technology is at the place where someone doesn’t think if it’s a real ape or not, then maybe it’s time to drill down and see how we can get the Turtles made.
I’m guessing you’re considering motion-capture?
We’re figuring it out now. We’re not sure exactly what it has to be, but the bar is very high.
The suits could now be a little cheesy in a modern setting.
Yeah, yeah, I don’t think we’re going to go in that direction.
Tonally, are you hoping for something more serious?
Jonathan Liebesman’s work can be described in a lot of ways, but cheesy is not one of them. He’s really talented and his work, to me, is gritty. We all want to make a cool Turtle movie.
So it’s going to be gritty and grounded?
Liebesman’s work is gritty, but I don’t necessarily think this movie will be gritty. It’ll be grounded.
Was that “leaked” concept art of the Turtles real?
No. I can tell you that with absolute authority, because we don’t know what the Turtles are going to look like yet.