Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Rumored To Be Facing Delays And Reshoots

The Turtles may have bigger problems than Shredder.

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

TMNTAre we sure Terry Gilliam isn’t secretly directing the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot? Because normally for a production to be this plagued with bad news and controversy, it has to be poor old Gilliam behind the camera. So what’s the problem now? Rumors have hit the Internet that TMNT’s release may get kicked back months in order to facilitate some major reshoots.

The claims originate over on Geeks of Doom, and I don’t know how solid their track record is with exclusive news like this, so consider this firmly in the RUMOR camp until officially confirmed or denied. The Geeks of Doom folks say that their information comes from “a source connected with production,” and the news is major. Reshoots this late in the day are hardly unheard of, and they don’t necessarily bode ill, but GoD says that nearly one third of the movie is slated to be completely reshot, and that producer Michael Bay is taking time away from Transformers: Age of Extinction in order to oversee the reshoots.

There’s no word what, if true, this might mean for director Jonathan Liebesman. With this little information, there’s no point in speculating about that element, because GoD’s source apparently isn’t sure if Liebesman is working on the reshoots as well or not. Either way, GoD says the movie will be shifted back from its August 8 release date to sometime in the fall, possibly shooting for a holiday release in November or December. Turtles definitely feels more like a summer action movie more than the typical holiday fare, but honestly given how divisive the movie has been among fans it’s likely to face bigger challenges at the box office than simply when it comes out.

This is, of course, hardly the first speedbump the Turtles reboot has faced during its production. Bay’s involvement already had many fans’ hackles up in spite of the fact that he was only producing the film, not directing. Then came the script leak that revealed the Turtles’ origins had been changed from mutants to space aliens, something the production quickly backpedaled on, insisting they were still mutants (although the recent trailer reveals they still didn’t stay entirely true to the source material — in the new movie the Turtles were apparently created by Shredder and April O’Neill’s father). Even the designs of the Turtles themselves, complete with different outfits and alarming nostrils, has only added more fuel to the fanboy rage.

Whether these alleged reshoots will result in a TMNT movie fans both old and new can embrace remains to be seen. But one third of the movie is a helluva lot of reshooting, certainly more than you’d expect at this stage in the game. Another big question is, if Bay is all-hands-on-deck with Turtles right now, could that possibly affect Transformers: Age of Extinction’s release date, currently scheduled for June 27?

Hell, at this point just edit both movies together, boom, instant crossover! Everybody’s all about shared cinematic universes these days anyway, am I right?

We’ll let you know when/if these rumors are confirmed, or further information becomes available. And hey, if Paramount really needs help shoring up their Turtles movie, I hear Vanilla Ice is available.