Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Gets Some Positive Buzz, Confirms William Fitchner As Shredder
This article is more than 2 years old
The Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot from director Jonathan Liebesman and Platinum Dunes has been controversial from the word go. The film is still a year away from release, but it has already divided long-time fans of the animated series and comic books. First our beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were rumored to be replaced with Teenage Space Alien Ninja Turtles. Gladly, Michael Bay reversed his position on TMNT and it looks like the film’s production is getting some positive buzz.
Paramount Pictures recently hosted a TMNT set visit in New York City for movie bloggers. While their reactions were extremely positive, we’re not sure how much of the film they’ve watched, so take these reactions with a grain of salt.
I have to be mega vague, but as a longtime fan of TMNT I was SO happy with what I saw. They're doing it right. Trust.
— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) June 20, 2013
Last week spent an hour trying to catch some TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES action outside my building. Today got to spend a whole day on set.
— Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) June 21, 2013
Those turtles are getting a serious upgrade.
— Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) June 21, 2013
Spent my day @ the #TMNT set. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans, worry not. Still heroes in a half-shell & #MeganFox is still hot #cowabunga
— Breanne L. Heldman (@BreanneNYC) June 21, 2013
It seems as if director Liebesman might be trying to keep the Turtles faithful to the source material after all, while at the same time giving them a much-needed upgrade. We’ll find out how the new reboot measures up to the live-actipn films from the ’90s when TMNT is released in June 2014.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that actor William Fichtner will indeed playing the film’s main villain, The Shredder. Fichtner is very much not Japanese, so perhaps The Shredder’s alter ego of Oroku Saki will not appear in the film, and Shredder is a new version of the menacing character. Fichtner told HuffPost Canada TV:
I play Shredder. It is cool. It’s one of those things that came along where I thought, ‘Really? Let me think about this for a minute.’ [Laughs] Then I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, this sounds like a journey.’ I’m very glad that it worked out, I’m really glad that I’m doing it.
Let’s hope Fichtner has a knack for martial arts.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will hit theaters on June 6, 2014.
