While most critics are less than thrilled with the latest incarnation of those giant pizza-loving reptiles, the franchise’s die-hard fans are hardly crawling into their shells after reading the reviews. After two weekends as the country’s #1 film, Jonathan Liebesman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, produced by Michael Bay and starring Megan Fox, Will Arnett, and William Fichtner, has already raked in $188 million worldwide. This 21st-century re-envisioning of the story brings back the characters that were created over 30 years ago by comic book writers Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman: stoic Leonardo, bad-boy Raphael, fun-loving Michelangelo, and tech-savvy Donatello, along with Master Splinter, the mutated rodent who has become the turtles’ sensei and adoptive father.
As the new film opens, crime and fear are spreading through the streets of New York as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan are wreaking havoc on the city. Nobody seems able to stop them and the future seems grim until our four outcast brothers, survivors of a scientific experiment gone wrong, rise from the sewers and assume their destiny as the ultimate masked vigilantes. Faced with Shredder’s diabolical plans for domination, the turtles team up with reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett) to save the citizens of New York.
Before talking to the three screenwriters of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I got to visit with the Turtles myself. Gulp I realize I may not be quite ready to co-star in a movie with Megan Fox — my attempt to look fierce looks more like a serious case of nearsightedness.
Putting my weapon down and picking up a slice of Pizza Hut’s Ninja Turtle-themed pizza, I sat down with writers Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) and Evan Daugherty (Divergent).
Danny Miller: I assume the biggest challenge with something like this is trying to attract new audiences while still being faithful enough for the long-time fans.
Evan Daugherty: Yeah, that’s a huge challenge! You have to find a balance. Some of the fanboys, of which I consider myself one, may complain about things that are different from versions of Turtles they’ve seen before, but we wanted to take the story to the next level — both in terms of the storytelling and the technology used to tell the story. We’re taking full advantage here of the advances in CGI to show Turtles that are able to do really amazing things. So, yeah, I think you have to tell that old story but do it in a new way.
Josh Appelbaum: The great thing about the Turtles is that their personalities are so distinct in all the different iterations of the movies and the cartoons. And it’s their personalities and their brotherhood that are at the core of everything. As long as we keep that intact, I think old fans and new fans will be okay with whatever else is going on.
André Nemec: The truth is that we’re never going to get everything in that people want and remember but we do include nods in the movie to some great lines that people know from the cartoons and the comics. I think there are some moments in there that will satisfy the hardcore fans.
Evan, I’m sure you have a lot of experience with the comments of an obsessive fan base from your work on Divergent.
Evan: Oh yeah, and frankly, that was way worse because it was part of the YA world that is driven largely by teenaged girls! For that movie we were very concerned about keeping things as close to the book as possible, but it’s different with the Ninja Turtles because other than the personalities of those four characters, a lot of details have changed in the different incarnations, whether it’s the original graphic novel or the various cartoons and films.
Josh: I think that all of the projects, including this movie, have their own tone. The tone for this film isn’t quite what the old cartoon was nor does it go as far back to the tone of the original black-and-white comics which were much harder-edged.
You guys have all written films that that are not exactly G-rated family fare. I assume you were trying to attract the original fans who grew up with the Turtles but are now older?
Evan: Yes, I think so. We’re the generation who grew up with these characters. We were able to channel our inner child stuff so that kids will like it but also give the film more of a grown-up sensibility.
I can see how it will appeal to those different groups on different levels — not that I’m ready to take my five-year-old son to see it just yet.
Josh: Oh, bring him out. He’ll love it! (Laughs.)
I think all that loud action might give him PTSD.
Evan: Come on, you’ll be paying for therapy no matter what so you might as well start now!
With all the characters and events from the different incarnations, you had so much to choose from. Was that process overwhelming?
André: Yes, giving shape to the movie out of all that material took a lot of discussion. We knew that Shredder had to be our iconic bad guy but there were other things we discussed for a long time. We wondered about including Casey Jones, for example, but decided to save him for a sequel. But we knew any Turtles movie had to begin with April O’Neil, Splinter, and Shredder.
It’s a different world now than it was in the 80s. Did you try to weave any modern-day politics into the activities of Shredder and the Foot Clan?
Josh: I think the new look of the Foot Clan contemporized them to some degree. They do have a different flavor than they did in the original movies.
André: Yeah, back then they were actual ninjas operating within New York City. We felt that in a modern New York story, such a group would be more militarized.
How different is your origin story from what fans may be used to?
Evan: I think it’s fairly original to this version. The origin story is often something that gets tweaked from version to version. I think one of the things that’s great about this one is the idea that April O’Neil has no idea that the painful thing that happened to her in her past is inherently connected to the Turtles.
Did you know any of the casting decisions as you were writing?
Josh: I think we knew we’d have Will Arnett as Vern Fenwick from the get-go so we were able to write to Will’s strengths — which are many!
Are writers ever able to give their wish lists of who they’d like to see in different roles?
Evan: In the best-case scenarios you’re part of the conversation. Sometimes you try to shape the language and lean the character in a direction that makes people start to think of certain people that you have in mind for the part.
André: During the writing process, it helps to envision specific actors regardless of the final casting.
I have to admit that I was skeptical about how our modern sensibilities would accept these giant CGI talking turtles. I thought it was very clever how you waited a good 15 minutes before we ever saw them. By then, I was used to this world and accepted the turtles’ existence.
Josh: Great, that’s exactly what we were going for. If the film had opened with them front and center it would have been too jarring.
Evan: It’s a whole new look for the Turtles so we teased it out until we felt the audience was ready to see them.