Since last fall’s purchase of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rights by Paramount, the future of the film series has been in the air.  Now we have some idea of where it is going, just not what it’ll look like when it finally hits the big screen in a couple of years or so.  Paramount made a first look deal with the partners in Platinum Dunes, a company created to generate genre films as well as expand their scope.

The most interesting part of the deal is who makes up the partners in Platinum Dunes: Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and Michael Bay.  Yes, the same Michael Bay who is busy working on Transformers 3.  Apparently there is a meeting set in the next few weeks with writers for the project.

I can see how Michael Bay and Transformers was a good fit, but Michael Bay and TMNT?  That’s a mystery that remains to be seen.  He’s not the likely candidate to direct the film, but there isn’t a director list put together yet, at least in the public.

What would TMNT look like with Michael Bay at the helm?  What concerns me is what would become of the character of April O’Neil.

At its 2010 annual upfront presentation which featured top talent across the worlds of television, music and film, Nickelodeon today announced a slate of new programming that will be added to the network’s 2010-11 schedule.  Among the announcements are two shows that I am interested in.  Voltron Panthera Force and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are both going to premiere on the Nicktoons network, which I am not sure that I have.  No big deal, though, as the internet can deliver just about anything that you find on TV.  Especially properties as popular as these.

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Turtles Forever – The mere premise of it was mind-blowing.  A feature length adventure featuring a team up of the TMNT team of the 80′s-early 90′s cartoon as well as the 90′s-early 00′s cartoon versions of the heroes.  When I first heard about it, I couldn’t believe what I was reading was actually coming.  Not only that, but I was surprised by just how soon it was going to be released!  It was originally going to receive a theatrical screening, but plans for that fell through.  Instead, it premiered on TV one Saturday morning.

There is no word of a DVD release yet, but the studio is working on it.  It was created as a direct-to-DVD feature film, but since the rights to the TMNT have been sold to Nickelodeon, there are issues that need to be tied up.

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A few months ago, I wrote about a rumor that they were going to be doing a hybrid Ninja Turtles film, with live action actors and CG Turtles. It appears that it wasn’t too far from the truth. In fact, depending on how you look at it, I was exactly right. But I didn’t expect them to do it like this, or to take it in the direction that they are. Take a look at this story. I’ll comment on it at the end. Read the rest of this entry »

What a day. It’s been a long and arduous day, but I did manage to find this really great looking trailer for the TMNT fighting game coming out this fall for Wii.  This isn’t just a rehash of the old TMNT: Tournament Fighters game that was released on the SNES all those years ago. This is from a creative team that worked on Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Now, the trailer that has surfaced isn’t as action packed as I would have liked, when it comes to the fighting; but the graphics and the feel of the gameplay are about right.

I’d rather have a table of characters like the one in Smash Brothers, but I suppose this will do. Take a look at the trailer after the break, as well as screenshots.

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