‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ animated reboot coming and being produced by Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen and his production team are the latest to take a swing at a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. And? I don’t know, they seem a solid enough choice to potentially crush it. How’s that for political speak, eh?
Deadline:
EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Nickelodeon is rebooting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the big screen with Point Grey Pictures’ Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver producing, and Jeff Rowe (Gravity Falls, Connected) directing. Brendan O’Brien (Neighbors: Sorority Rising, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) will write the screenplay. Paramount will be handling global distribution on the film.
This time around, the feature adaptation of the Kevin Eastman-Peter Laird-created comic book, will be CG animated. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature franchise has accumulated $1.15 billion across six movies from three studios since 1990. The last two movies, released by Paramount and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes in 2014 and 2016, were live-action and together accounted for $730.6M. The last time there was a feature CG version of Turtles was Warner Bros.’ 2007 TMNT ($96M WW).
The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie reps Nickelodeon Animation Studio’s first-ever CG theatrical production, in partnership with Ramsey Naito, EVP, Animation Production and Development, who is overseeing production for Nickelodeon. Josh Fagen is overseeing for Point Grey Pictures.
Said Brian Robbins, President, Kids & Family for ViacomCBS: “Adding Seth, Evan and James’ genius to the humor and action that’s already an integral part of TMNT is going to make this a next-level reinvention of the property. I’m looking forward to see what they do, and I know that Ramsey Naito and her team are excited to take the Nick Animation Studio into another great direction with their first-ever CG-animated theatrical.”
Following Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles launch in 1984 as a comic book, it was followed up by a hit 1987-1996 animated TV series, as well as a billion-dollar selling retail juggernaut across toys, apparel, video games, and more. New Line released three live-action movies between 1990-1993 which grossed $323.2M WW.
Nickelodeon brought the franchise to life again in 2012 with the CG-animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then reimagined the Heroes in a Half-Shell with the 2D-animated series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last year. As previously announced, as part of a separate deal, Nickelodeon and Netflix are partnering to produce an original animated 2D film based on the current Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.