Michael Bay responds to Ninja Turtles script criticism

It’s fair to say that producer Michael Bay’s planned live-action adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn’t get off to the best of starts with fans of the heroes in a half-shell, which of course stemmed from the fact that the Turtles would be reimagined as aliens. While the project has subsequently been delayed, fan site TMNT Not TMAT got their hands on a copy of the original screenplay for Ninja Turtles by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec earlier this week, and boy has it come in for criticism.

Along with the changes to the Turtles’ origin, the screenplay reimagines April O’Neill and Casey Jones as an 18-year-old couple, while Shredder becomes Colonel Schrader, the leader of a black ops group known as ‘The Foot’. Thankfully, a cease and desist order from Paramount has spared us from the horrors within, while Bay has taken to his official site for a spot of damage control, stating that: “The leaked script for Ninja Turtles that different sites continue to comment on was written well before I, or anyone at Platinum Dunes, was involved with the project. That script saw the shredder a long time ago. This is tired, old news. Wait for the movie!”

So there you have it, the leaked script has absolutely nothing to do with Michael Bay or director Jonathan Leibesman (Wrath of the Titans) – even though it’s dated January 2012 – over a year-and-a-half after Bay signed on to the remake.

Originally published August 30, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.