Following on from the recent delays to G.I. Joe: Retaliation and World War Z (both of which have been pushed back to 2013), The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Paramount Pictures has now shut down pre-production on the much-maligned Ninja Turtles reboot from producer Michael Bay (Transformers) and director Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans).
Work on the new live-action TMNT movie – which was originally slated for release on Christmas Day, 2013 – has been put on “indefinite” hold, apparently due to problems with the script from André Nemec (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman. The studio is said to have temporarily laid off pre-production staff, with THR’s source claiming that “the movie has been pushed by ten weeks,” with a new projected release date of May 2014.
Given the response from long-time fans of the Heroes in a Half-Shell towards the reboot – and particularly Bay and Liebesman’s plans to alter the origins of the Turtles to that of aliens – it’s unlikely that too many tears will be shed within the TMNT fan-community over this delay.
Originally published June 15, 2012. Updated December 6, 2019.
