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Michael Bay To Remake TMNT As Aliens

Nidi62 writes "We all know that Michael Bay loves to put 86 minutes of explosions into a 90-minute movie. But it appears that he has found a new way to screw up a movie. He is directing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot in which the turtles are not created with ooze: they are 'from an alien race, and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable.' No word yet on whether he's consulting with George Lucas on how to totally destroy the origin and essence of a classic story." Responding to criticism, Bay thoughtfully explained that fans need to "chill."

23 of 481 comments (clear)

  1. And in other news by realityimpaired · · Score: 5, Insightful
    1. Re:And in other news by Drgnkght · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Thundercats was awful. I'll admit I watched the show as a child. I even enjoyed it. A while back I had the misfortune of seeing it again on cable. My advice to the world is never watch 1980s cartoons as an adult. (Especially anything that had action figures!) Your brain will thank you.

  2. Re:Bay needs to... by DurendalMac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe years ago, but now Megan Fox's ass has probably had 15 surgeries and looks like it's made of plastic, much like the rest of her. I'll pass. Why the hell do naturally beautiful women feel the urge to completely destroy that??

  3. "chill" AND "relax" by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Did... did he just tell us to chillax?

    We've suspected it for years, but I think the trolling has just become completely overt.

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  4. Fuck him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles = TANT

    As in, this dude is tainting my childhood memories!~

  5. An Analogy by Deathlizard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Michael Bay is to 80's cartoons as Uwe Boll is to Videogames.

  6. TMNT: Mostly Sucks by busyqth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only good Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the original B&W comics. Unfortunately I am old enough to have read them when they first appeared, but they were good.

    1. Re:TMNT: Mostly Sucks by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But who thinks this is a GOOD idea? anyone? Bueller? I am starting to think that some of these "geniuses" are nothing but VERY lucky hacks. take George Lucas, did you know he wanted to make Indy 3 in a haunted house? or make C3P0 a slimy used car salesman in the original Star Wars? Or that Luke's original name was something like "Rex Starkiller"? I have a feeling these guys are just hacks that luck out in they get people to work with them that take the one or two good germs of ideas they have and get rid of all the schlock and shape it into something good. Problem is when Lucas became rich and famous he got rid of those that said 'That's a fucking stupid idea George" and replaced them with yes men and then you get The Phantom Menace.

      While I'm sure most here have seen them for the few that haven't watch the the Plinkett reviews and pay close attention to the looks on the faces of those around him during the behind the scenes. George will come up with some lame idea and they just smile or let out a really half ass fake laugh and you can see if you look at their eyes they are thinking "WTF? why isn't anyone saying anything? this is a joke, right? Are we being punked?" but nobody has the balls to say anything. I bet Bay is the same way, I bet he could announce that 'Here is the setup, the TMNT are created when Donald Trump gets exposed to radioactive lettuce which gives him a MASSIVE case of the runs and the shit travels through the pipes (which we'll follow with 3D camera work) where it lands in a sewer pipe on some pet store turtles that were flushed down a different crapper, its brilliant!" and everyone gets a queasy look and goes "Wow, that is a great idea Michael, you're the best!"

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    2. Re:TMNT: Mostly Sucks by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's no skin off my nose.

      As long as no one straight jackets me and props my eyes open to watch it, I am OK with the fact that it might exist.

      It would suck to live in a world where someone could say "no" to economic activity for non-objective reasons... oh, maybe we are too late.

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    3. Re:TMNT: Mostly Sucks by F34nor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." H.L. Mecken

    4. Re:TMNT: Mostly Sucks by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." H.L. Mecken

      There have been other stories on Slashdot where this quote would be pithy and appropriate, but here - man, we're talking about people getting their panties in a bunch over CARTOON TURTLES!

      I'm not planning to go see this movie, but - CARTOON TURTLES!

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    5. Re:TMNT: Mostly Sucks by Moryath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Michael Bay formula, explained.

      Step 1: Take franchise with loyal following.
      Step 2: Shit all over it.
      Step 3: Add CGI explosions.

      Bonus points if you make the camera work so fucking terrible (Transformers 2 is a great example of this) that NOBODY HAS ANY FUCKING CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON in anything resembling an action sequence.

  7. Michael Bay takes a shit, sets it on fire by gelfling · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Calls it Transformers 4.

    1. Re:Michael Bay takes a shit, sets it on fire by QuasiSteve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think you meant...
      1. Michael Bay takes a shit
      2. Sets it on fire
      3. Calls it Transformers 4
      4. ???
      5. Profit. Mad, mad profit.

      Transformers 1 - budget: $150M, worldwide gross: $710M
      Transformers 2 - budget: $200M, worldwide gross: $836M
      Transformers 3 - budget: $195M, worldwide gross: $1123M

      The only reason he gets away with this stuff is because he's bringing in umpteen millions on his films so far.

      He may flop entirely with TMNT and consequently be pulled from ThunderCats, though. Hollywood can be fickle like that. But then they'll just find somebody else to screw that up :)

  8. Re:Bay needs to... by b0r0din · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe years ago, but now Megan Fox's ass has probably had 15 surgeries and looks like it's made of plastic, much like the rest of her. I'll pass. Why the hell do naturally beautiful women feel the urge to completely destroy that??

    I'm not a psychologist, but I'm pretty sure it's because deep down most people have self-esteem issues and when they were in high school the only boys who approached them were the confident ones who 'negged' them and provided a level of mental abuse that they tolerated and even found attractive. And they never recovered from it.

    Add the regular rejection of Hollywood and it just gets even worse.

  9. Re:This is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah right.

    The guy just keeps resuscitating properties that have been long dead and buried, licensed for somewhere near the price of a six pack of Coors, and turning them into brands worth hundreds of millions of dollars again.

    We should all hope to "screw things up" like he does.

  10. Re:This is news? by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Palladium roleplaying game was pretty awesome too

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  11. Re:Yes by Dogtanian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The rights-holders sold him the rights and he is free to do with them as he pleases.

    Yet we are for some reason not free to express our displeasure?

    Amen. I wasn't- and amn't- a major TMHT (*) fan (**), so I'm not massively upset personally. However, variants of the following stupid argument pop up on Slashdot all the time, namely that "it's a free market / free world therefore they're within their rights to do what they want with their thing / run their company how they like and you're free to not buy it and therefore you're not entitled to complain about it."

    All but the last bit in bold may be arguably legitimate- and standard- but for some reason people around here seem to think that because there's a free market and people have the right to make a free choice then they have no right to complain.

    Wrong. If "Fanboy Electronic Fashions" makes something I dislike or conducts their business in a manner I disagree with, yes, I don't have to buy it or do business with them (just as they're not obligated to pander to me). This fact *does not* disqualify me from criticising them anyway- whether I choose to buy their stuff or not- nor does it entitle them to protection from criticism. If I don't like the "uPhone" then "you don't have to buy it" doesn't stop me from criticising it, or encouraging others not to buy it- in fact, to believe otherwise pretty much implies you dislike free criticism of products (plus people who *had* bought it could similarly be dismissed with "well, you bought it anyway").

    (*) Teenage Mutant *Hero* Turtles, yes, I live in Britain and we got the BBC-approved title ;-)

    (**) Probably due to being just a bit too old for the cartoon when it first came out (early to mid teens), though I knew people in my class at school who liked it.

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  12. Re:Just what Hollywood needs.... by Ihmhi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just stop.

    We are very near the point where the free stuff out there is good enough to replace the stuff in theaters and on television (and I'm not talking about The Pirate Bay kinda free). Freeware games. *Excellent* YouTube series. Really original daring stuff.

    Just stop watching Hollywood's crap.

  13. Re:Teenage _________ Ninja Turtles.... by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You guys do know that Joss Whedon wrote Titan AE as well as Firefly don't you?

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  14. Re:Just what Hollywood needs.... by PhrstBrn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure the jury on Star Trek is already out, and that it was good, just different. The movie changes the series from an adventure drama to more of an action movie. Although the reboot feels like a dumbed down version of Star Trek, they tried to stay true to the original cannon.

    While I'm sure any Trek fan will point out all the things they changed, they did change things up a bit, they did a lot of things right (ladder in the hallway, redshirt on an away team mission, rigging the Kobayashi Maru Test, Sulu is a fencer) to make sure everybody knew that the movie was really Star Trek. Besides, the original Star Trek already established split timelines as cannon, so any changes you make can be considered cannon in an alternate universe.

    The movie was good, tried to stay true to the original, what's not to like?

  15. Chill, it's a reboot. by frovingslosh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    weren't you here for the Startrek reboot? That what reboot means, take something that people like and totally screw it up for your own ego trip. That way you can make a totally mediocre movie and still expect good box office take from the fanboys that go just because of the name.

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    1. Re:Chill, it's a reboot. by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem is that the Star Trek reboot was still taking place in space, with space ships, on a trek, if you will...

      If you take Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and make them aliens instead, you kind of just ditched half the title right there; they're no longer mutants, or turtles. For that matter, they may not qualify as teenagers, and can an alien really be a ninja?

      If you take TMNT and change enough so that none of those letters can apply anymore, is it still TMNT?