The big boys will soon be out to play, in a pivotal big-screen shift for the kid-friendly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. A live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin film adaptation is currently in the works, and Paramount Pictures is looking to give it a gritty, R-rated flair.
Walter Hamada, former head of DC Studios, is producing the feature based on original creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s bloody and intense graphic novel series. Running from 2020 to 2022, it follows one of the Turtles, Michelangelo, as he seeks revenge on Oroku Hiroto, the grandson of the Turtles’ arch-nemesis, Shredder, and totalitarian ruler of a dystopian future New York City who killed all the other Turtles and their mentor, Splinter.
The comics, published by IDW, proved to be an unexpected massive hit and became the second-highest-selling graphic novel of 2023. Eastman will return to pen the script for the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin movie, alongside Tom Waltz. Other details, including a release window and casting, have yet to be announced; it’s also unclear how much of the source material will be adapted.
The upcoming project is arguably the boldest adaptation of the long-running series to date, which recently welcomed the animated flick Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem into its ranks. It grossed over US$298.6 million worldwide (US$118.6 million in the States), and currently has a sequel in the works.
Originally intended as a parody of popular comic tropes in the 1980s, the franchise grew into a generational touchstone that spawned a toy line, a popular animated series, several video games, and seven films starting 1990. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin will mark its first foray into adult audience territory.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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