TMNT Origins: Live Action

It is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25th anniversary this week and at the New York celebration The Mirage Group has confirmed they will be returning to the live-action sphere with the Ninja Turtles. The film will focus specifically on the origins of the crime fighting foursome with a hopeful release date pending for 2011.

Scott Mednick is producing the film and has said that the film will follow the original comics. "The original dozen comics created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman are some of the best source material one could hope for." Which means we should get a far grittier take on the Ninja Turtles than we saw from the original live-action films. I wouldn't bank on that though, there is no way the film will be R rated and I will be surprised if it even warrants a PG13 rating.

While the Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello are ultimate badasses, do we really need another origin story? I don't think so. The original live-action film covered it fairly well. I would rather just get right into the meat of the story and the action rather than spend 45 to 60 minutes setting up the Turtles backstory only to have a lackluster ending that has us craving more action. The Mirage Group could very well stick to the early years of the Turtles without having a origin story. I just hope we get a darker Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rather than a kid friendly one, but I fear the later is a no-brainer from a marketing standpoint. Oh well...

Update: Peter Laird, co-creator of the original comic series tells MTV, "I can say that at this point there are a lot of positive feelings about a Batman Begins-style ‘reboot,’ which would, of necessity, include a retelling of the Turtles’ origin story." Laird continued by adding, "I would also be into an all-new story, if it was decided that that was a more desirable direction. Either way is fine with me, to be honest!" Laird did finalize that the reboot will not just be the first comic. He said, "Simply telling the story of what happened in the first issue of the ‘TMNT’ comic book would be a pretty short movie, so I suspect other things from the Turtles’ history in the comics might be brought into it." The co-creator also added that Shredder is a must if it is infact a origin tale, while April O'Neil and Casy Jones have also been mentioned as definate possibilities for the live-action reboot.

What say you? Do you want to see a origin TMNT live action film? Should it be kid-friendly or get the new dark treatment? Strikeback...