It’s funny that these two stories hit the ‘Net together, but the release date of the zombie epic World War Z is being moved to next year, while The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are being resurrected.
Actually, don’t get that confused, the Turtles won’t be zombies, they’re just coming back from the franchise dead.
World War Z was going to hit theaters this Christmas, along with the first episode of The Hobbit, Tarantino’s latest, Django Unchained, and the long awaited adaptation of The Life of Pi, but now Collider tells us it’s moving to June 21, 2013.
Paramount will be moving the movie One Shot, an adaptation of the Lee Childs novel with Tom Cruise directed by Christopher McQuarrie (screenwriter of The Usual Suspects), up to that date.
And for Christmas Day 2013, we’ll see the Tutles back. Jonathan Liebesman, who directed Wrath of the Titans and Battle: Los Angeles, will be at the helm, and it will be written by Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol screenwriters Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec. Like a lot of movies these days, there was already another attempt to bring the Turtles back, which didn’t stick, so obviously Paramount’s hoping there’s gold in them there Turtle hills again.
New Line Cinema had a big hit bringing the Turtles to life on the big screen, and it took the company up a major notch on the corporate ladder, although it soon became uncool to like the Turtles, who were an underground comic fave before the film was geared more towards young kids. (Remember when the band Anthrax had the Turtles painted on their guitars? The shortest member of the band, Dan Spitz, still has a guitar with the Turtles all over it, he probably identifies with great power coming in small packages).
I have no idea how they’ll bring them to life on the silver screen, wouldn’t be surprised if they do it motion captured, or what the tone of the movie will be, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they did it geared towards kids like the previous flicks instead of doing a darker Turtles.
And as much as people complain about this a lot these days, but I’ll bet you it will be an origin story for those unfamiliar with the Turtle lore.
