Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Culture War Update: Director Speaks Out, Title Cut in Half

After begging and pleading with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan community to please, please not engage in preemptive flame warfare over the rumors and vagaries surrounding the reboot of their beloved franchise, I now recognize the futility of my attempts at diplomacy. This comes after the film's attached director Jonathan Liebesman — also of this week's Wrath of the Titans and last year's eminently regarded (ahem) Battle: Los Angeles — only complicated matters with his comments about the kerfuffle. And then there's the movie's reported name change.

Liebesman toed the company line at last weekend's Titans junket, urging TMNT devotees to calm down about producer Michael Bay's proposed alien-turtle-ooze influence — which apparently "comes straight from the series." I can't believe I just wrote that, or this:

"Look, it’s so funny — if everyone was such a die-hard fan, they would know that the TCRI canisters where the ooze comes from. That is alien ooze. Now I’m not saying what Michael said is exactly what the movie is, because we’re sitting in a room now figuring everything out. So we don’t know, but we are like Michael said: we’re expanding it, and the expansion will be true to the mythology. I promise you: fans will love it."

Even if those fans are to take Liebesman at his word, there's also this reported nugget that no doubt have them soiling their Donatello jammies:

Bleeding Cool has verified that the working title of the upcoming Paramount-Nickelodeon Turtle movie from producer Michael Bay and director Jonathan Libesman is going by the working title of Ninja Turtles. We know all too well where the “Mutant” bit went, but now it seems we’re also losing “Teenage.”

We haven’t been able to get a definite statement as to why this title change is occurring, and our sources are not 100% clear on whether or not the Turtles will indeed be adolescents.

One of our sources has said: "It seems to be driven by marketing. Think of John Carter and how Disney wouldn’t allow for a title with either 'Princess' or 'Mars.'"

Whatever. See you at the refugee camp! I hope they have wi-fi.

[Collider, Bleeding Cool via AICN]

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