New CG Animated 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Movie Is Coming From Seth Rogen And Evan Goldberg
Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver have already dabbled in comic book adaptations by executive producing The Boys for Amazon Prime. But now the gang from Point Grey Pictures is getting back together for an even bigger comic book franchise.
Nickelodeon has announced that the trio behind the likes of Neighbors, This Is The End, Good Boys, and Sausage Party has been brought in to develop and create an all-new computer animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which will mark the first-ever fully CG theatrical production from Nickelodeon Animation Studios.
Nickelodeon released a press release about the new computer animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. The new iteration of the heroes in a half-shell will be created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver, but the movie itself will be directed by Jeff Rowe (Gravity Falls, Connected, Disenchantment) and written by Brendan O'Brien (Neighbors, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates). Ramsey Naito, Executive Vice President of Animation Production and Development, will be overseeing production for Nickelodeon, and Paramount Pictures will distribute around the world.
Rogen, Goldberg, and Weaver aren't exactly known for creating family friendly entertainment through their Point Grey Pictures banner. Every film they've produced has been R-rated, and every TV show they've made has been TV-MA. However, they were once meant to be working on an animated film adaptation of Where's Waldo, so maybe they've been yearning to do something more accessible for families and kids for a while.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seems like the perfect franchise to benefit from a touch of Rogen and Goldberg's comedic sensibilities. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo are just four teenage brothers who happen to be mutated turtles trained in martial arts by their adoptive father, a talking rat. It's not hard to imagine Rogen and Goldberg beefing up the comedy side of these pizza-loving dudes, something that has been sorely lacking in recent big screen iterations of the comic book superheroes. Brian Robbins, President, Kids & Family for ViacomCBS, seems to agree:
"Adding Seth, Evan and James' genius to the humor and action that's already an integral part of TMNT is going to make this a next-level reinvention of the property. I'm looking forward to see what they do, and I know that Ramsey Naito and her team are excited to take the Nick Animation Studio into another great direction with their first-ever CG-animated theatrical."
Though the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been computer animated before, both in a TV series and a 2012 feature film, this is the first time Nickelodeon Animation Studios is producing the project itself. This new production is completely separate from the forthcoming 2D animated Netflix movie based on the recent Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series that launched in 2019. That means we're looking at an all-new approach to the franchise, and that's enough to get me excited. Maybe it can finally reach the same level of greatness of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.