Other 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Co-Creator Says Michael Bay's Take Is "Awesome"

At the start of this week, Michael Bay pissed off Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lovers everywhere by revealing that the new Turtles film, which he's producing, will see the central characters reimagined as aliens rather than mutants. Predictably, a firestorm ensued, and even more predictably, Bay responded to the the outrage by stating that "fans need to take a breath, and chill."

"Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story," he assured them. That "original creator" is Kevin Eastman, and Eastman's now making it known that he is indeed behind Bay's vision 100%. Read his comments after the jump.

Hey Guys, Sorry to have been away for so long–completely swamped with work–but it is some pretty exciting stuff. I had been invited to check out the TMNT film development by my friend Scott Mednick over the years, and a while back had a full look behind the curtian at what writers [Josh] Appelbaum and [Andre] Nemec, director [Jonathan] Liebesman, and producer Bay are doing–and trust me–it IS AWESOME. I'm officially on board, and will share more as I'm allowed... thanks all!

Eastman's enthusiasm is a far cry from the ambivalence expressed by his co-creator Peter Laird, but even Laird has been advising folks to "wait and see what might come out of this seemingly ill-conceived plan" before getting all up in arms. "It's possible that with enough truly creative brainpower applied to this idea, it might actually work," he wrote on his blog. "I'm not saying it's probable, or even somewhat likely... but it IS possible."

Somehow, I doubt that even Eastman's endorsement will smooth over the controversy entirely. But with one creator wholeheartedly supporting the "turtles as aliens" idea, and the other asserting that we should at least give it a chance, maybe it really is time we took Bay's advice to relax, at least for right now.