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Even though the Last Ronin Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was scrapped, franchise co-creator Kevin Eastman thinks it might still happen.
The comic follows Michaelangelo on a mission to avenge the deaths of Master Splinter and his brothers. An R-rated, live-action adaptation was in the works, and though it was shelved last year, another live-action movie is planned.
“I don’t think the movie’s off the table,” Eastman told Entertainment Weekly of The Last Ronin. “I think it’s just delayed.”
The original Hollywood Reporter story did indicate that a source said the door was open to return to the idea later, but Paramount bosses reportedly weren’t happy on reviving the live-action side of the franchise with such a violent story.
“Speaking with all the folks at Viacom and Paramount and Nickelodeon who love the Turtles and really have done a fantastic job, whether it be the 2012 series to Mutant Mayhem, I don’t think it will not happen,” Eastman added. “I think it will happen. One of the things that anybody I’ve talked to at the companies, they know the fans love and support all things Last Ronin, as much as another group of fans love everything Point Grey [Pictures, production company], Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and everybody has done with the whole Mutant Mayhem series. We’re not disheartened at all.”
Judith Hoag, who played April O’Neil in the 1990 live-action movie, has previously confirmed she was approached to appear in The Last Ronin. “I’ve been approached, and I’d be happy. It would be a great bookend for me. And maybe that happens and maybe it doesn’t. We’ll see,” she said.
In the meantime, a prequel comic titled Training Day is on the way, co-written by Eastman and Tom Waltz. It will show Michelangelo training Casey Marie Jones, the daughter of April O’Neil.
“At this big macro level for these big businesses, I think they’re kind of waiting to see, too, which way the tide goes,” Waltz said. “But I’m always an optimist, and I think things will start to improve, and I think that’s when things start to move. But I just look at it as we get a chance to control what we control, which is the comics and the core story, and then the movie’s just that much better for it.”
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