Interviews with the new director and producer on Newsarama

[TheVileOne]

Interesting stuff.

Here's the first interview with Kevin Munroe, director:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=78864

TALKING TURTLES WITH TMNT DIRECTOR KEVIN MUNROE

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by Daniel Robert Epstein

Kevin Munroe has taken on the huge responsibility of directing the new TMNT movie starring CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Of course the Turtles had a very successful first film back in 1990 which eventually led to two awful sequels. Since then we haven’t heard much from the Turtles camp in regards to movies. But the new, all CGI TMNT will be hitting theatres early next year.

Newsarama: How dark are we going on the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie?

Kevin Munroe: We actually lit the movie as a black and white movie before we actually added any color, which was phenomenal. We used a lot of influences from Frank Miller inspired stuff, but then making that work within a film world, which it doesn’t translate perfectly because otherwise it looks like Sin City, which is great for that sort of work. So we went to films like The Third Man. If you think of that film as a comic book, it is phenomenal. There’s no better movie out there. Our art director, Simon Murton, is actually from live action. He’s worked on the Matrix films and all these really big name of event pictures. It’s such a natural thing because he doesn’t know the rules of CG and I just want to push everything, so together we just ended up making this really unique looking thing. In terms of the story, dark is always one of those weird, touchy questions but this is a little more serious. There’s real human emotion. It’s not a surface level study of the character.

NRAMA: Comparing it to the Steve Barron movie - that movie was fantastic but of course it did have pizza and they said Cowabunga a lot, and obviously owed a lot to the cartoon, rather than the original Mirage series, which was much darker. Will this new film have that?

KM: There will be pizza, but not like the other movies. There has to be a pizza in it. There was a period that I went through where I was like “No pizza. No shell jokes.”

NRAMA: It’s not possible.

KM: Right, so it is there. There are a couple of cowabunga things. Donatello would never say cowabunga or dude, but. Michelangelo would and does. You’ve got this great thing happening between the last movie and this movie, South Park came out. All the sudden everybody started saying dude again. There’s a different way to say dude now than there was back then. It feels very natural. It feels very teenager-y the way they’re speaking. But it’s not a movie that wants to date itself. I was really particular about that because I still want you to watch it in 15 years and not have a Michael Jackson joke in it like Shrek did. At the same time, there’s a spirit I think to the original stuff that I still would like to keep.

NRAMA: Are any of your storyboard or concept artists people that we would know?

KM: It’s a really cool mix of established film talent. We’ve got guys who have worked at Disney and a guy who did storyboards and story stuff for Iron Giant. There’s Steve Lumley, who’s is our layout supervisor. Character-wise we’re working with Jeff Matsuda and Jose Lopez.

NRAMA: Jeff Matsuda from The Batman?

KM: Yeah, but we’re pushing beyond what Jeff does for that. There are also a lot of guys who are also first-timers working on it. But there’s freshness to it, like my assistant director, Tom Tanaka, is a guy who’s done a lot of story stuff with me and he is a great video game designer. We met when we were both doing games 15 years ago. But we always talked story. He has an amazing story sense. So I love being in this position to be able to bring in people that I knew were right for the job. I didn’t care about credentials; I just wanted to know what they could bring to the movie. As a result it feels fresher. I think when people heard that it was going to be a CG movie; there was a lot of “you should use a suit. This should be live action.” I think because people have mistakenly assumed that CG was a genre and not just a media that can be used in a variety of ways.

NRAMA: Who are the villains?

KM: Shredder is not the villain in this movie. [Turtles co-creator] Peter Laird even said “It’s really important to me that Shredder is not the main villain in this.”

NRAMA: Is he in the movie at all though?

KM: He’s not. But his legacy exists. We have Karai and we’ve also got the Foot ninjas as well but we’ve also got a brand new villain. That’s something that was really important to Peter. Peter said, “Look. Shredder was never intended to be the Darth Vader of this universe. It just happened with that first animated series and the movies came out and he just became the main guy.” The idea was to reintroduce the turtles to a modern day audience who maybe didn’t grow up with the movies. My kids have never seen or heard of it.

NRAMA: How about Splinter?

KM: Splinter’s in the movie. Yeah. He’s voiced by Mako, which is really cool.

NRAMA: Do you have your voice talent for the turtles?

KM: Yeah. We already have the voice talent. I’m probably going to make an announcement within a month. But I can say that the voice talent is not celebrity-driven. We just got four phenomenally talented voice actors. We also wired the room so that all four of them could read in the same room together. So there’s this camaraderie where they’re stepping over each other’s lines the way you would naturally do in conversation. I love that the lead villain is doing real dialogue and really made sure that that happened a lot in there.

NRAMA: Besides of course executive producing, what work has Peter Laird done on the film?

KM: Peter was really involved. We worked on the treatment together and for the first six months I was at his house to translate what he really wanted to see. He didn’t do any art chores on it, but we ran all the designs by him and I sat down and I’d thumbnail with him. We’d talk about what the art direction was and I’d send him reference and he still sees footage and makes comments. He loves it. At the same time, he also knows that it has to become its own thing so he’s like “you’re taking it in a different direction than I took it, but at the same time it’s staying true to what I created.”

NRAMA: Is it the same world as the other movies or at least the first movie?

KM: Yeah, first and maybe second or third. It’s sort of the same intention as Superman Returns was. These things did happen so it is not a rebirth story.

NRAMA: Well then, will Vanilla Ice be making an appearance?

KM: He’s the voice of Splinter. No, he’s not. It’s so funny because we were looking at doing some in-jokes but it just didn’t feel right.

TMNT will be released March 30, 2007. The teaser trailer can be found here: http://tmnt.warnerbros.com/

Producer Thomas Grey:

PRODUCING THE TURTLES: THOMAS GRAY

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by Daniel Robert Epstein

Producer Thomas Gray has a long history with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, stretching all the way back to when he was the executive in charge of production for the first movie version in 1990. He has an even longer history with martial arts films going back to 1985 when he produced The Protector starring Jackie Chan. That makes him the perfect guy to take on the producing duties on TMNT, the upcoming CGI version of the Turtles. We got a chance to chat with Gray after a long day of interviews at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Newsarama Note: Click here for our interview with TMNT director Kevin Munroe.

Newsarama: First off, let’s talk about the decision not to put Shredder in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Why not go that route with one of their most recognizable villains?

Thomas Gray: We’ve been the Shredder route twice out of the three movies so it is time to let Shredder go away. Let’s get a new villain. But we are bringing the Foot in. If the gods are happy and everyone’s happy with this movie, maybe Shredder can come back in the future. But I think it was just a “been there, done that” thing. As [director] Kevin [Munroe] says, “We didn’t want a Darth Vader guy. That was never the intent of Eastman and Laird. That was their villain, but they didn’t want to establish him so every movie will go the Shredder route.” We’ve killed him off twice now.

NRAMA: When the first Turtles movie came out, there was a famous story about a boy in kindergarten picking up a butter knife and running around with it calling himself a ninja turtle. What age group will the new movie be going after?

TG: I learned something about a year and a half ago. I walked onto a university campus and I went to a party. Some students asked “You did the Ninja Turtle movies?” I said, “Yeah.” They said, “Holy ****. You don’t know what you did to our generation.” I was like Tommy Lee at a rock concert. I said, “I do know what I did to your generation. I paid for my kid’s college education.” But the point they were making was that the Turtles were so profoundly effective and they’re iconic of that era. Kids ages18 to 24 are legion and absolutely loyal to the concept and they want to see it again. So we didn’t want to throw those people out and go for the young kids again. We’ve got to make it for them and pull in the young kids.

That was Disney’s secret. You make it for the parents and the kids will go anyway. We did take a conscious effort to go closer to the original comic book, a little grittier, less cowabunga, with more of a little harder edge but without pushing into the PG-13 route. Right now the movie is PG. I’m sweating so badly because we’re right on the border. If we get nailed, there’s no way we could reshoot.

NRAMA: Can’t you just change the color of the blood from red to purple?

TG: I would like to think it would be that easy. But we’re releasing March 30th, so there’s not a lot of room. When we finally go to MPAA, we’ve got to make sure. So we got rid of the throwing stars and things we know will be banned in England. Also, in Scandinavia nunchucks are a no-no. We also made a conscious effort to make it more contemporary. It is a harder world than it was 15 years ago. The world is not a good place today. So the movie has to be reflective of where kids are today.

NRAMA: When I interviewed Bryan Singer on the set of Superman Returns last year, he said that he wanted to make Superman relevant to anyone who is into Superman. From those that came to the character from the ‘50s TV show, to the ‘70s movies, to the ‘90s cartoon fans and of course the comic books. You have a similar situation with the Turtles.

TG: I think it’s like a minestrone soup. You want to put in a lot for everyone without trying to put too much salt in it. I had this argument with the studio. They said, “Well, what about the people who don’t know about the Ninja Turtles?” I said, “The Afghani refugees that are coming out of the hills might not have heard of them. But everybody else knows the Ninja Turtles and that’s what we’re going to assume. If they don’t know about it, they’re not going to go anyway.”

We know we’ve got the Saturday morning kids. We’re going to lose the teens because they’re not into that right now. But we’re going to get our alums and then we’re going to get the people in their 30s. We’re getting so much pressure to make it for kids and we’ve resisted that like hell. Maybe we’ll get them, but this ain’t Pokemon. I’m not sure the studios really knew what they got when they decided to make the movie, but we knew. We also know we had to please [Turtles co-creator] Peter Laird and he’s happy with the movie.

NRAMA: Have you had any contact with [Turtles co-creator] Kevin Eastman?

TG: I am working with Kevin. I brought him in as a producer on Highlander: Vengeance, the 2D anime.

NRAMA: Is Simon Bisley on that too?

TG: No. Simon offered me to do the Highlander poster. But I’m looking to do something else with something, maybe with Julie Strain. Some kind of far out anime, R-rated movie.

NRAMA: Can Simon direct a movie?

TG: No. But I love his style.

NRAMA: How much will the new Turtles movie be a martial arts film?

TG: More like anime. We looked at Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, those kinds of things. That’s what it’s going to look like, but you’re going to understand the story. We’ve got a story, which anime doesn’t have. Anime just has whatever the director felt like on that morning after drinking all night. Can somebody tell me what Spirited Away and all those movies are about? They’re beautiful but huh?

NRAMA: How long has it taken to get this particular version of the project going?

TG: We picked this up and closed the deal with them in July 2004. So we’re going to be out about 30 months. That’s pretty quick. We move fast.

NRAMA: How’d you find Kevin Munroe?

TG: There have only been ten CG movies. You’re not going to get Brad Bird or John Lasseter. So we were looking for a young guy who’s work we liked and that was willing to sign on with us. We had budgetary issues. We met Kevin and liked him. We had good dialogue and he was a fan. We saw some of the work he did with CG on his short film Richard Donner that he did for Disney. So we took a leap of faith and he’s really been very good.

TMNT will be released March 30, 2007 http://tmnt.warnerbros.com/

 

[Sabretooth]

That would've been awesome for the film to be b&w.

 

[Primogeniture]

No ninja stars or nunchucks?!

 

[CrypticOne]

Dang, that was a pretty good interview. I like what they are doing with the movie.

 

[MoPlaYa]

cool interviews...i like what i`m hearing

 

[one]

no nunchucks who cares about scandinavia

 

[Stringer]

Hopefully we'll get an uncut version eventually.

 

[Orko Is King]

No way they'll take out Mikey's chuks. Ninja stars I can see, since that's not even a weapon they normally use.

 

[cryptic name]

mikes got to have his 'chucks. f**k scandinavia.

 

[TNC9852002]

Cool...I had read the Munroe article, but not the Grey one..

-TNC

 

[Sabretooth]

no nunchucks who cares about scandinavia

Yeah,that does suck. Especially since the first film had them and this one is supposed to be darker than that one.

They should have gone for a PG-13 film,methinks....

 

[Renegade]

I just cannot imagine this movie without Mike using the nunchucks. It just feels so wrong to me...

Mike HAS to use them, or it just is not the same.

 

[SpyderDan]

I'm sure Mikey will have his chuckers. He's just pointing out one of the hurdles in making the film.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Another interview with the director

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=24228

Quint interviews the CGI TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES movie director, Kevin Munroe!!!


Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my sit down chat with Kevin Munroe, the director of the new CG TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES flick. I chatted with the man at Comic-Con very shortly after he brought down the house with the footage and trailer for his flick (CLICK HERE TO READ THAT REPORT AND SEE THE SWEET-ASS CHARACTER POSTERS!!!). Below he mentions Mako voicing Splinter. Not a week after they announced him at the Con, Mako died. Munroe told me after this that it was a very sad loss, but he wanted Mako's fans as well as the TMNT fans to know that the man did do all his voice work for the film, so he will definitely still be the voice of Splinter next March when we all get to see the flick.

The interview is pretty short and I go a little off-topic with my Ninja Turtles geekiness, being that the Turtles were my childhood obsession, but I think the interview came off pretty well. Hope you guys enjoy!

QUINT: I could go on and on about my childhood love of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. When I was 10 I went to their "Coming Out Of Their Shells Tour."

KEVIN MUNROE: Oh really? (laughs) That's hardcore!

QUINT: Yeah, it was my birthday present, no less.

KEVIN MUNROE: No way! Really? Wow, that's cool!

QUINT: Of course I was into the cartoon and didn't read the comics until I was older. But I really dig what you were showing at your panel. I think you really won the geeks over.

KEVIN MUNROE: It was a little nerve wracking. Going up there people were like, "Are you nervous?" I'm like, "Yes, I'm nervous!" Because up to this point the only thing we've had working for us is that no one's seen anything. Kind of "Well, it could be good, let's just give him a chance." It was also a security blanket for me in some ways. I'm not going to lie, we do read the chat boards and write ups because I love knowing what people are thinking.

Up there we were just... "Here it is!" and that was the one thing that sort of was worrying me... In a way. I just hoped that they're proud of what happened and liked the direction we were going. There was a brief period after that second montage played and there's like 2 seconds of silence and I was like, "Oh God..." and then it just went "Pow!"

QUINT: I posted some New York Trade Show poster images (Click here to see those images!!!)...

KEVIN MUNROE: Oh, yeah-yeah-yeah...

QUINT: Just that little shadowed glimpse of Leonardo and the talkbacks like ignored all the other big name posters and were all, "My God! A NINJA TURTLES movie!"

KEVIN MUNROE: I saw that, too, in the talkbacks! It was so funny! That's the other thing, too, whenever we started doing this. I stumbled upon the comic books. I'm not going to say I was a huge fan at the time and I just happened to find it. I was in Canada at the time, when I was a kid, and I found the books... There's just something about it. I love that mix of action and comedy. My fondest memories are of watching LETHAL WEAPON and DIE HARD with my father and my dad laughing. For some reason... I don't know what it is, maybe I have a father issue, but I love the idea of just being viscerally thrilled with action, but then you get that laugh in. There are so many comic films and genre properties that try to hit that mix and so few of them work, but with the Turtles we for some reason buy it. It's a Turtle, they're Teenagers... I don't know, there's something to that.

So, as we were talking about it and doing the movie I mentioned it to a few people... and as you find it's this deep-seated thing with everybody. "I love the Turtles!" My mother was like, "When you used to go to school, I'd watch the Animated Series." I said, "Mom! I didn't know this about you!"

QUINT: My mom's a bit different. I used to have the Eastman/Laird posters up all over my room and I have distinct memories of my mom saying she couldn't wait for me to outgrow the Ninja Turtles... Actually, the first premiere I ever went to was SECRET OF THE OOZE. I was taking Tai Kwan Do... you wouldn't believe it looking at me now, but I was taking Tae Kwan Do at Ernie Reyes Sr. Tae Kwan Do and his son played the Pizza Boy in the second film... and I think did some of the martial arts work in one of the turtle suits for the first movie... so, we got a grab at tickets.

KEVIN MUNROE: No way!

QUINT: So can we talk about who's returning for the film?

KEVIN MUNROE: We've got all the Turtles coming back. We have Shr... I mean, Splinter coming back. I almost said Shredder, but he's not coming back. We have Splinter who is voiced by Mako, which is really cool. I'm really jazzed about that. He was the first and only choice and the second you hear him speak, he sounds just great. So, he's coming back. We have Karai coming back, although she's never really made an appearance in the movie series, which is cool because we get to introduce her as a new character.

Then we have The Foot ninja coming back as well... After Shredder has been defeated. That's kind of the core notion... That it's down to the family, post-Shredder. But we're not saying that he's gone forever. We've already started talking about the sequel and stuff... I love... I'm a huge fan of the City At War mini-series, about what happens after the death of Shredder. It's so cool.

QUINT: Will we be seeing more ooze stuff? I saw in the footage that there seemed to be tons of mutations...

KEVIN MUNROE: There's no mutations. That's something Peter (Laird) was really dead-set against, this idea that T.C.R.I. is just like throwing ooze out their back window. It's like "Oh!!!" and then just turn into Super-Shredder... That's the biggest let-down for a villain defeat ever. He gets mad and starts smashing all the posts around him and the whole (pier) collapses on him and you're like, "That's so lame!" As a kid you're just like, "How come the Ninja Turtles didn't kick his ass?"

So, yeah... These are all new creatures and the creatures actually migrate to New York. GHOSTBUSTERS was a huge impact on me when I was little. Again, it's that mix of watching movies with great action and that comedy. Very smart character based comedy. But (in the new Ninja Turtles film) there's a bad guy that is possibly amassing an army of monsters and the Turtles have to go (up against them).

QUINT: So, these creatures aren't mutations?

KEVIN MUNROE: No, they're not mutations. The plot tease would be... everyone wonders where all the of the legendary monsters are and this sort of answers that.

QUINT: Where is the real life Chupacabra?

KEVIN MUNROE: (laughs) Exactly! That's a fun idea, so uh... yeah.

QUINT: The look of the flick is very cool. You said you were going for a different style on the panel and I see what you mean. It's not really Eastman/Laird, but it's also not the cinematic world we know or the cartoon for that matter.

KEVIN MUNROE: It's its own thing. We cherry-picked the best of everything, I think. I don't know if I mentioned, but we actually did our lighting keys for the entire movie... we lit it as a black and white movie before we actually went in and added color. We looked at movies like THE THIRD MAN, one of my favorite movies ever... I had a hundred pictures put up from that movie and we'd hold screenings of THE THIRD MAN... We went to Hong Kong where they're actually doing the lighting, and we sat them down and showed them THE THIRD MAN. There's just something about that, it's one of the best comic-book-lit movies ever. Worst soundtrack ever, but best lit! That was the big idea, going back to that sort of Frank Miller kind of harsh contrast. That was the idea.

There you have it, squirts. If you want another look at the trailer in glorious Quicktime just click right here! This movie look damn cool to me. Hope you enjoyed the interview. Tons more coming!

-Quint

 

[Aztec]

That is the third time that he has referenced Ghostbusters, Lethal Weapon, and Die Hard. They must have a had a significant impact on his writing/directing of this film.

 

[SpyderDan]

That is the third time that he has referenced Ghostbusters, Lethal Weapon, and Die Hard. They must have a had a significant impact on his writing/directing of this film.

I think that's definitely a good thing. Those are good movies to take something from.

 

[Goofball]

I'm a little confused, is Mikey gonna have nunchucks or not?? His poster shows a pair of nunchucks in his belt (sash).