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Fan Input: How Much Should They Listen?
Snakes on a Plane, Transformers, Star Trek…More and more we are seeing people making big budget movies, turning their ear to the fans.
Snakes On A Plane won a tremendous amount of popularity via the Internets when it launched a huge viral marketing campaign. New Line won major kudos when they even extended shooting a full 5 days to incorporate fan suggestions into the script. The film grossed $62 million worldwide, nearly double the budget.
While not as tremendous a risk, Transformers held a content via their website to incorporate a “one-liner” for Optimus Prime. The film grossed $708 million worldwide.
So is the trend. Hollywood using the best free resource they have, the fans, to the advantage of their film.
The question I pose is this:
With the recent greelight of “Turtles 5”, do you think Legendary should solicite fan input for the film? If so, how much? Who’s vision should the film be ultimately? How receptive should the creative forces like Peter Laird be to the input of the community? Look around online, the fans are already seething with suggestions. Do you think they could make a better movie with or without them? Could too much fan involvement topple a project? These are all interesting questions…You should answer some! COMMENT!
You may also follow our thread on the topic at the technodrome Here!
MTV Interview With Peter: Movie Details
Thanks MTV! Click the Pic to be directly linked to their interview thingie… or read below:
That sound you heard last week? That was millions of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” fans yelling “Cowabunga!” at the news that the famous Heroes in a Half Shell would be returning to the big screen in a new movie scheduled to hit theaters in 2011.
While rumors of a new TMNT movie have been circulating for a while now, last week’s official announcement kicked off a nationwide celebration of the characters’ 25th Anniversary.
Back in September, I spoke with “Ninja Turtles” co-creator Peter Laird to clear up some of the initial rumors surrounding the film, and now that it’s official, he was able to offer a few more details about the return of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo to the big screen.
“I can say that at this point there are a lot of positive feelings about a ‘Batman Begins’-style ‘reboot,’ which would, of necessity, include a retelling of the Turtles’ origin story,” Laird told MTV News of early plot discussions regarding the film. “Having said that, I would also be into an all-new story, if it was decided that that was a more desirable direction. Either way is fine with me, to be honest!”
Laird went so far as to share some specific story points that TMNT fans hold near and dear to their hearts as potential elements in the upcoming film.
“Simply telling the story of what happened in the first issue of the ‘TMNT’ comic book would be a pretty short movie, so I suspect other things from the Turtles’ history in the comics might be brought into it,” continued Laird. “I would not be unhappy to somehow see the tale of Baxter Stockman and the robotic ‘mousers’ folded into this movie, as well as some elements possibly setting up the TCRI connection for a possible sixth (or seventh) movie. But I think I’m getting a little ahead of myself there.”
As for other characters we’re likely to see in the film, the “Ninja Turtles” co-creator said the villainous Shredder would be a necessity for any TMNT origin story, and also mentioned that both intrepid reporter April O’Neil and vigilante Casey Jones came up during recent creative discussions.
Finally, Laird also offered a few more details regarding the way in which the live-action filming and computer-generated effects will blend to bring the Turtles to the screen in the upcoming film.
“The basic idea, as I understand it, is to do an all live action shoot, with actors and stuntmen in full Turtle suits,” said Laird. “To add expressiveness to the Turtles’ faces which would be difficult if not impossible to get with animatronics and/or puppetry, there would be ‘face replacement,’ with CGI Turtle faces superimposed on the live action performers’ heads.”
“This technology has been proven to be incredibly effective if done correctly,” added Laird. “Look at the character of Davey Jones in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies, with his mass of writhing tentacles… an incredible effect.”
What do you think of Laird’s take on the film? What stories from TMNT history do you still want to see on the big screen? Any characters you want to see brought to life? Sound off!
E3 Registration Confirmed
Just wanted to drop a quick note to tell you guys that we recieved our registration for e3 (June 2-4) came in today. What does that mean to you? You can now expect full coverage of the event from this site, especially anything we can dig up about the new turtles brawl game and whatever else Ubisoft is cooking up for the future of the green team.
NYC Galabunga from your TMNT doc guy!
I guess I am a little late as most of you have probably heard all about the event and all the exciting news!! Well maybe I can shed a little more light on the subject from our world on the Turtle Doc team so hear it goes…
The TD team pulled into NYC mid morning totally lost and running late after a stop over in Scranton. This would be the third time into NYC on the Turtle Doc tour and driving the 10 hours down was getting old. It was 11:45 or something, we were in some industrial district in NJ, and I was pissed off. I was fuming about some mundane crap and not happy that we were late and had to stop at our apartment to sign in before we were to be at 4kids for interviews at 1:30. By the time we got to 4kids I had grown up, got over it and had time to eat a sandwich. Three hours and $40 of parking later we had shot interviews with two more 2k3 voices and Galen Walker (producer of TMNT and the now future TMNT movie) who is a GREAT guy by the way.
Bright and early on day two we pulled up to the empire state building ready to go. We got hooked up with the Turtle team and started shooting. I wasn’t even aware what was going on until Rob turned to me and said “hey its about to start so stand over here”. I got in front of the press much to their chagrin and got the announcements and switch flipping on tape. I hate getting yelled at but the press didn’t like the video guy standing in front of their shots. Away we were swept up a complicated series of elevators to the roof-top where more press were waiting. This was a first for me, although I was unable to take in the fact that we were up there until it was too late. We were shot out and going back down. Now for anyone who was attending the event on the bottom floor and was trying to get to the top at the same time was impossible. It takes over an hour to get up there and costs money via conventional methods and we were up and down in 15 minutes.
Now off to the Tribeca event. The rest of the day was more or less straightforward. The Turtles, April, and Ernie did martial arts and shows for kids. Steve Barron hung out in and around the crowd soon joined by Kevin, and almost no one noticed Mike Turney also showed up which was cool. This was a great event, kids and families came out to enjoy the Turtle fun and pass on the torch to future generations. And contrary to you nay sayers I don’t think it was kid fluff nor was the April “annoying” I think she did very well considering what she had to work with and the fact that there was a lot of kids watching. Calm down….
Now here is something many of you have probably not thought of with regards to the new movie. Take a look at the production team; Scott Mednick who is on board has done some cool stuff: 300, Superman, We are Marshal and so on. Take it from me, we had a chance to talk to Scott and Galen and I assure you!!… They know what they are doing. Galen is a true fan and they both know how to handle this property!! There’s some cool things coming in the TMNT world for sure!
Also watch for the TDTeam footage in the upcoming TMNT25.com web videos of the event!!!
All in all it was a wonderful experience and trip overall. Aside from the cold the screening was great, the fans loved it, and the Turtles are back at it again! Here’s to another 25 years everyone! As far as franchises go, we are pretty lucky!!