Michael Bay And Peter Laird Respond To NINJA TURTLES Script Leak

As you’re all well aware by now, a few days ago the script for Michael Bay and Jonthan Liebesman Ninja Turtles reboot found it’s way online, and the reaction wasn’t pretty. Journalists across the globe took to their respective websites and their Twitter accounts (including us) to tell everyone about how crap the script was, which turned the Turtles into aliens from Dimension X who are destined to save the aformentioned universe and Earth. Yeah it was that bad. If I’m honest though the first and second acts are somewhat good and salvageable, but everything goes down the shitter when Dimension X is introduced. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator posted on his blog a message about the script leak, offering his thoughts about it.

I think the script that I read is so fundamentally flawed, and — more to the point — so NOT a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, that trying to make piecemeal changes to it in an effort to make it into something halfway decent is probably a fool’s errand.

In my opinion, the thing should just be tossed out, deliberately forgotten, and the process of generating a new script really a new outline, then treatment, then script — should be started again. I have no insider knowledge of what’s going on with the movie, but from the bits and pieces that have slipped out, it seems like that may be exactly what is happening.

While we’re on the subject of this script… I have to say that while reading it, and especially reading the last twenty pages or so, I couldn’t help but think of the brouhaha which erupted a few months back when Michael Bay was heard to say that in the upcoming movie, the Turtles would be revealed to be “from an alien race”, and following that, all the mental gymnastics indulged in by people who wanted to parse his words and make it seem like “No, he didn’t REALLY say they were going to be ALIENS!”… and then this script makes it way out onto the Internet, and if it is legitimate, it’s painfully clear that YES, the Turtles WERE, in fact, going to be ALIENS.

In deep contrast, however, and somewhat surprising, is what Michael Bay had to say about it. Chances are he’s lying, but he posted this message on his personal fan-forum below:

“The leaked script that different sites continue to comment on was written well before I, or anyone at Platinum Dunes, was involved with the project.

That script saw the shredder a long time ago.

This is tired, old news – wait for the movie!”

I’d rather not Michael. This script was the reason the project was pushed back from Christmas 2013 until May 2014 and is currently being re-written (thankfully). Are you still looking forward to Ninja Turtles? Sound off below.

SOURCE: Peter Laird | Michael Bay