New TMNT Gets Back To Roots

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Kevin Munroe, writer and director of the upcoming animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Thomas Gray, producer and head of Imagi Animation Studios, told SCI FI Wire that the latest incarnation of the popular franchise tries to correct the mistakes learned from the mid-'90s animatronic and live-action films. As before, the new version of TMNT centers on four humanoid turtles named Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo.

"[TMNT creator] Peter Laird wanted to get back to the original comic book," Gray said in a group interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego last month. "We had botched badly [film] number two, and I suffered personally from that with Peter. We were racing to get the second film out because we didn't know how long the series would last, so from the day we opened the film, one year later we were on the screen again. We didn't take our time and do a very good story. Director Michael Pressman did a great job, but the story was weak. I think it really hurt the series, and Peter felt we betrayed the vision he and [co-creator] Kevin [Eastman] had."

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