It's fair to say that there were some studio nerves about the release of last year's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. Half a billion dollars in worldwide box office later, however, and Paramount exhaled a massive sigh of relief and immediately put a sequel into development. That follow-up will start shooting next month, with Earth To Echo's David Green directing.
Green replaces Jonathan Liebesman, who has moved on to the TV Terry Brooks adaptation The Shannara Chronicles, among other projects. Green's cameras will be rolling, we're told, in New York City, and slightly further out in Buffalo. “There is no better way to project the character of this city than through television and film,” says the New York City Council's Dan Garodnick. “And what’s more New York than pizza-loving ninjas and a talking rat?”
This being a Platinum Dunes joint, Michael Bay will once again be producing along with Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. As last time, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec are writing the screenplay, and Megan Fox and William Fichtner are expected to return as, respectively, April O'Neil and Eric Sacks. But neither are yet officially signed on.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 already has a release date of June 3 next year.