You know the drill: studio hopes for franchise by launching nostalgia-driven reboot of TV series/cartoon/old film/puppet show/whatever. Initial outing does well at the box office. Studio announces sequel. So it is with Paramount and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle****s**, which will unleash a second movie after beating expectations this weekend{
With studio estimates now putting the film in the $65 million range domestically and $97.3 million in other countries (though we still have to wait until October here in the UK), Paramount has acted quickly to confirm that writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec will once again be on keyboard duty, with the studio pencilling in June 3, 2016 for the sequel.
More of a question mark hangs over director Jonathan Liebesman, who may decide to do something else next or, like Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Rupert Wyatt, come to think that the quick turnaround is too much after finishing the original. But we do know that Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes team will be back as producers. Just in case you were worried.
"Launching a new take on the Turtles into the feature film world was a daunting task because as fans of them ourselves, we felt a great responsibility to ensure audiences were going to experience everything they loved about the Turtles, while also getting to see them brought to life in a way they had never been seen before,” says president of Paramount’s film group, Adam Goodman, in an enthusiastic announcement picked up by The Hollywood Reporter. "The result exceeded our high expectations and the response to the film is beyond great, making it all the more fun to get started on the continuation of their story." Cash cowabunga, anyone?
We'll see the first of these new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles efforts on October 17, starring Megan Fox, William Fichtner, Will Arnett, Whoopi Goldberg and the voices of Tony Shalhoub and Johnny Knoxville.