The ink is barely dry from Skydance’s recent takeover of Paramount Pictures, and we’re already seeing another casualty of new CEO David Ellison’s new regime.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin,” which was supposed to be an R-rated live-action movie adapting one of the darkest stories in TMNT history, is now dead at the new Paramount, despite the project being announced back in April of 2024. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Fast and Furious” producer Neal H. Moritz is in talks to become the lead producer on a new live-action Turtles project, breathing life back into a property that hasn’t had a live-action entry since 2016’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.” Unfortunately, that means that the plan for this franchise is being reworked.
“The Last Ronin,” which had “Nobody” filmmaker Ilya Naishuller in talks to sit in the director’s chair, was supposed to mark the Turtles’ big return to live-action, but THR says the reason for the cancellation is “the new regime wasn’t keen on having the first non-animated movie in 10 years be a bloody, adult-skewing story.” And this comes just a few days after Ellison and his team cancelled the animated “Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” TV show, so the Turtles have taken quite a bruising lately.
This type of thing happens all the time. New leadership swoops in and scraps a project because it was developed under the previous owners. If the movie was actually allowed to come out and it actually worked creatively and financially, the new people in charge couldn’t stand the idea of their predecessors taking any credit, so they play it safe, scrap the whole thing, and hire their own guy to come in and shake things up.
Still, this may not be the end of “The Last Ronin.”
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It’s possible The Last Ronin could still happen one day
The Last Ronin wields sharp weapons and grits his teeth – IDW
The Hollywood Reporter quotes an insider who indicates that Paramount “wants to leave the door open to possibly revisit it down the road,” so just because this is being scrapped now, it doesn’t mean it’s dead forever.
Based on an IDW comic, “The Last Ronin” is a dark and gritty alternate universe story following the lone surviving member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as he seeks to avenge the death of his brothers by killing Shredder’s grandson. In terms of violence, it’s like “Logan,” but with a Turtle at the center of the story — much more hardcore than the family-friendly violence of the previous films and TV shows. The comic hides the identity of which Turtle is the title character for a long time, as flashbacks reveal how each of the brothers died. It’s a bleak story, but it’s widely beloved in the fan community, and considering how much money “Logan” made at the box office, you can probably see why it was put into development as a live-action movie.
Perhaps with Moritz overseeing the franchise, Paramount will resurrect this idea a few years down the line when they can claim full ownership over it. In the meantime, we eagerly await the sequel to the fantastic “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which is slated to hit theaters on September 17, 2027.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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