TMNT Movie News: Looking into Directors

Jonathan Liebesman is an interesting choice. I have defended him a few times, actually. Although he may not have the most impressive filmography, he's a solid genre director, and has a good grasp of imagery and action, as shown in Battle: Los Angeles, and even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. He never seems to phone it in, trying to bring the most to his films, even if it's nothing groundbreaking, like a sequel. Leterrier's Clash of the Titans was a boring mess, and Liebesman seems to be having a blast with Wrath of the Titans, amping it up with as much crazy action and monsters as possible. He "knows" what kind of movie he is making, I guess one could say. I don't really remember Darkness Falls, but the 'Texas' prequel needed to be bleak, gorier than the original, and capture the same look and feel. And as a horror fan, I would say he delivered. He's reliable. I even thought his 'Rings' short was better than 'The Ring'! So what does this mean for the Turtles? Hard to say. My first thought is that this will definitely be a darker movie, especially with Liebesman's track record. "Dark and gritty" is the new Hollywood "thing," after all. But will that clash with Nickelodeon's plans? Despite wondering if the humor will be toned down, it gives me hope that this will be more like Steve Barron's movie than the brighter, cheerier work of Turtles in Time or TMNT. As for the costumes, the aliens in 'B:LA' were a nice blend of CG and practical work, which is a great sign! Personally, I'd love to see practical suits with CG faces à la Where the Wild Things Are. I'm mostly curious about how Liebesman will handle the interaction of the brothers, especially with his lack of comedic direction. Although he seems to have a decent idea of character, stating that he wants to see Perseus struggle in 'Wrath,' some of the comradery in 'B:LA' felt forced, with little chemistry. Aaron Eckhert also felt a bit flat, but that was likely the writing. In any event, although I may have more faith in the guy than most, I think we can all agree that the idea of live-action/CG Turtles is exciting, no matter who directs.

Not so big on liebesman directing, but maybe if the script is really solid (i have faith in nemec and appelbaum's ability to churn out a solid screenplay, despite the last mission flick being as good as it was, was mostly brad birds doing), and is shot and edited really well (doing neither effectively was battle: la's ultimate failing), then this might just work out in the end.