Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird has weighed in on the “origin changing” debate surrounding the new Michael Bay-produced live action Turtles movie… and at first everybody thought he was siding with Bay, not picking up on the sarcasm in his comments.

“I would actually encourage TMNT fans to swallow the ‘chill pill’ Mr Bay recently suggested they take,” he was widely reported as saying earlier this week, “and wait and see what might come out of this seemingly ill-conceived plan. It’s possible that with enough truly creative brainpower applied to this idea, it might actually work. I’m not saying it’s probable, or even somewhat likely … but it is possible… The reason I say it could be a ‘genius’ idea is that – for the first time – someone has come up with a way to have as many freakin’ Turtles as they want. I mean, if the TMNT are actually members of an alien race, there could be a whole planet of them!” Um, we’re not sure if Laird has his tongue in his cheek when he’s saying that last bit… It’s certainly not something you’d say if you’re trying to calm the waters of controversy, surely?”

Some sites on the ’net took this that Laird was siding with Bay, especially as Bay had said on his official site that, “Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story.”

Interestingly, Bay didn’t name which “original creators” but you’d assume from the above two quotes that Laird would be one of them. However, it seems not. After all, if Laird was really trying to smooth the waters of controversy, as his quote suggests, would he really have been quite so gung-ho about condoning a “Planet Of The Mutant Ninja Turtles” approach? That’s hardly going to reassure fans.

Which is probably why Laird has since clarified matters on his own blog.

“Did you really get out of what I wrote that I in any way, shape or form like the idea of a planet of Turtles? If so, I guess I have to re-think how I express myself.

“Just so it’s absolutely clear – I think a planet of turtles is not, in and of itself, a bad idea for some kind of science fiction/fantasy story. But as a way to explain any aspect of the backstory of TMNT, I think it is awful and unnecessary.

“Of course, we have no idea at this point if the plan is to have a planet of Turtles. It’s probably a good idea to wait and see…”

On the other hand, he is not dismissing the Bay movie version out of hand.

“I don’t think anyone outside of Michael Bay and the people working on this premise know exactly what he meant when he said ‘these Turtles are from an alien race…’ and until we do know exactly what that means, it is hard to get behind a specific argument against it.”

But all of this would seem to indicate that who these “original creators” that Bay’s “team” are “working closely with”, they don’t include Laird.

Tags: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Article source: http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/03/23/planet-of-the-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/