Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Reboot: Writer Nemec Talks Tone

Andre Nemec, one of the writers behind this Summer's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot, talked to Coming Soon about the tone of new film--saying that it is certainly darker and more serious than the previous entries of the film series, and yet still light enough kids won't get too scared:

"Tone was a very interesting question on this movie as far as how dark we really wanted to go. It's really all in the conflict between the characters. That was the driving principle. The color palettes that were chosen were not designed to be 'Dark Knight-ish in that regard. We weren't looking to make that movie. I'm a huge fan of that movie, but I didn't eat gobs of popcorn while I was watching that movie. We certainly didn't want kids to be running for the exits. 'Mommy! Why did he do that?!' We weren't looking for that. We really wanted to entertain and have fun with it. I think we skate — we live — on a very fun line in this movie, whether it's the action feeling real and exciting, but also fun and adventurous. It really never feels dark in a way that would startle you out of your chair or make you fearful."

Nemec also mentioned the level of involvement that producer Michael Bay had with the movie:

"Michael has been an influence on the movie and he's certainly been giving his notes and paying attention to the movie as we go through. There are Michael Bay aesthetics. He has a very good sense of action. He has a very good sense of entertainment. I think that, on those influences, you'll feel Michael Bay's hand."

He also addressed an old rumor about the turtles having alien origins, something that the new trailer finally clears up--the ooze is a creation of both Shredder and April O'Neill's father:

"Looking through the different iterations of Turtles to date, many of them have different origin stories. T.C.R.I. was a collection container that was used for a company that came from alien ooze at one point. There was another version of the ooze where it was created in a laboratory. There's the 'Daredevil' component that mixes in with the Turtle canon. There's the sewers. There's the laboratories. For us, it was important to find our own version of how these particular Turtles came to be so that they can stand alone as their own characters. There's also the version where, if you touch something after you touch the ooze, that's what you become. There have been a million versions. In this version we just thought it was important to create our own origin that lives within the balance of it. We didn't do anything overtly kooky."

Nemec says other non-turtle characters could appear in this first film and/or any potential sequels.

Pete Ploszek will play Leonardo, Jeremy Howard will play Donatello Noel Fisher will play Michelangelo and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire co-star Alan Ritchson plays Raphael These 4 young men will provide the motion capture essence and vocals for the heroes in the half shell. Danny Woodburn will play the mo-cap role of wise rat Master Splinter--the father figure to the shelled heroes

Will Arnett is tapped to play Casey Jones opposite fellow live action actor Megan Fox as April O'Neil William Fichtner plays TMNT nemesis Shredder

The film was set to be live-action but then it was decided that the turtles would be brought to life using motion capture/CGI like 2011's "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes".

Jonathan Liebesman is directing from a script by Kevin Eastman, Josh Appelbaum and Nemec.

Brad Fuller Andrew Form, Galen Walker and Scott Mednick would co-produce with Bay.

Originally due for release on June 6th 2014, the movie is now slated to arrive in theaters on August 8th.