“It was a very hilarious treatment and concept.” Thankfully, that one never got made.īut eventually, Hong Kong’s Golden Harvest did agree to finance TMNT. “Sam Kinison, and Gallagher, and Billy Crystal, and Bobcat Goldthwait, wearing sort of green paint and shells and being the Turtle characters,” Eastman recalls. Up until the late ’80s, the most serious interest Eastman and Laird had received was from B-movie king Roger Corman, who wanted to enlist comedians to play the title roles. For a stretch, no one seemed to be interested in bringing franchise cocreators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s brainchild to the big screen. It’s nearly impossible to fathom now, but there was a time when Hollywood did not stockpile pre-existing intellectual property. Beginning in 1984 as an independent comic book, the Turtles had since grown into far more than that: multiple comics, an animated TV show, a Dungeons & Dragons–esque role-playing game, and a bestselling toy line.īut neither the existence nor the success of a live-action adaptation was preordained.

By then, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a cultural phenomenon. On March 30, 1990, four anthropomorphic reptiles named Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael made their movie debut.

Tmnt cast