Seth Rogen says new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is ‘deeply personal’

Seth Rogen has opened up about the franchise he 'loved as a kid' and what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mean to him.

As if Rogen couldn't get any more relatable, he also spent years watching Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo battle it out in the sewers.

Now, the This is The End star talks about his upcoming reboot of the hit animation, titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which is set to drop in theatres on 11 August 2023.

Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Right, if you haven't heard, get excited because Rogen's Point Grey Pictures are producing the film, with writer Brendan O’Brien on board for the screenplay.

You know O'Brien, he penned the hit films Neighbors and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising that pretty much made our summers that year.

So, it's safe to say that the film is in good hands, with Rogen announcing the reboot in June last year.

He took to Twitter to say: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... Aug 11, 2023 (Leo takes notes like I used to)."

And, honestly, we could hear the theme song playing in our heads as we read that tweet.

Sethrogen/Twitter

Now, the Superbad actor has shared a little bit about what we can expect from the film, and as it turns out, it seems to be a deeply sentimental project for him.

The actor/producer told the AV Club: "We found a way to make it deeply personal."

"It’s a teenage movie, we’re putting a lot of our own feelings — of awkwardness and insecurity and a desire to belong and be accepted and all that — into the movie."

I mean, who doesn't sometimes feel like a mutant turtle living in a sewer with a rat sensei? It's basically the Central line during rush hour.

But this meant that those working on the film were completely hands-on: "And as I sit around with the other people working on [the film], I’m like, 'We found a way to care about this' which is great."

While little else is known about the film, the 'teenage' aspect is clearly at the forefront, with Rogen telling Collider in 2020: "As a lifelong fan of Ninja Turtles, weirdly the 'Teenage' part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was always the part that stuck out to me the most.

"The idea of kind of honing in on that element was really exciting to us. I mean, not disregarding the rest, but really using that as kind of a jumping-off point for the film."

The film will be CG-animated, like the series, and we're counting down the days to its release.

Topics: Seth Rogen, News, Celebrity, Viral, Film and TV

Shola Lee

Shola Lee began her journalism career while studying for her undergraduate degree at Queen Mary, University of London and Columbia University in New York. She has written for the Columbia Spectator, QM Global Bloggers, CUB Magazine, UniDays, and Warner Brothers' Wizarding World Digital. Recently, Shola took part in the 2021 BAFTA Crew and BBC New Creatives programme before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news, trending stories, and features.