Michael Bay upset the nerd cart a couple of years back when he called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles part of an "alien race". Just in case there's any residual ill will left over from that faux pas, Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller is here to sort it all out. In addition to verifying the origin of the heroes in a half-shell, Fuller also commented on upcoming sequels to The Purge and Friday the 13th. Fuller even talked about the progress of that Ouija project. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.
During the Television Critics Association, Crave Online got to sit down with Fuller for all sorts of Platinum Dunes production talk. Here's a sample of what he had to say:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really aliens now?
No. They’re not aliens.
How did that get misinterpreted?
The turtles come from alien ooze so I think that it probably came from that, but our turtles are not aliens.
So it is a familiar origin story?
Yes.
The Friday the 13th Sequel
Is found footage the angle you’re trying to take?
It’s something that we’re looking at, yeah. I never know because it depends on the story and what the story is. It’s been reported, that’s something that we’re looking into but I can’t tell you definitively that that’s what the movie is.
Why do you think so many Friday the 13th fans are against the idea of combining it with found footage?
Well, I can understand that. The Purge was a little bit of a found footage movie. We have a movie called Welcome to Yesterday that’s a found footage movie. I’m well acquainted with some very loud members of the audience who hate found footage and I understand that. I think for us it’s more about what the story is and what’s the best way to tell it. Until we figure out exactly what the story is for the next Friday the 13th movie, I can’t tell you what it’s going to be.
Ouija
Where is Ouija right now?
Today is day 17 out of 25. We’re shooting it here in Los Angeles. That is a fairly low budgeted movie. It’s in the Purge-ish range. It’s the story that you think it is. It’s the story about a group of kids who take out a Ouija board and start playing a game, and all hell breaks loose.
That’s the thing. A lot of movies have done ouija board stories. What did the movie names Ouija have to bring to it?
In our movie, the ouija board is a communication device. Our kids tap into something horrible and the ouija board is the way that the entity comes in and is going to have to go out.
Is it going to be a PG-13?
Listen, I don’t know until it’s done but our intention right now is for it to be a PG-13 movie, which as you know we don’t frequently make. I’m keeping blood away from the set.
The Purge 2 (Contains spoilers from The Purge)
CraveOnline: When The Purge was such a surprise hit, did you have some sequel ideas ready to go or was it a very quick development?
No, we did not. Listen, when you make a movie for $3 million, there is no way that you can expect that anything like what happened to The Purge is going to happen. In this business, it’s so rare to be surprised on the upside like that so we never talked about if there was going to be a sequel. I think if we were really serious and we thought that it was going to be a franchise and we would have multiple versions, we probably wouldn’t have killed Ethan Hawke ... So the sequel, obviously Ethan Hawke is not a part of it and I’m hopeful that fans in the audience will feel that the sequel to The Purge delivers on the promise of the original in that we’re not staying in the house. It’s not a home invasion movie. This is you’re out in the streets with people purging and a group of people who get stuck in the middle of it and have to get from point A to point B.
Why is Frank Grillo, who we love, right for that part?
Frank’s character is a grizzled guy who’s on a mission and he’s the strong, silent type who kind of discovers a misfit group of people who he helps out. When you sit down with Frank, he embodies this kind of quiet strength that you believe he can go out into that night and be okay.