This week, we're delighted to be reunited with the talented Jeff Rowe, who first appeared on the show in 2021, breaking down his and Mike Rianda’s hilarious The Mitchells vs the Machines. On today’s episode, the animation auteur returns to talk all things Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The heroes in a half shell returned earlier this year in Mutant Mayhem, which Jeff directed from a script he co-wrote with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The film packed laughter, action and emotion unlike any Turtles film before it – a result of the trio approaching the story as a coming-of-age tale, inspired by films like Ladybird and Stand By Me.
The story behind how Turtles was written is almost as radical as the movie itself. Jeff, Seth and Evan worked hard on one version of the film only to realise fairly far into production that the story was “fundamentally broken.” So, they got together and across a whirlwind, high-pressure 48 hours, wrote an entirely new story for this Turtles reboot.
In the conversation you’re about to hear, Jeff and I discuss that discarded version of the film in which the iconic villain Shredder was a “Vince Vaughn type” wreaking havoc on New York. There’s thorough analysis of all the key scenes in the film, and Jeff opens about his difficult family life growing up and how it fed into the story he wanted to tell here, about the beauty of found families.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Stowe Story Labs and WeScreenplay.
To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.
Support the Show.
No One Will Save You With Brian Duffield
The Fall Guy with Drew Pearce
Air with Alex Convery
The Blair Witch Project with Eduardo Sánchez
Stage Apart: The Hills of California with Jez Butterworth
Civil War with Alex Garland
Stage Apart: Stranger Things – The First Shadow with Kate Trefry
Script Club: Children of Men with Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties)
Expats with Lulu Wang
How To Have Sex with Molly Manning Walker
American Fiction with Cord Jefferson
The Holdovers with David Hemingson
All Of Us Strangers with Andrew Haigh
Maestro with Josh Singer
Beau Is Afraid with Ari Aster
Poor Things with Tony McNamara
Society Of The Snow with J.A. Bayona
Toy Story 3 with Michael Arndt
A Murder At The End Of The World with Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij
Leave The World Behind with Sam Esmail
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Prestige Junkie
You Can’t Make This Up
The Sackhoff Show
Team Deakins
Toon’d In! with Jim Cummings