Screenwriters Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum have written for such television shows as Alias and Fastlane, and have both written and produced the American version of the series Life on Mars, and the James Patterson adaptation Zoo. Their feature film writing credits include Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Film Dumpster’s Jeff Heller sat down with writing team about their newest collaboration, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.
How do you decide how much source material you incorporate into an adaptation?
ANDRE NEMEC: I think the source martial is always the foundation, and then we’ll sit down and say “what’s the story we want to tell, and how do we tell this story in this sandbox?” With Ghost Protocol we wanted to tell and old style espionage movie that was fun and had a sense of humor to it. Within the sandbox of Mission, we were able to do that. I think here we knew we wanted to tell a story that was about what it’s like to find yourself, and what it means to come out the shadow. When you’re a teenager, you’re a little bit lost, and you’ve got to learn to except you you are, so that became the filter by which we told the story.
Do you find it difficult to jump between writing for something like Zoo or Ghost Protocol to something like the Ninja Turtles, which has a vast different tone?
JOSH APPELBAUM: To be honest, we love it more than anything else. You get in one headspace with Zoo, which is a serious global thriller, and then we get to go write a Bebop and Rocksteady scene. In our career, we’ve always genre hopped, and we’ve been so fortunate to be able to do that. It’s the most fun thing in the world for a writer.
You’ve said in the past that getting the right tone for the first film was problematic. Do you feel walking into Out of the Shadows you had a better grasp on the tone?
JOSH APPELBAUM: Absolutely. For the first movie, there was a lot of fear of screwing up the franchise, and that likely led to a few tonal mistakes. There are so many iterations of the Turtles, and we trying to lead how to synthesize it into what this movie was going to be. This time we decided to get to the essence of what people love about the franchise, which is the irreverent superhero. It’s about family, and there is no other franchise that is truly about four brothers. The other films are about superheroes assembling, which is phenomenal, but this about teenagers and family, and it has to be fun, so we didn’t want to try to make it something it’s not.
Was there anything else you took away from the first film?
ANDRE NEMEC: When we went back and watched the first one, our favorite moments were when you were given permission to laugh, and when you were able to just lean in and enjoy the ride of the movie, when there’s nothing very heavy handed about it. I think that was the lesson learned, let’s just make sure we’re having a good time.
JOSH APPELBAUM: Not to mention, the Turtles were almost supporting players in the first movie.
Was that budgetary?
JOSH APPELBAUM: A lot of it was budgetary, but a lot of it was not being sure truly what [the film] was, and underestimating how strong the fanbase is out there. We weren’t sure if people would come to in droves for theses guys, and they did in the craziest way. It validated that people love the Turtles, and there’s an incredible fan base, and [the Turtles] should be font and center in the next one. You see in this one that it’s their journey, they have the big crafter arc in the film.
ANDRE NEMEC: It was tricky in the first movie because everyone had a hard time seeing it. You were just seeing guys in mo-cap suits, so it was tough to screen how it would translate to the screen.
JOSH APPELBAUM: And not see them and be scared shitless.
ANDRE NEMEC: When were wee actually able to see it completed by ILM, then we were able to look at the guys and say “these guys are fucking great. these guys are wonderful. Let’s spend some more time with these guys in this movie.”
Did seeing the finished original film make you realize some changes you would have made?
JOSH APPELBAUM: For the first one, there is a long list. We would have fleshed out the bad guy a little more, we would have had more Turtles, but we got it in this one. This is the movie we wanted to make all along.
You both seem pretty hands on throughout the process. Were you both on set at all time?
ANDRE NEMEC: One of us, if not both of us, were there every day.
JOSH APPELBAUM: Were were fortunate to be able to do that on Mission as well.
ANDRE NEMEC: It’s what we like to do.
JOSH APPELBAUM: Coming from TV, where we’re running out own shows, they know we’re able to be on set and be productive.
Television writers seem to have more input as far as the creative process is concerned, so you’ve been able to translate that to film?
ANDRE NEMEC: For sure, and I think we had a very good team.
JOSH APPELBAUM: [Producers] Brad [Fuller] and Drew [Form] have been great partners, and we’ve worked wit them before, so it’s sort of a four man partnership creatively. When we’re all on set, we can huddle together…
ANDRE NEMEC: And problem solve.
What’s your writing process like as a team? Do you sit together and write, or do you bounce it back and forth?
JOSH APPELBAUM: It’s funny, because it varies. I think on this one, the majority of the time we sat in the room together. Some of it depends on schedule. This one was like “this is real serious, let’s get in the room and figure it out.” Sometimes if there’s a frenzy, we’ll take scenes and swap them back and forth. This one we had to look each other in the eyes and make sure we were getting it done.
Do either one of you have a stronger writing suit than the other?
ANDRE NEMEC: There’s nobody funnier than this guy.
JOSH APPELBAUM: And all the action sequences come from him. The crazy action sequences are much more impressive than mine would be.
[Turtles creator] Kevin Eastman has a cameo in this film. Did you initially get feedback from him after the first film?
JOSH APPELBAUM: Yeah, he was a fan. Again, I think everybody felt like the first movie was a win, but it wasn’t creatively a grand slam. But he’s very happy wit this one.
ANDRE NEMEC: This one does capture the spirit, even in the graphic novels. It’s still a story about brothers. It’s a little bit more muscular, but it’s still about family at it’ s core. If you created those guys, you going to watch this and say “those are my kids.”
JOSH APPELBAUM: For the first one, he was like “As long as you get the personality of the Turtles right, almost nothing else matters.” That’s the big win. There have been some attempts at it where the brothers all have the same voice, and they’re all just “Excellent! Party!,” and there’s no differentiation between them. Donatello is really Donatello. Raphael is really Raphael. I think he’s most protective of them.
ANDRE NEMEC: I think having the real family conflict in this one allowed us to find there voices of those characters better, and allow the actors to really get under the skin of those guys. I think they did an amazing job of fully embodying the spirit of each one of those guys.
Did that actors bring anything to the roles originally that you hadn’t intended that you were able to take into writing of this one?
JOSH APPELBAUM: Because they’re real actors, you could see even the little moments where they had an opportunity to play vulnerability, or just a little bit more humanity for a better term. They weren’t just stereotypes. There was a little bit more dimension there, so we realized there was nothing to be afraid of.
ANDRE NEMEC: After watching with the actors on the first one, we knew we could give them lines and they would deliver them. Alan [Ritchson] would be able to deliver that rye Raphael line, and Donatello could rattle off that information like we needed. It was like getting the family back together.
How much is the budget on your mind as you’re writing?
JOSH APPELBAUM: We were talking budget from the first day, all the way until a week ago when we locked the film. We wrote a sixteen page outline, which went to the line producer, which went Paramount, and they read the plane crashing in the water sequence and they said “Well this is an expensive sequence.”
ANDRE NEMEC: The goal is to always try to forget that and just write it. I always say that if we don’t turn in a script that makes the producers and finance want to cry, then we really haven’t done the right job. It should always just be a little bit out of reach.
JOSH APPELBAUM: The one thing we felt good about on this one is that we don’t think the action sequences out wear their welcome. They’re not twenty minute long action sequences where you’re asking for mercy.
We would like to thank Andre Nemec and Josh Applebaum for taking the time to talk with us. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows opens June 3rd, 2016.
