Jeff Rowe: Last News

Karen Idelson Reboots and remakes tread dangerous territory. Make it too much like what’s already been seen and audiences will wonder why it was made at all. Turn the wheels of something completely unexpected and you might run the whole thing off the road.

William Earl Variety is expanding its presence at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market with three programmed conversations moderated by Variety journalists, taking place over the festival from June 10 to June 13. On June 10, Variety’s international editor Elsa Keslassy will host behind-the-scenes interviews at the “Transformers One” screening, with Josh Cooley, director of “Transformers One”; Ramsey Naito, president of Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation; Lorenzo di Bonaventura, founder of Di Bonaventura Pictures and producer “Transformers” film series; and Marcel Jean, artistic director of the Annecy Animation Film Festival.

Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament is back. While studios during Covid wildly embraced the theatrical day-and-date model when cinemas were closed, they soon realized there’s nothing more profitable than a theatrical release and the downstreams that come with it. If anything, theatrical is the advertisement for a movie’s longevity in subsequent home entertainment windows. Entering the conversation in 2023 were the streamers, such as Apple, who have also realized the necessity of theatrical to eventize their movies. The financial data pulled together here for Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament is culled by seasoned and trusted sources.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Paramount Animation has entered an exclusive, multi-year first-look development deal with writer, director and producer Jeff Rowe.  The pact extends the relationship between the studio and the filmmaker following the success of last summer’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which Rowe directed and co-wrote. The agreement covers Rowe’s development and directing services, as well as his producing and executive producing work, on both animated and live-action projects.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has been confirmed for 2026.The action-animated adventure from director Jeff Rowe and writer-producers Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg was a critical success on its release last year and now a sequel has been green-lit.According to a new Paramount release slate, the follow-up to Mutant Mayhem will arrive on October 9 2026.Director Rowe is expected to return alongside the actors who played the turtles (Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu and Brady Noon) and April O’Neal (Ayo Edebiri).At the end of the first film, a return was also teased with the appearance of villain Shredder.Speaking to Empire last year, Rowe explained the villain must prove more menacing than Superfly – the villain from the last film.“The one thing I can say without spoiling anything is, [Shredder] needs to be 100 times scarier than Superfly – who is a credible villain, he’s dangerous, he’s strong, he seems like he could mess the Turtles up,” he explained.“Shredder needs to be that, just significantly more. It’ll be really interesting to see these fun-loving characters go up against something that maybe they can’t stop.”In other news, the soundtrack to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem proved a hit with viewers last year.It featured a wide collection of East Coast hip-hop songs, including hits from Vanilla Ice, DMX, A Tribe Called Quest, and many more.

It’s Paramount earnings day, so it’s a great time to release a ton of news as the stick upticks 0.6% to $11.32.

Katcy Stephan A long-gestating reboot of the “Naked Gun” franchise with Liam Neeson is finally moving forward at Paramount, landing a release date of July 15, 2025. The currently-untitled project will be directed and executive produced by Avika Schaffer, who co-wrote the draft script alongside Dan Gregor and Doug Mand. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing via their company Fuzzy Door.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around since the ‘80s. They’ve starred in several animated TV series, live-action movies from Jim Henson costumes to CGI turtles, and two animated films. The latest, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, reinvents the comic book heroes in several ways.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem writers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Jeff Rowe said it was important that their turtles spoke like real teenagers. That meant brushing up on the latest crazes, like TikTok.

As a lifelong fan of the Ninja Turtles franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem writer-director Jeff Rowe knew that this film would be a gateway for a new generation of people. Along with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Rowe crafted a new look and story to connect with a new audience who may have never heard of the Ninja Turtles before.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Animated feature directors of “Elemental,” “Nimona,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and “Trolls Band Together” will attend the second annual “Sketch to Screen: Top Animated Contenders” panel at SCAD Savannah Film Festival. Hosted by Clayton Davis, senior awards editor for Variety, the panel will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Paramount+ has set September 19 for the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. The film will be available to stream on the service beginning Tuesday, September 19, in the U.S. and Canada. The film’s availability in additional international Paramount+ markets will be announced at a later date.

Rudie Obias editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Cowabunga! As the seventh installment in the film series, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” — which was produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg — reignited the franchise for a new generation of fans when it theaters in July.

The animators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem were taken care of by not being overworked. Director Jeff Rowe and producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made sure the staff could work on the animated movie while continuing to maintain a good work-life balance.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director A Vulture report published in June claimed that animators on Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” were extremely overworked during production. The report followed similar claims made by several visual effects workers about the brutal working conditions at Marvel Studios. For Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” it appears director Jeff Rowe wanted to buck this problematic trend.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The Margot Robbie-led flick is expected to hit the billion-dollar mark globally before Monday, which would make its director Greta Gerwig the first solo female director to achieve that goal, CNBC reported.“Meg 2: The Trench,” the sequel to the 2018 original, landed in second, with $12 million in sales.The sci-fi action flick starring Jason Statham, which the Hollywood Reporter said brings “his rugged charm and tough-guy self-irony to sparkling dialogue,” is based on a 1999 novel.In third place was “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” which was released on Wednesday and took home $9.3 million on Friday.The Post called the reboot the Turtles “finest hour,” and said its directors Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears “bet big on the title and shrewdly explore what it would be like to live as a hormonal, teenage, mutant, ninja turtle.”“Oppenheimer,” which was in second place last Friday, slipped to fourth, with an $8.3 million take. The Christopher Nolan biopic has already earned $500 million globally and is expected to hit over $551 million through Sunday, according to Deadline.Disney’s “Haunted Mansion,” which was in the No.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Rose Byrne jumped at the chance to voice Leatherhead in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” when producer-star Seth Rogen asked her to join the film. “It was ridiculous,” the “Physical” actor tells me. “Seth was like, ‘I want you to do just fully Aussie — just go for it!’ “I was like, ‘I’m going to do my best Eric Bana.’ This is an homage to Eric,” Byrne continues.

The spoils of July are spilling over into August as Warner Bros.’ Barbie after a $11.8M Thursday, jetted across the four-century mark at the domestic box office in her 14th day –faster than Top Gun: Maverick and Super Mario Bros Movie– with a running total of $406.4M at 4,337 locations.

Marvel Cinematic Universe limps along and DC attempts a second act, the best superhero movies are actually coming from the world of animation.Sony’s innovative “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” and superb sequel “Across The Spider-Verse” served the tired genre a much-needed double shot of espresso. And now, far more unexpectedly, Paramount’s awesome “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” has tossed it a rallying Red Bull — alongside, naturally, a slice of pepperoni.Running time: 99 minutes.

Looking to find its way and pull boys in, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is getting a mid-week start here with previews yesterday grossing $3.85M. Showtimes started at 2PM for the Jeff Rowe-directed feature and the outlook is $30M over 5-days for the net $70M production. Some trackers have it at $40M. Mutant Mayheim is booked at 3,513 locations today and will expand to 3,851 theaters by Friday.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It started as a joke. Way back in the ’80s, the phenomenon we now call “superhero fatigue” was already a thing, at least among comics afficionados. Frustrated with pulp creators recycling the same old ideas, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird hatched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.