10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The production history behind the original 1990 film is almost as bizarre as its subject matter, but one part stands out: absolutely nobody involved with this movie actually wanted to make it.

This might come as a shock to younger readers, but back in the nineties, comic book movies were seen as box office poison. Unless it was bigger-than-comics giants like Batman and Superman, most were lucky to get a single movie, and even luckier if it was any good.

Then Howard the Duck happened and then pitching this movie went from difficult to almost impossible. As you can imagine, when the film's producers were shopping around to see who would like to distribute the movie and host the whole project, studio execs went running for the hills. By some miracle they managed to land a deal with New Line Cinema, and then the project could finally get underway.

But make no mistake, no one was enthusiastic about this project. Everyone was convinced that this was going to bomb, and bomb hard. Sure, the Turtles had proven successful in literally every other medium up to that point, but somehow a movie was out of the question. But it did get made, and it's one of the most beloved pieces of TMNT media out there.