Rhys Frake-Waterfield, writer and director of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, wants to set his sights on other beloved properties such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Teletubbies. Frake-Waterfield made waves by transforming A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's beloved children’s character, Winnie the Pooh, into a bloodthirsty horror villain. With the original Winnie-the-Pooh book officially entering the public domain last year, the debut director was free to put his own dark spin on the material in a film that left public opinion divided.
Off the back of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey's recent theatrical release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with Frake-Waterfield about his work on the film and hopes for other potential horror adaptations. While the director previously intimated his wishes to pursue other horror-themed retellings of properties in the public domain, such as Peter Pan and Bambi, he also revealed his desire to adapt the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Teletubbies. Check out his comments below:
"I really want to do like some other crazy ideas like Teletubbies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I think that'd be so fun to do. Now, they obviously have an IP, and they obviously have are still in copyright, so it may be a bit of a struggle to do those two concepts. But I want to try and find stuff like that, I want to find things which I could license, and I could do that are just crazy and wacky and weird, and they're purely for people just to go and watch a horror movie and just have fun. I don't want them to be too deep and too serious. I do like watching sort of grounded and elevated horror, but there is a big market for this. A lot of people do want this, they want to go there and just have fun."
Could A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Horror Movie Actually Work?
Possible copyright and licensing issues aside, Frake-Waterfield is onto something with his most recent ideas. While a Teletubbies horror movie is unlikely to eventuate, there is a good deal of potential in a horror film based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Originally conceived as a Daredevil parody and other key comic book tropes, the turtles were initially much darker characters than the more family-friendly versions audiences are familiar with today.
Already equipped with an origin story worthy of an ultra-violent slasher film, the original concept behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could lend itself well to a horror-themed adaptation. As a group of trained killer mutants who lurk in the sewers and follow the commands of an anthropomorphic rat, the turtles already possess all the makings of ideal horror villains. While modern audiences are more familiar with their pizza-loving and wisecracking iterations, a far more violent adaptation may warrant what the long-running franchise needs.
Any plans for a horror film based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will need the permission of the current rights holders, Nickelodeon (which is owned by Paramount). With the studio already planning the release of a new animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem later this year, Frake-Waterfield is unlikely to receive the authorization he would need for such a project. Nonetheless, the possibility of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles horror film in the same vein as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is an intriguing concept worthy of further consideration.