Michael Bay's Ninja Turtles shuts down. Are these turtles toast?

Michael Bay's ridiculous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, that's rumored to make the turtles alien non-mutants (and possibly not even teenagers anymore) has been canned. Paramount shut down the expensive production, perhaps due to the ridiculously expensive World War Z disaster we're just learning the details of. Whatever the reason, the studio has shut down this production and pushed the release date back to 2014. Let's hope that push becomes a mercy killing and the whole thing goes away, forever.

According to THR:

Paramount Pictures has shut down a planned reboot of the Ninja Turtles franchise, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. The effects-heavy film, which was in pre-production in Vancouver, was set for release in December 2013. That date is being pushed to May 2014, according to sources.

The issue is said to be the script. Paramount has delayed several big movies from this year to 2013, including G.I. Joe: Retribution and Brad Pitt's World War Z, leaving it with a spotty pipeline for the current year. Now it has halted work on its planned holiday movie for 2013, temporarily laying off pre-production staff and informing those prepping the film that the work stoppage is "indefinite," according to sources. Another source close to the production says the movie has been pushed 10 weeks.

Let's hope "script issues" means burning all the scripts and salting the ground.