Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) rewrite

ACT 1

we then cut to the beautiful city skylines of present day New York circa 2014 where we see a young woman wearing a yellow jacket riding her bicycle through the busy streets of Manhattan until she arrives at a StockGen chemical plant. this is where we are introduced to our main protagonist and audience surrogate character April O'Neil who is interviewing a StockGen worker about reports of stolen chemicals last night. the worker describes the events to miss O'Neil, recalling the place being raided by guys in black ninja suits. April then asks the employee what kind of chemicals they were after, and he tells her that they stole benzyl, cyanide, and some deaminating agents that were used by StockGen for genetic research back in the day. April then asks the worker to tell her more, however he tells her that he already said enough as the rest is classified information and calls the guards to throw her out. April walks away frustrated until she is greeted by a Channel 6 news van where she is greeted by her wormy cameraman sidekick, Vernon Fenwick who asks her where she's been all this time as they're gonna go live in 30 minutes. April tells Vernon that she was on the cusp of getting the scoop of the century, sightings of ninjas in New York raiding StockGen facilities for unknown motives, and she got so close to figuring out the story until she got thrown out for snooping where she shouldn't. Vernon tells April to just give up and leave it to the police and the FBI and just stick to what they're good at. we then cut to a very embarrassed April doing a TV interview in time square for a new trampoline. after the interview Vernon gives April a pep talk about how he understands that she wants to be a serious journalist, but maybe she just isn't cut out for it after all and maybe she should just stick to what she's good at, April rolling her eyes as Vernon tries to cheer her up by hitting on her before leaving. we then cut to the following night where April returns to the StockGen plant just in time to spot guys in ninja suits through the fences raiding the chemical plant. these ninjas are led by Karai, great-granddaughter of Oroku Saki and commander of the foot clan's ninja armies. Karai orders the foot ninjas to search the place for the missing component that Doctor Stockman requires, April overhearing their conversations from the other side of the fence. however they are stopped in their tracks by the four teenage mutant ninja turtles who confront the foot. Leo fights Karai one-one-one in a sword duel while Donnie, Raph, and Mikey fight the hordes of foot ninjas. during this fight scene we are introduced to each of the turtle's individual personalities through their banter: Leo as the stern and wise leader, Donnie as the tech-savvy genius, Raphael as the gruff and brooding muscle, and Mikey as the wisecracking jokester. April records the entire fight on her phone followed by Karai and the foot ninjas retreating. Mikey turns his head to see April recording before Raph tells Mikey that they all need to get a move on before somebody notices them followed by the four turtles retreating back into the shadows. we then cut to the turtles running on the New york rooftops doing backflips in mid air as they leap from building to building before Mikey in an attempt to get his mind off of the girl he just saw suggests deciding to celebrate their recent victory against the foot by going out for a slice of Pizza, saying that he's been craving some pepperoni. Raph rolls his eyes, telling him "you're always hungry, Mikey" in a passive-aggressive tone followed by the four turtles spotting a Pizza Hut delivery boy on his moped driving through the city streets. once the pizza guy makes a stop at a nearby apartment building the four turtles then leap down to covertly steal four pizzas from the back of the moped and leap into a manhole before they can be noticed. Mikey peeks out of the manhole to see April riding home on her bike making the comment "man, what a babe. she's totally a keeper" followed by Raph grabbing Mikey by the head telling him "not to fast lover-boy" before pulling him back down the manhole. we then cut to April returning to her apartment where we are introduced to her best friend and roommate Irma Langstein who notices April breathing heavily causing her to ask her what's wrong with her, saying that she looks like she's just had a near-death experience. April tells Irma that she just witnessed a foot clan attack. Irma tells April "oh you poor thing no wonder you're scared" before offering her to come relax and sit down to watch a science fiction movie together, pulling out her VHS copy of the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Irma telling April it's her favorite. April gets annoyed and says "gosh you're such a geek" under her breath before explaining to Irma that she's not in the mood to watch her stupid space movies, saying that this is serious business and that what she saw will make her jaw drop and it's gonna make everyone at Channel 6 news finally take her seriously as an aspiring journalist. April then shows Irma the footage she captured on her phone of the turtles in action fighting against the foot clan, Irma adjusting her glasses to look at the footage asking "what are those things, alien frogs?" followed by April telling her "more like mutant turtles... who are also ninjas". April explains to Irma that tomorrow she plans on showing this to her boss at Channel 6 as irrefutable proof of mutants in New York, saying that it's gonna blow his mind. the two then hear the doorbell ring followed by Irma realizing that it must be the pizza delivery guy, since she always orders a pizza on movie night. Irma answers the door followed by the pizza guy delivering the bad news to Irma that unfortunately it appears the pizza they ordered was somehow stolen while he wasn't looking which makes April suspicious. and right on cue, we cut to the turtles returning to the sewer lair with Mikey passing the pizzas they stole around to each of his brothers (NOTE: in this rewrite I imagined that the turtles each like different kinds of toppings on their pizza which reflect their individual personalities to further emphasize how different they are from each other. Leo's pizza is topped with sweet red onions, mediterranean black olives, crisp green peppers and fresh white mushrooms. Donnie's pizza is topped with grilled white meat chicken, fresh white mushrooms, crisp green peppers and diced roma tomatoes. Raph's pizza would be a meat lover's topped with with seasoned pepperoni, all-natural italian sausage, hardwood smoked bacon and crumbled beef, and finally Mikey's pizza would be topped with seasoned pepperoni, smoked ham, sweet pineapple and spicy jalapenos. courtesy of Pizza Hut!) followed by the turtles chowing down on their favorite pizza.