This is the story behind 1990’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie poster

I have to admit, I’d never really given this movie poster much thought as a kid or ever, actually. Sure, I was a big fan of TNMT and loved the movie when I was younger, but always assumed that the poster for it was some kind of illustration – as seemed to be the trend. It turns out, though, that no. It’s a photograph. Well, technically, it’s several photographs composited together along with a teeny tiny bit of CGI.

Azriel Knight, however, was keen to get the backstory on one of his favourite childhood movie posters after accidentally discovering the name of the photographer who shot it. A photographer by the name of Chip Simons. Knight actually reached out to Simons to find out some more information about the poster’s creation and to his surprise, he actually responded.

The image was created as a composite of several photographs shot by Simons, some of which were created on location in New York for the environmental background and others in the studio – such as the four turtle head props and the hand which had been specially flown over from the UK for the session. After that, well, the compositing process in the late 80s was pretty primitive, but it came together to create one of the most memorable movie posters of its era.

But that’s not all there is to the story and you’ll have to watch the video above to hear it all, but it’s a fascinating little tale for those who might have been around back then and actually seen it.

I don’t think I’ve actually seen this movie since it was originally released. I’m tempted to watch it again now, but will it bring back those happy childhood memories? Or will it just make me realise how bad it was and how low my standards were back then? Well, I suppose it can’t be worse than TNMT 2, so might as well take a chance!

[via Fstoppers]