The news that Ninja Turtles -- the controversial Michael Bay-produced movie that reportedly retcons the characters into being non-teenage, non-mutant aliens who, for all we know, won't even like pizza -- was pushed from a December 2013 release to May 2014 was seen as proof that the movie was in trouble when it emerged a couple of months ago. Not so, says Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman. Instead, it's got more to do with the importance of May 2014.

Eastman, who describes himself as being "actively involved" with the development of the movie - he's "doing sketches, drawings and character designs, bouncing stuff around with writers [and] talking with the director and producers," apparently - told Comic Book Resources that he's "seen a chunk of [the revised script], and it's going to be a great movie, despite what everybody thinks." Discussing the six month delay in release, he said "they pushed it back for two reasons":

One is the director, Jonathan Liebesman, wanted to make sure he could do the effects to the level he wants them at, and the fight scenes to the way they should be. Also, their release date is almost exactly on the 30th [TMNT] anniversary. May 5, 1984 is when the first Turtles comic came out. May 16, 2014, is almost exactly 30 years after. So basically it's an anniversary movie now.

You'd think that, with that being the case, they could've released the movie closer to the actual anniversary date, but Hollywood math is always hard to work out in that way, isn't it?

Ninja Turtles is currently scheduled for a May 16, 2014 release. Unless, you know, they move it up a week or two.

[Via CBR]