To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, better known as the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” the Mirage Group has given the green light to a new, live action film. The movie would be the Turtles’ fifth big-screen vehicle and is reported to center on the origin of the pizza-loving crime-fighter.
Legendary Pictures former chief marketing officer Scott Mednick is producing the new movie with Galen Walker, who produced the 2007 computer-animated “TMNT” film, the most recent installment in the franchise. Peter Laird, Gary Richardson, Frederick Fierst, Eric Crown and Napoleon Smith III are executive producers.
The characters first appeared in a May 1984 comicbook before spawning a lucrative line of toys, cartoons and three films released in the early 1990s. In 2003, the Turtles were reintroduced to a new generation via a TV series, the “TMNT” film and a revamped merchandising program.
“The original dozen comics created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman are some of the best source material one could hope for,” said Mednick, whose exec producing credits include the upcoming “Where the Wild Things Are.” Laird, who bought out Eastman’s share of the property several years ago, said the film will remain true to the spirit of the original comicbooks. He added that the pic may employ face replacement technology, which would allow the turtles to be much more expressive.
The movie is scheduled to open in theaters in 2011.
I’m cautiously optimistic. I actually liked the TMNT movie, and am disappointed they aren’t continuing down that route however.
Live-Action?
I don’t know how that will turn out.
I am hopeful, however. Despite its problems, TMNT was a decent film and I enjoyed more due to nostalgia than the film itself. I personally enjoyed the first TMNT movie very much. If the new Live-Action film exceeds what they did, then it may be well worth the money.
Cowabunga Dudes!
I’d like to see them go with the style of TMNT #31 from 1990 “Souls Winter”. Very different look for the turtles. A bit more on the realistic side of what a turtle mutated into a humanoid would look like. The story on that one was pretty cool too, but it seems that they have to do the origin, over and over and over and over and over again.