Heroes In A Half Shell

They're the world's most famous fighting team, they're heroes in a half-shell and they're green. Yes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are returning to the big screen after an absence of twelve years, with the news that the Weinstein Company and Warners are bringing the martial arts-loving reptiles of the order Testudines back in all CG format. The film hasn't got a title yet, and the makers haven't revealed the plot, but things are shaping up nicely. Animation director Kevin Munroe has been hired to write and direct, and he's doing the former in consultation with Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman who created the characters in the comics. Imagi Services, based in Hong Kong, are already working on the animation, creature design and settings for the film, which will be entirely CGI rather than a live action/CG mix. Munroe has promised, in an interview on the movie's website (here) that we can expect a "moodier and darker grit" to this movie, with better action, lip synching and believability than the live-action films of the '90s. He also said that he's taking a Superman Returns-type approach, by making this a follow-up to the first two films and ignoring the origin story (four terrapins fall in a puddle of ectoplasmic goo in a sewer, if memory serves), allowing them to "celebrate the coolness" of the characters. Well, hope springs eternal. No cast have signed on as yet, but we'll let you know as people sign up for what is bound to be one of the best fighting reptile movies of 2007.