He’s brought the world a vengeful tooth fairy, explored Leatherface’s origins and levelled Los Angeles with an alien attack. But now Jonathan Liebesman is looking to switch gears slightly, entering talks to direct Paramount’s new, live-action take on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This reboot of the martial artist amphibian franchise has been making its way through the development sewers for a while now, and has already seen Iron Man co-writers Art Malcum and Matt Holloway and **Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protoco****l **script team Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec bash out drafts for a plot that the studio is keeping firmly under wraps for now.
If we had to guess, though, we’d figure on the heroic foursome – Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael – aided by comely reporter April O’Neil and kindly ninja master / mutant rat Splinter taking on some matter of criminal threat. Could regular menace Shredder and his Foot Clan minions once again be the big bad? Only time will tell. Also: pizza will be consumed at some point, unless there’s the chance of a product placement tie-in with Subway or somesuch food company.
We’re also hoping it could get back to the more grown-up original comic books, but we doubt the studio will want to risk a wide audience…
Should he sign on, the project will see the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning director reunited with producers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, who are on board to oversee the film via their Platinum Dunes company.
Liebesman is about to unleash Clash sequel Wrath Of The Titans on us (it hits 30 March) and has a couple of other possible projects simmering away in development, including Greek epic Odysseus and one of several Julius Caesar movies jostling for attention.