Somewhere in a sewer under Manhattan, some half-shelled heroes were getting antsy about their lack of live-action big-screen time since their third film back in 1993. Not satisfied with the animated efforts of 2007's TMNT, they wanted something a little more along the lines of Wolverine's new movie - to tell the secrets of their origins.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, apart from turning the Empire State Building green today, it has been announced that there will be a brand new installment set for screens in 2011. Bringing Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael back to the masses - after a hiatus spent "eating pizza and stalking April O'Neil" - along with their ever-zen sensei Splinter, there will be Ninjutsu moves, foot-soldiers kicked to the kerb and weaponry galore as the green crime fighters return. We're guessing.
The film will be produced by former Legendary Pictures bigwig Scott Mednick, who is currently hard at work on Where The Wild Things Are, and TMNT's Galen Walker. It will keep close to the original character source material created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, which first appeared in a 1984 comicbook and quickly stormed the TV, toy and movie markets of the late 80s and early 90s.
Despite a successful resugance in 2007 with the animated TMNT, producers are keen to tap into the new methods of CGI, such as face replacement technology, to make a live-action movie much more realistic. At least, as realistic as a story about mutant martial-arts-loving, pizza-eating reptiles can be. Cowabunga, dude!