“Battle: Los Angeles” helmer Jonathan Liebesman is in negotiations to direct Paramount’s live-action reboot of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are producing for Platinum Dunes.
Plot details are being kept under wraps except that the film would be a new reimagining of the comicbook and cartoon series.
In Mirage Studios’ original 1984 comicbook, “TMNT” centered on four turtles who take on humanoid form after coming into contact with radioactive slime. They are trained in karate by their humanoid rat master, Splinter, to fight the evil Shredder and his army of ninjas.
Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec penned the script for the update.
The Turtles jumped into the mainstream when the cartoon series began airing in 1987. The title has since spawned two separate series.
The original 1990 feature adaptation was a hit for New Line, earning more than $200 million worldwide, but the next two pics posted just average results at the box office.
Warner Bros. went back to the franchise’s animated roots in 2007, releasing the CGI-shot “TMNT.” The moderately budgeted pic did not see the type of B.O. numbers that the original pic tallied.
With its new take on the series Par hopes to lay foundations for the studio’s next big franchise.
The Platinum Dunes banner first focused on genre pics like its remakes of horror pics like “Friday the 13th” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” But since signing its first-look deal with Par in 2009, the company has looked to step out of that box; “Turtles” and Russell Brand starrer “The Hauntrepreneur” aim to further that effort.
Liebesman’s next film, “Wrath of the Titans,” bows March 30.
He is repped by CAA, Principato-Young Entertainment and attorney Karl Austen.
