‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ to return to cinemas in 2012

Paramount seem to be serious about bringing the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' back to to the silver screen as a viable live action franchise.

The studio has hired two of the 'Iron Man' writing team to bash out a new script for a proposed returned for the "lean, green, fighting machines".

Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are two of the writers responsible for 'Iron Man', and thus deserve some serious credit for helping along the eagerly anticipated superhero ensemble 'The Avengers', if they hadn't given Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau a hell of a script to work with we wouldn't have 'The Avengers' to look forward to.

Let's hope the pair can do the same with the fast tracked Paramount project that sees them team up with Michael Bay's production house Platinum Dunes, the studio wants a first draft by October so they have something to send to directors in order to prepare for a 2012 release. Paramount is looking to get another 'Transformers' scale franchise on its hands after Viacom's Nickelodeon picked up the property rights to TMNT for $60 million. Although the original TMNT films started strong, they eventually became less gritty, more cartoonish and even had time travel.

The pizza-loving, Foot-fighting mutant teens have been largely off the boil since their mid-90s heyday, with only Imagi’s CGI ‘toon TMNT hitting the radar with any cinematic force since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III arrived in 1993. While the heroes in a half-shell did manage a brief revival on TV, Paramount is looking to return to the heights of the first movie, blending actors with CG-crafted creatures.