The new feature adaptation of the classic comic book will be a computer-generated animation.
Nickelodeon is rebooting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the big screen with Point Grey Pictures’ Seth Rogen. Evan Goldberg and James Weaver will produce, Jeff Rowe (Gravity Falls, Connected) will direct, and Brendan O’Brien will write the screenplay. Paramount Pictures will be handling global distribution on the film.
The feature adaptation of the comic book, originally created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, will be a computer-generated (CG) animation. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature franchise has accumulated $1.15b across six films from three studios since 1990. The last two films, released in 2014 and 2016, were live-action and collectively accounted for $730.6m. The last feature CG version of the property was from Warner Bros in 2007.
The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film signals Nickelodeon Animation Studio’s first-ever CG theatrical production, in partnership with Ramsey Naito, EVP, Animation Production and Development, who is overseeing production for Nickelodeon.
Brian Robbins, president, Kids & Family for ViacomCBS, commented: “Adding Seth, Evan and James’ genius to the humour and action that’s already an integral part of TMNT is going to make this a next-level reinvention of the property. I’m looking forward to see what they do, and I know that Ramsey Naito and her team are excited to take the Nick Animation Studio into another great direction with their first-ever CG-animated theatrical.”
Following Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles launch in 1984 as a comic book, it was followed up by a hit 1987-1996 animated TV series, as well as a retail deals across toys, apparel, video games and more. New Line released three live-action movies between 1990-1993.
Nickelodeon brought the franchise to life again in 2012 with the CG-animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then re-imagined the heroes with the 2D-animated series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last year. As part of a separate deal, Nickelodeon and Netflix are partnering to produce an original animated 2D film based on the current Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.
