Michael Bay Producing TMNT Reboot

Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes will oversee the live-action reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

John Fusco (The Forbidden Kingdom) was hired last year to write the script for TMNT co-creator and executive producer Peter Laird, but Deadline reports Dunes will begin meetings with new writers next week.

Bay’s production company, along with partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, have focused primarily on remaking horror classics like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and recently A Nightmare on Elm Street, so pizza-eating, ass-kicking turtles are certainly a change of pace for them.

Platinum Dunes has a track record for producing modestly-budget productions that turn an easy profit based on name recognition.  This appears to be no different.  Hopefully it will be the first successful relaunch in terms of quality, but I doubt it.

Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon are also involved after the latter’s $60 million acquisition of the property rights last October to revive the characters in movies and a new, computer animated TV series for 2012.

In previous discussions, executive producer and Turtles co-creator Peter Laird hinted at the use of “face replacement technology” seen on the Where the Wild Things Are creatures.  This is further evidenced by Wild Things‘ Scott Mednick’s involvement as a producer.