Variety is reporting that The Mirage Group, which owns the rights to the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: film franchise, is planning to go ahead with a new live-action adaptation of the classic comic, roughly scheduled for a 2011 release. This would mark the fifth big-screen appearance for the martial-arts reptiles Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, and their rodent sensei Splinter.

This coincides with April 23rd celebrating the Turtles’ 25th anniversary celebration, which includes the first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film playing at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Empire State Building being lit green.

Legendary Pictures’ Scott Mednick is producing alongside Galen Walker, who produced the 2007 computer-animated “TMNT” , the most recent installment in the franchise. Peter Laird, one of the creators of the Turtles alongside Kevin Eastman, is executive producing alongside Gary Richardson, Frederick Fierst, Eric Crown and Napoleon Smith III.

“Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles” debuted in May 1984, spawning a lucrative line of toys, several cartoon series, and three films released in the early 1990s before the franchise was returned to with the 2007 CGI film.

Stay tuned to Shockya.com for more Ninja Turtle news.

By Costa Koutsoutis (Source: Variety.com)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles