It seems that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated movie we’ve been talking about all year is actually happening. I think they’ve missed the boat on the pizza eatin turtle craze, but here they come anyway. Maybe they can throw in some Muslim terrorists or something to make it a little more “now”. Or better yet, maybe they could team them up with Jesus! That’d sell.

Variety is reporting that the freshly formed Weinstein Company has signed a deal to distribute the all-CGI film. The turtles have already had three live action movies, all of which I’m proud to say I avoided, despite at the time being in their target age demographic. The last one happened in 1993, after which the turtles crawled back in their shells until they received a slight revitalization recently when their cartoon came back to Saturday mornings. It didn’t seem nearly as good this second time out, but I guess the return of the cartoon somehow justifies a movie. I’m sure fans will miss those giant rubber turtle suits.

The filmmakers claim they’re shooting for a grittier version of the turtles… hard to do considering the subject. Even harder to do since they’re determined to bring it in at a rated PG. Look for it in theaters 2007 with a script developed by director Kevin Monroe in co-operation with the comic’s original creator Peter Laird.