Nickelodeon's sinister plan to relaunch the 90's phenomena of Turtlemania has just taken one more step forward. According to Deadline, sister company Paramount has just fast-tracked the long-in-the-works feature film revival of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, hiring scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, two co-writers of the first Iron Man film. Dropping $60 million last year to acquire the global rights to one of the most popular kid's properties of the last few decades, Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon initiated plans for an all-out blitz of all things Turtles. Besides this reboot live-action film, plans are also in the works for a new CGI-based cartoon, as well as an all-new toy line manufactured by old partner-in-crime, Playmates Toys.

While the scramble will soon likely begin for a director, the acquisition of the Iron Man scribes Marcum and Holloway (whose names are also attached to the upcoming reboots of Highlander and Buck Rogers) may be indicative of a desire, despite the Nickelodeon label, for a more action-oriented version of the Heroes in a Half-Shell. While I'm sure we're not going to see anything like this, it would be cool to see the Turtles kicking ass in semi-realistic ways similar to the original comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. (Whose amazing artwork is seen above.)

It will be interesting to see if it is indeed possible to revive the Turtles to a level close-to, or even farther than their glory days. While folks can look to the 80's and see franchises like Transformers, Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, and ThunderCats as sharing the spotlight throughout that decade, the Ninja Turtles sat comfortably alone at the top of boy's toys hill in the early 90's in dominant fashion. The retro bug, which seems to have bitten for much of the 80's franchises, has not truly hit in huge fashion for TMNT, despite attempts in the early 00's for revivals. That time however, may be soon.

Are you excited for the return of our favorite Renaissance-named reptiles?

Source: Deadline