God help us, it's time to try live-action Ninja Turtles again

Paramount is apparently eager to get the Turtles franchise running again for the pretty basic reason that the studio owns the brand outright, and is thus able to exploit it with mercenary glee. (Starting by an apparent effort to clean house on previous efforts, including canceling TV series Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and shuttering plans for an R-rated adaptation of grim post-apocalyptic Turtles comic The Last Ronin.) While a sequel to 2023’s animated, and well-received, Mutant Mayhem is still on the books for 2027, the studio is apparently desperate to make a live-action Turtles movie that functions the same as the Sonic films: Family-friendly action-adventure that can bring in increasingly hefty box office bounties. (The most recent Sonic movie, last year’s Sonic The Hedgehog 3, brought in nearly $500 million, a franchise high.)

Hence Moritz, who’s famous for his work on the Fast And The Furious movies, but who’s also the lead executives on the Jeff Fowler-directed Sonic flicks. Moritz is reportedly in negotiations to take over the Turtles franchise, with an eye toward—not our terminology, sorry—”Sonic-fy-ing” them for mass consumption. It’s not clear, exactly, what that would entail, but we’re guessing it won’t involve turning them back into the incredibly bulky landmasses from the Bay-produced films.

Keep scrolling for more great stories from A.V. Club.