According to today's Variety, Paramount Pictures has given the green light to a computer-animated Mighty Mouse feature film, which will be produced by John Woo and Terence Chang.  Woo, who is also involved in a CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature (see 'John Woo To Develop Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Film'), will develop the Mighty Mouse film with Nickelodeon Films.  The rights to the Mighty Mouse cartoon series, originally created by Terrytoons, are owned by Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom.

Mighty Mouse first appeared in 1942 and did his part to defeat the Nazis, but he probably had his most prominent effect on the American public as the headliner on a long-running Saturday morning cartoon series (1955-67).  The 'hook' that distinguished Mighty Mouse from his cartoon competition, rodent and otherwise, was the operatic style of the cartoons, where the melodramatic Victorian dialogue was sung, a device that was first tried in 1945 and worked especially well given the elemental nature of Mighty Mouse's conflicts with arch-villain Oil Can Harry.  Even back in the 1950s and 60s the Mighty Mouse cartoon series had a quaint anachronistic quality when it appeared on TV, but according to Variety no decision has made yet about incorporating the singing dialogue into the new Mighty Mouse feature film.  Mighty Mouse also inspired spin-off merchandise in the 50s and 60s, a trend we can expect to be amplified when the new movie is released.