Between bouts of orchestrating giant alien robot punch-ups and fanning the rage flames of Internet trolls who will still see his movies no matter what crazy crap he pulls on them, Michael Bay is collecting moribund movie franchises like properties on the Monopoly game board. In recent weeks online news sites have been treating the in-demand blockbuster schlock master’s plans for revitalizing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (which will now be called Ninja Turtles and the title characters will be alien in origin) like they were continuing developments in the Trayvon Martin case.

Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company are now looking the Halloween movie series to their stable of brand name cinematic properties.

It’s been almost two years since we reported that Michael Bay would be partnering with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon to produce a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie through his Platinum Dunes production company and that Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway would be writing the screenplay with an eye towards turning the movie into a franchise.

Now comes the news that Jonathan Liebesman, the director of last year’s Battle: Los Angeles and the upcoming Wrath of the Titans, is in talks to direct the reboot.

In a press release sent out today, it was announced that Sony Pictures has acquired the movie rights to the IDW Publishing comic book series, Zombies vs. Robots.

The comic, written and created by Chris Ryall with Ashley Wood handling artwork, tells the story of robots who fight off waves of hungry zombies as they try and protect the last surviving human.

Remember back in March when we found out that Paramount Pictures was remaking beloved ’80s favorite The Monster Squad and we all hoped that that would be the last we ever heard of it? It looks as if it’s not only happening, but this could just be the start.

It’s being reported that cousins Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn have been hired to write the screenplay for the movie, and that there are hopes that this could develop into a possible franchise. The Gunn cousins haven’t done a whole lot yet, but they did pen Bring it On Again, James Gunn’s (director of Slither and Brian’s brother) PG Porn, and the upcoming sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is being called Journey to the Mysterious Island.

It’s being reported by Deadline Hollywood that Platinum Dunes, the studio behind the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street reboots, has been brought in to produce the new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie currently being developed.

Platinum Dunes is of course the company owned by Transformers and Armageddon director Michael Bay, as well as producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.

In April of 2009, The Mirage Group made the announcement during the 25th anniversary celebration of Ninja Turtles that a brand new live-action movie was on the way. Mirage had brought us the decent (but just not the same) computer-animated TMNT before this, but nothing was more exciting than the thought of something closer to the original movies made in the early ’90s. Even better — it sounded as if this movie could just be the darker toned flick we’ve begged for over the years, based on Turtles creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman‘s original comics.