Nickelodeon buys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

From Coming Soon.net:

"Nickelodeon has acquired global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand from Mirage Studios and will develop a new CG-animated TV series, while Paramount Pictures is developing a new feature film for a 2012 release. The full press release:

'Furthering its mission to provide premium content to its audiences, Nickelodeon--part of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom Inc.--has acquired the global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. The acquisition provides Nickelodeon, the world's number-one entertainment brand for kids, global intellectual property rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the hit television, film and video game property that has delighted kids around the world for the last 25 years. The aggregate purchase price for the transactions is approximately $60 million.

Nickelodeon also announced plans to develop a new CG-animated television series based on the popular superhero franchise, anticipated to premiere in 2012. Additionally, in partnership with Viacom's Paramount Pictures, a new release of a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film is also planned for 2012. Nickelodeon has also acquired all merchandising rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and will continue to work with its original and long-standing toy partner, Playmates Toys, which has been the creative force behind the successful TMNT master toy program over the last two decades.

'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shares a comedic sensibility with the Nickelodeon DNA, with added layers of action and fantasy that have kept this property an evergreen favorite with multiple generations of audiences,' said Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group. 'We are extremely happy to have the opportunity to be able to focus on this property and creatively re-introduce it to a new generation of kids.'

'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a property that maintains a very passionate global fan base, is rich with opportunity for a tentpole movie, and is exactly the right property for us to work together with Nickelodeon,' said Adam Goodman, President, Paramount Pictures.

'Mirage has been the proud keeper of the Turtles' brand since 1984, and in 2009 we celebrated their 25th anniversary with our legions of fans,' said Gary Richardson, CEO, Mirage Studios. 'Nickelodeon is a powerhouse global brand, and we are confident that the company will be a wonderful steward for Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello and all the other TMNT characters and take them in all kinds of exciting and new creative directions.'

'We enjoyed our eight-year partnership with Mirage during which 4Kids and Mirage re-launched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise for a new generation of kids around the world,' said Alfred Kahn, Chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. 'We will also work with Mirage and Viacom so that our Turtles' licensees can be assured of a seamless transition.'

Considered one of the most popular kids' television programs of the 1980s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a classic, global property created in 1984 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It first debuted as a successful comic book series and then became a hit animated TV show, a live-action television series, and later spawned four blockbuster theatrical releases. The property also has translated into a significant consumer products business--with DVDs, video games, toys and more--that has generated billions of dollars at retail.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on four mutant turtles--trained in the art of Ninjitsu--who battle evil from the New York sewers. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated television series--jointly produced by 4Kids Entertainment and Mirage Studios--will continue to air on 'TheCW4Kids' Saturday morning programming block on The CW network through Aug. 31, 2010."

Is it still going to be a live-action sequel with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Chris Evans?

The Turtles Are Back.

From ComingSoon.net:

"The Mirage Group has given the green light for development of a live-action major motion picture focusing on the origins of the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, targeted for release in 2011.

Announcement of the latest (fifth) big screen version of the crime-fighting 'heroes in a half-shell' comes on the day the Turtles kick off their 25th anniversary national 'Shell-ebration' in New York City with multiple events that include the honor of lighting the Empire State Building in 'turtle green' and a unique outdoor presentation of their beloved first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film at the Tribeca Film Festival 'Drive-In'.

Mirage is partnering with producers Scott Mednick (300, Superman Returns, 10,000 BC, and the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are) and Galen Walker (who produced the most recent computer-animated TMNT theatrical release) to create this live-action film. Peter Laird, Gary Richardson, Frederick Fierst, Eric Crown and Napoleon Smith III will serve as executive producers of the film, which is based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters created by Laird and Kevin Eastman. Mednick and Walker will serve as producers. The project is being funded through Lightbox Productions, LLC.

'It was critical to us to find people who both understood the Turtles franchise and were accomplished film makers who appreciated both the action and humor components of the Turtles' identity,' said Gary Richardson CEO, The Mirage Group. 'With Galen and Scott we know we've found great talent with those essential attributes.'

'The original dozen comics created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman are some of the best source material one could hope for,' said Mednick. 'We're excited to bring this story to a whole new generation of moviegoers as well as the legions of fans that have made the Turtles - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael as well as Splinter, April O'Neil, Casey Jones and, of course, the great villain Shredder - a part of their world for 25 years.'

Mednick has begun reaching out to writers and directors and is already in discussion with several high-profile actors interested in portraying Turtles characters they loved as kids.

4Kids Entertainment, master licensing agency for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property, will be handling all the movie merchandise licensing.

The 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' made their public premiere in May 1984 in a comic book published and distributed by Mirage Studios. A hugely successful TV series quickly followed, along with a record-setting licensing program and three successful live-action theatrical films. In 2003, the Turtles were re-introduced to a new generation through a fresh TV series, a computer- animated theatrical movie and new merchandising program. The 25th year of 'TMNT' will provide fans of all ages with the opportunity to experience this evergreen property in a ten-city mobile tour highlighted by the 'TMNT' Party Bus, a rolling museum of 'TMNT' memorabilia."

Now, I think this is a great idea. To be honest, I was never a die-hard "shell-head" (?) but I did watch the original series and have seen bits and pieces of the movies.

But they better have Sarah Michelle Gellar and Chris Evans in the flesh, this time.