Those are some pricey ninjas in a half shell!
It was revealed early Wednesday that the popular media company, Nickelodeon, had purchased the international rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment for a whopping $60 million. A company like Nickelodeon would not spend that much money on the rights to a concept without having some idea of what they want to do with the franchise, right? According to a report from the Hollywood Reporter, the company intends to launch a completely CG-animated TV series to be released at the same time as the upcoming film in 2012. Nickelodeon, a branch of Viacom, intends on introducing the franchise to a younger audience.
"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."
Added Paramount president Adam Goodman: "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."
The deal also means that the CW network will lose their rights to the hit television series TMNT by August 31st, 2010. Do you think that the purchase is a good thing? Are you looking forward to another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie?