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Nickelodeon Buys the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles


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And I mean buys — both from 4Kids, who have been making the cartoons, and Mirage, who held the rights ever since Eastman and Laird created ’em back in the ’80s. Seriously, Nickelodeon now owns the franchise lock, stock and turtle shell. From Variety:

Nickelodeon, a division of Viacom, has acquired the global rights to
the property from the Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment.
Additionally, Nick’s sister company Paramount will steer a new “Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles” feature to the bigscreen, planned for 2012. Scott
Mednick (“300”) is producing the pic.

Deal, which gives Nick the global intellectual property rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, cost $60 million. …

Nick,
which also acquired all merchandising rights to the Turtles, will begin
developing a CG-animated TV series based on the Turtles, also slated to
premiere in 2012. Nick will continue to work with its original and
longstanding toy partner, Playmates Toys.

At $15 million a turtle, that seems like a pretty good deal all around.So there’ll be a new movie, a new CG TV series, more toys, and I assume this isn’t interfering with the 25th anniversary cartoon that’s due out pretty soon, or we would have heard about it. I’ve got to say, this is a smart buy for Nickelodeon. TMNT is one of those franchises that just always appeals to kids, like Transformers or Power Rangers, no matter what timeframe it’s in. I don’t really see why a TMNT fan should be upset, frankly, but nerds always find a way, don’t they? Meanwhile, was the hell does 4Kids have any more? Yu-Gi-Oh? What the hell are they doing besides slowly dying?