TMNT Global Rights Picked Up By Nickelodeon/Paramount

It was announced this morning that Nickelodeon has acquired global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise from The Mirage Group / 4Kids Entertainment for roughly $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 release of a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film is also planned for 2012. New Line previously released the originally three live-action TMNT films and Warner Brothers released the recent CGI movie from 2007.

"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.

This is great news and I'm glad to see a very strong studio like Paramount behind ...