TMNT Moves Rights to Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Paramount
So we have known for sometime that there has been a reboot of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For the past months we have come to learn that a live-action tentpole was being developed and even a writer was attached, John Fusco, now the 4 green teens are getting picked up by a new right holder, Viacom’s Nickelodeon.
Nickelodeon has acquired the global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment for approximately $60 million. The plans are to develop a new CG-animated TV series based on the franchise, anticipated to premiere in 2012 plus a new feature film in partnership with Viacom’s Paramount Pictures unit, also planned for 2012.
The company’s goal is to re-introduce the 25-year-old franchise to existing and potential new fans. The deal also gives Nickelodeon all merchandising rights. It will continue to work with the franchise’s long-term toy partner, Playmates Toys.
I wonder how this will affect the new live film going forward as The Mirage Group had so many involved Scott Mednick was producing the new pic alongside Galen Walker, who produced the 2007 computer-animated “TMNT” pic, the most recent installment in the franchise. Peter Laird, Gary Richardson, Frederick Fierst, Eric Crown and Napoleon Smith III were going to exec produce the film. I do not know how any of this affects those involved with the project or the current script that was being written.
The script idea we had heard was going to be more closely related to the original comic with a “Batman Begins” style reboot speculatively featuring April O’Neil as a hybrid - high profile hacker who blogs - stumbling across scientist, Baxter Stockman, a psychotic African-American scientist, and his plan to program his Mouser robots to burrow into bank vaults and steal. Issues of corporate ethics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology were all things that were going to be incorporated into the story.
It will be interesting if any of the original ideas will go with the rights to the new studio, we would assume so. A somewhat similar incident happened with He-Man and all the rights are now with Sony but original script and producers had to stay with the WB.
