That’s right, co-creator Peter Laird and Mirage have sold the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise to Nickelodeon and its parent company Viacom for a cool $60 million. (Co-creator Kevin Eastman had sold his own share of the property to Laird and Mirage back in 2000.) That leaves Paramount to take over the planned live-action reboot that Scott Mednick has been producing. At this time it doesn’t appear as if anything has changed with the film’s progress, except that it’s now targeted for 2012. Also set for that year is a new CG animated television series for Nickelodeon. For the time being, the current running series produced by 4Kids Entertainment will continue to air on The CW until August 31st, 2010.
Peter Laird talked about the sale on his blog, and how he wasn’t necessarily looking to sell but Nickelodeon came along with a good offer that he was comfortable with. Laird expresses the fact that he’s somewhat worn out of the Turtles, what with them turning 25 years old this year, meaning he’s spent very close to half his life managing these characters. I recommend reading the entirety of his thoughts. They’re pretty honest and open about what happens from here on out. If you care to read the full press release announcing the sale, Reuters has it.
