Variety.com is reporting that Nickelodeon, a Viacom division, has purchased the global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise from the Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment for $60 million.

This deal allows Paramount, Nick’s sister company, to start on a new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film to start production, which is planned for a 2012 release. Scott Mednick (“300”) has already been attached to produce that project.

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. The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated TV series — jointly produced by 4Kids Entertainment and Mirage Studios — will continue to air on “TheCW4Kids” Saturday morning programming block on the CW network through Aug. 31.

The four anthropomorphic martial artist turtles first appeared in 1984 in Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” comic book. The popular characters have gone onto spawn several films, cartoon series, action figures, video games, and more.

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By Costa Koutsoutis (Source: Variety.com)