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"Children&amp;#039;s TV network Nickelodeon has purchased the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The company paid The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment $60m (\u00A336.3m) to produce a new cartoon series featuring the heroes in a half-shell, the Los Angeles Times reports. Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures also plan to release a full-length feature based on the characters. The television version is scheduled to debut in 2012. During the 1980s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of the most successful animated kids programmes on the air, spawning a popular live-action movie chain. A rebooted CGI TMNT film was released in 2007 and had a worldwide box office take of $94m (\u00A356.7m).  The CW presently carries a current edition of the franchise, which will go off the air next year. Screenwriter John Fusco was recently hired to pen the script for a new live-action Turtles picture, which will explore the origins of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and their rat mentor Splinter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a183227/nickelodeon-acquires-ninja-turtles-rights/>