THE BALLOON MAN

'Nitro Circus' hits the road

Extreme sports show gears up road tour

MTV's "Nitro Circus" is morphing into a touring show.

By Marc GraserApr. 7, 2011

MTV may no longer be airing the reality stunt series "Nitro Circus," but the show has found a new life on the road.The property is bowing a live show that will tour across North America starting this summer, concluding with the release of a 3D movie early next year. "Nitro Circus Live" is essentially Cirque du Soleil with more than 25 well-known extreme sports athletes in the BMX, FMX and skateboarding worlds performing a range of death-defying acts. First U.S. event takes place June 4 from the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. Venue seats 16,800. Stunts performed at the show will be shown in the film, being produced by S2BN Entertainment, Global Action Sports and Godfrey Entertainment. Pic does not yet have a distributor, but Paramount is a likely home for the project, after recently releasing the Justin Bieber concert pic and "Nitro Circus" having a previous relationship with Par-sibling MTV. "Nitro Circus" is the latest entertainment property to launch a live show, with DreamWorks Animation doing so around "How to Train Your Dragon," Warner Bros. with an event built around Batman and Disney having produced similar efforts around its characters and films in the past. X Games regulars Travis Pastrana, Gregg Godfrey and Jeremy Rawle founded the Nitro Circus brand in 2006, launching it as a series of DVDs and miniseries on Fuel TV in 2006. It turned into a reality show for MTV in 2009, which lasted for two seasons, performing well overseas. After MTV decided not to go ahead with a third season, the athletes created a live show with Australian-based sports marketing and events firm Global Action Sports. First tour became one of Australia's highest-grossing sports shows in the region, selling more than 120,000 tix. The tour went global this year, with shows in Europe, New Zealand and now the U.S. Pastrana said many of the stunts designed for the show in Las Vegas "have never been performed before anywhere in the world and are unlikely to be attempted ever again. Almost 10 world firsts have been thrown down during our tours in Australia and New Zealand and we are going to try and match that." S2BN Entertainment is co-producing and promoting the live show in the U.S. Org has also overseen tours for the Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand "Yo Gabba Gabba Live!," "Rock of Ages" and "Bodies: The Exhibition." Company chief Michael Cohl is the lead producer of "Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark."