New Director In-Talks For NINJA TURTLES 2, Rumored To Include Casey Jones, Bebop And Rocksteady

Paramount is moving at quick pace to put together a sequel to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They've already have a script in the works from returning writers Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, with and set a release date for June 3rd, 2016. Production would need to start sometime in the spring or summer to meet that release date. Considering all the motion capture digital effects needed to be done in post.

TheWrap reports that Earth To Echo director David Green is in early talks with Paramount to make the sequel. A seemingly better choice than Jonathan Liebesman, who has a background in fantasy war films. Considering the extremely young age these films are now targeting, thanks the popular and kid-friendly cartoon series on Nickeldeon. Someone who has a better grasp of making films for this age-range, might be in the studio's best interest. It's expected that Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Johnny Knoxville and the other turtle actors will return.

There is also a rumor coming from Collider's Brazilian affiliate Omelet (I've actually never heard a single piece of film news from them so this is completely bizarre) that Casey Jones, Bebop and Rocksteady are going to be included in the film. This seems like a no-brainer, considering Casey Jones was wanted in the original drafts but was quickly removed. Concept art for mutant villains Bebop and Rocksteady were designed for the first film, but ultimately weren't used.

I'm not sure how much of this is actually rumor/news, as it's just common sense and everyone saw this coming for months. These three characters are iconic to the fanbase, and they were linked to the original film. Leading to fans questioning why they weren't included. I'm also going out on a limb and suggest that alien villain Krang will be showing-up well.

I remember being completely pissed-off with the second film The Secret of The Ooze, when filmmakers decided on using original characters Tokka and Rahzar instead of them. Also, what sense did make to replace the human male lead of Casey Jones with unfunny-man Will Arnett?

SOURCE: THEWRAP

Unknowns Cast As Leo, Don And Mikey In TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TUTRLES, Master Splinter And Shredder Still To Be Announced

Deadline reports that casting for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot is clearly almost complete as Paramount announces three unknowns have been cast as the rest of the turtles. They include Jeremy Howard (Accepted, Galaxy Quest) as Donatello, Pete Ploszek (Parks & Rec, Shameless) as Leonardo and Noel Fisher (Twilight Saga) as Michaelangelo. Megan Fox has been placed in the human role of reporter April O'Neil while Alan Ritchson (Smallville, Hunger Games: Catchingfire) will play Ralphael. The actors playing the turtles will be doing motion capture performances for the characters. Shredder and Master Splinter are still to be announced. No word if Krang or Casey Jones will still be apart of the film after the recent rewrites. Production will begin in April with a slated release date of June 6th 2014.