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.

Megan Fox Will Play April In NINJA TURTLES, Beating Out Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Olsen And Jane Levy For The Role

Michael Bay has announced via his site that Megan Fox (Transformers 1-2) will be involved with Ninja Turtles. A role isn't named but it might be safe to assume Fox will be playing reporter April O'Neil. There had been a rumored falling out of sorts between Bay and Fox, over some comments she made to press about the set. Elizabeth Olsen was recently revealed to be in the mix for the film before landing the female lead in Godzilla. There had been rumors that Krang could be the villain of the film.

In addition to Olsen, Variety adds that actresses Anna Kendrick (End of Watch, Scott Pilgrim, Up In The Air, 50/50) and Jane Levy (Evil Dead Reboot) were also in the mix. They also name the role to be that of April O'Neil. After discovering this gif (below) of April from the cartoon series I can see why Fox got the role.

'NINJA TURTLES' Pushed To 2014 And Budget Slashed

Paramount isn't so pumped about the Michael Bay produced Ninja Turtles as the production has been put on pause. The film which will be directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of The Titans) had been aimed for a Christmas 2013 release date but has been pushed back till May 16th 2014. Apparently this is allow more time for script fixes along with possible re-tooling of it's direction. There's also reports that the budget is being cut down $10-20 million for a budget total of $125 million. Rumors had been circling that Krang would be the villain which might be the reason for the rewrites.

SOURCES: Deadline THR

TMNT UPDATES: Turtles Will Be Aliens And Krang The Villain?

Looks like the development on Jonathan Liebesman's (Wrath of The Titans) reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is in full swing. As two updates on the project have been circling over the last couple of days. First is a direct quote from producer Michael Bay from the 2012 Nickelodeon Upfront stating the turtles are going to be an "alien race".

“These turtles are from an alien race, and they’re going to be tough, edgy, funny, and completely lovable. Kids will believe one day that these turtles do exist when we’re done with this movie.”

This has a lot of fans of the material including myself questioning this new origin as the title of the series has not been Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles. I'm not sure how this will factor into the origin but how can remove the mutant aspect of the mythology when it's right in the fucking title? Bay's production company Platinum Dunes is mostly known for horror reboots which for the most part are equally homages to the original source material as much as remakes. So it's hard to understand where they are going with the drastic change to the origins of the turtles. However, time travel was the plot device of the third film so this isn't the weird move.

The second part which is less aggravating is a rumor revealing the film's villain. FirstShowing says that Krang best known from the 80's television series is the rumored antagonist of the reboot. It's an interesting move since Krang has never been used in the previous films. It sort of makes sense considering the mentioning by Bay of another dimension. After he was exiled from his home (Dimension X) with his precious mobile headquarters called the Technodrome, Krang traveled to Earth and allied himself with Shredder. The site also states that turtles themselves will be inter-dimensional beings which could connect them to Krang somehow.