The Turtles are Back in First 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Trailer

"Heroes are not born, they are created".

If you need example of how deep the love for Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles runs, just look at the boiling rage over the whole "Turtle-Gate" fiasco. When Michael Bay announced a new Ninja Turtles (that was title at one point, by the way) film to be directed by Jonathan Liebesman, it was all about extraterrestrials who weren't teenage, ninjas, or even turtles. Obviously, fans were a little miffed at seeing their childhood heroes reimagined in such a way, and Bay went back to the drawing board with a more traditional interpretation. While skepticism continues, the first trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has just debuted, giving our first real look at the heroes on the half shell.

Megan Fox stars as the Turtles' intrepid reporter friend April O'Neil, with Will Arnett as cameraman Vernon Fenwick, and William Fichtner as Shredder.  Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Pete Ploszek, and Jeremy Howard did the motion-capture work to become the Turtles, but based on this they still resemble the suits worn in the 1990 film. There were some early stories saying the fighting style would be based on The Raid: Redemption and other martial arts flicks but none of that is obvious here. Instead, it looks like typical Turtles kung-fu hijinks.

Thoughts? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens August 8th.

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'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' casts Alan "Aquaman" Ritchson as Raphael

The Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film has finally turned the corner after the initial fanboy uproar, and has moved on to actual casting. Following on the hiatus to retool and rewrite an allegedly horrible script, there seems to be a commitment to depicting the Turtles most are familiar with. The start of this movement began last month when the April O'Neill role was filled by Megan Fox, and now they've cast the first actual Turtle.

Alan Ritchson is taking on the role of Raphael, the red bandana-wearing, sai-wielding turtle who usually has a bad attitude. Ritchson is about to blow up in a major way, and will put his fighting skills to the test as Gloss in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Smallville fans will also recognize him as Arthur Curry, aka the superhero Aquaman.

Unlike the earlier TMNT films, this one won't have actors in suits, but will instead use a form of performance capture similar to Avatar. With production set to begin next month, expect the other turtles to be cast fairly soon, and maybe we'll get some sort of clarification on Kid Cudi's involvement. Ninja Turtles hits theaters on May 20th 2014. [Deadline]

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Alan Ritchson cast as Gloss in 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'

What was the most irritating part about The Hunger Games? Having to write about the 20+ nobodies who were cast as Tributes in the film. All of whom we knew would die in a manner of moments, never to be seen or heard from again. With Lionsgate casting up the sequel, Catching Fire, the same exact crap is happening again, as another guy nobody could pick out of a police line-up has come aboard.

Alan Ritchson, who played Aquaman on a couple episodes of Smallville, and served as the body image for Robert Zemeckis' CGI Beowulf flick, has joined Catching Fire as Gloss. One of the Career pack from District 1, Gloss is a young victor who won recently enough that Katniss(Jennifer Lawrence) remembers watching his win on television. He'll be paired up with District 1's female Tribute, Cashmere, who will probably be cast tomorrow considering the way Lionsgate is dropping these names out here now.

Francis Lawrence takes over the directing gig for Catching Fire, which opens in theaters on November 22nd 2013.

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