As if drawn by the siren lure of a good pizza, those Ninja Turtles have begun to gather. On Sunday, we learned that Alan Ritchson would play Raphael in the new, Michael Bay-produced film. Today comes word that the other turtles – Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello – will be embodied by Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher and Jeremy Howard.
Admittedly, it’s less about the pizza and more about director Jonathan Liebesman working with his casting director to find the actors, but we hope they at least made sure they like pizza before putting ink to contract.
Ploszek, who is largely a newcomer save for guest roles on Parks And Recreation and the US version of Shameless, is Leo, the levelheaded leader of the group who uses twin katana swords.
Howard has been in films such as Lady In The Water, Catch Me If You Can and Galaxy Quest, and will be Donatello, the brains of the operation who loves tinkering with tech and is a master of the Bo staff.
Finally then there’s Fisher, a veteran of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and, more crucially, Liebesman’s own Battle: Los Angele****s. He’s Michelangelo, the turtles' party animal that loves his skateboard and his pizza and carries nun chucks.
The plan for the new film – co-produced by Bay’s Platinum Dunes and Paramount – is to have the actors play the turtles through Avatar-style performance-capture suits. So we’d expect co-star Megan Fox to be acting alongside a lot of guys in stretchy suits with cameras strapped to their heads. Liebesman kicks off shooting next month for a May 2014 release.