These behind the scenes pics from the set of the currently-in-production Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show April O’Neil (Megan Fox) speaking to Raphael (some guy, who cares?). We know it’s Raph because April is holding a pair of sais.
Apparently, the turtles aren’t afraid of being seen by the general public in this incarnation of the franchise; unless they’re planning on adding a cartoon-style trench-coat to the computer generated turtle suit. Continue reading
Michael Bay cast Megan Fox as April O’Neil in the reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that he’s currently producing.
This was, to say the least, an unexpected casting choice; for oh so many reasons. But was it a good one? Well, we won’t know for some time; but until then, we have some pics from the set showing Fox in action as April.
Two things to note:
1. April O’Neil is a reporter, as she was in the ’80s cartoon and first movie trilogy. In the original comics, she was a science lab assistant (working under Baxter Stockman). Continue reading
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Ultimate Collection, Volume Four
IDW
The third volume of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimate Collection series ended with issues 19-21, the epic ‘Return to New York’ storyline that saw the Turtles finally have their long-awaited rematch with the Shredder. Volume four skips ahead to issue 48, the start of a two-parter called ‘Shades of Gray,’ which leads into the 13 part ‘City at War.’
After announcing Megan Fox as April O’Neil, and Alan Ritchson (who guest starred in a few episodes of Smallville) as Raphael in his upcoming reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; producer Michael Bay has now revealed which actors will be playing the three remaining turtles; not that you’ll recognize any of them.
Pete Ploszek, who guest starred in an episode of Parks and Recreation will play the turtles’ leader Leonardo (blue bandana). Jeremy Howard, who played Dickie in Soccer Dog: European Cup, will play Donatello, the smart turtle (well, you wouldn’t want the smart one to be the leader, would you?) in the purple bandana. Finally, Noah Fisher, who has a very common name that makes it impossible to Google him effectively, will play Michelangelo, the ‘party dude’ in the orange bandana.
Of course, the turtles will either be in costume or full CG, so face recognition isn’t a factor. But with a faceless character, acting ability becomes exponentially more important. Let’s hope this cast of unknowns is up to the task.
After the let’s say ‘interesting’ decision to cast Megan Fox as April O’Neil, Michael Bay has just secured the second cast member for his reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Alan Ritchson, who is best known for playing Aquaman in Smallville, will take on the red bandana in the role of Raphael, the most rebellious of the four turtles (metaphorically. I’m sure all the turtles will be CG).
Ritchson also has a role in the next Hunger Games film, Catching Fire, so he seems to be doing pretty well for himself.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle co-creator Peter Laird recently commented on the news that producer Michael Bay had cast Megan Fox as April O’Neil in his upcoming reboot movie. He wasn’t very nice.
Said Laird: “My only exposure to Megan Fox as an actress is through her role in two “Transformers” movies and the wretched (but happily forgettable) “Jennifer’s Body”. It may not be fair to judge her range of acting skills just from those three movies, but I think it is safe to say that there are probably hundreds of better choices for the role of April O’Neil. Of course, her name has promotional value, and maybe that’s what they want. Who knows? I can’t get myself too worked up about it.” Continue reading
Producer Michael Bay has announced on his website that Megan Fox has joined the cast of his upcoming live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.
Fox and Bay had a public falling out a few years ago, when the actress accused the director of Hitler-like behavior on the set of Transformers and its sequel, which led to her being dropped from the film’s third installment.
There’s no word on who she’ll be playing; but the only female character of note in the TMNT universe is April O’Neil, a lab assistant in the original comics and a reporter in the ’80s cartoon.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Vol. 3 Shadows of the Past
IDW
The Shredder is the most iconic of all Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle villains, probably the only one that casual readers or people that just saw the movies would even know about. It’s interesting, considering the fact that creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird killed him off in the first issue of the original comic book series. Continue reading
Comic publisher IDW has been reprinting the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as beautiful, over-sized hardcover editions in their original black and white. At the same time, they’ve been colorizing those stories and releasing them in traditional comic book form.
Now, the publisher is combining the two formats with a hardcover release of the color comics. The cover art is ugly as hell, and according to the ninja turtle fans, so is the inside coloring. But if you just have to have these in color, you can pick up the new book on May 17, 2013 for about $40.
This picture was recently posted to an online forum (I won’t say which, in case someone would get fired for posting it).
It shows a store’s (I think Toys R Us) inventory system, listing a number of upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, the price the store will pay for them, and the price at which they will sell them to the end consumer. As you can see, the markup is around 55%.
A number of years ago, I briefly worked at a Futureshop (which is very similar to Best Buy) in the DVD/Games section, and the markup for most movies was less than one dollar. While I was there, the complete series box set for Seinfeld was released and we actually sold it for below cost. That’s what you call a ‘loss leader,’ something you sell at a loss to get people into the store. Video game consoles were sold at cost; so we were told to really push the accessories and extended warranties and had quotas for how many add-on sales we had to make (so, if you’ve ever wondered why some sales people are so pushy, that’s why).