With a June 2014 release date set, Platinum Dunes and Paramount Pictures really need to start moving on their new, live-action version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’ve already cast Megan Fox, presumably as April O’Neil, and now they’ve found the first of the turtles, with Alan Ritchson set to play the sai-wielding Raphael, according to Deadline.
Unlike the 1990 original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the actors portraying the title characters will use state-of-the-art performance capture technology similar to Avatar, instead of wearing bulky turtle suits.
Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans, Battle: Los Angeles) is directing from a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Matt Holloway, and Art Marcum. There’s no info been released on the plot.
Alan Ritchson plays the District 1 tribute Gloss in this fall’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. He also played Aquaman on The CW’s Smallville and Thad Castle on Blue Mountain State, and was the facial model for Ray Winstone’s lead character in the motion-capture Beowulf (so he has some experience with mo-cap technology).
It does seem a shame that Ritchson’s body is going to be covered in loads of CGI, as shown by the image below.
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