Apparently the hatchet has been buried (and not in the back of Megan Fox) as Michael Bay has announced that he has signed on his one-time antagonist in the lead role of his new film ‘Ninja Turtles’, the live action-CG reboot of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’.

The news has caught many by surprise as fans may recall during pre-production of ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ in 2010, Fox had compared Bay to Adolf Hitler saying he was a “nightmare to work for” among other things. Before long, the public jabs went too far and eventually Fox was fired from the film only to be replaced by Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whitely.

But feuds don’t last too long in Hollywood as Bay posted this interesting piece of casting news on his blog:

What could have changed between them? Seems that the two reconciled over a series of meetings but it was her one-on-one with director Jonathan Liebesman (‘Battle Los Angeles’, ‘Wrath of the Titans’) who impressed her with the storyboards for the film that had her decide to sign on. (And perhaps the fact that Bay is only producing ‘Ninja Turtles’ and not directing it?)

According to reports, Fox will be playing April O’Neil , the red-headed reporter and human friend of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fox beat out Jane Levy (‘Evil Dead’, ‘Suburgatory’), Anna Kendrick (‘Twilight’ franchise, ‘Pitch Perfect’) and Elizabeth Olsen (‘Godzilla’, ‘Silent House’) for the role.

As for who will play the actual Turtles, casting is still going on in that front with the filmmakers looking at relative unknowns to play Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, who will be motion captured for the film. But expect to hear news soon as production is slated to begin in April.

If you’ve been following the project, many TMNT fans are in an uproar with the “liberties” Bay seems to be taking with the franchise. Not only has he announced that the Turtles will no longer be teenagers, they will also no longer be mutants but aliens! Combine that with the poorly written script that was leaked that Bay ultimately admitted was an actual early draft of the screenplay, the release date being pushed back to May 2014, the announcement that Paramount had shut production down in June citing script delays and budgeting restructuring (the studios wanted the budget down to $125 million), hopes for a decent reboot was falling fast.

Now it looks like the project is back on track and gaining speed in order to start filming.

Frankly, I don’t know which is more surprising: the fact that Michael Bay’s ‘Ninja Turtles’ is still on track to getting made or that Bay has hired Megan Fox. Then again, maybe he secretly knows how this movie will fare in the box office and this is his ultimate revenge by having her star in ‘Ninja Turtles’ thus forever ruining her movie career. Your call….

 

Source: THR