‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ the Michael Bay-produced, Jonathan Liebesman-directed relaunch of the classic 80s franchise continues to kick up controversy.  As if all the prior rumors weren’t enough, two new castings are raising some eyebrows.  The film is currently reshooting some scenes, but the main cast has been known for quite some time now.  The controversial ‘Transformers’ actress Megan Fox steps into the yellow-jacketed role of reporter April O’Neil, opposite the Caucasian actor William Fitchner as Shredder with Noel Fisher, Alan Ritchson, Jeremy Howard and Pete Ploszek as Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo respectively.  Right?

Well, maybe not.  It turns out that these actors are simply serving as the motion-capture sources for the CGI Turtles that will be added in post-production.  Similarly, Danny Woodburn will serve as the source for Splinter, the Turtles’ rat sensei.  However, it turns out that these actors are not apparently providing the voices for these characters.

Photo credit: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

‘Jackass’ prankster Johnny Knoxville (last seen on the big screen in ‘Bad Grandpa’) has just been announced as the voice for Turtle leader Leonardo, while Tony Shalhoub the lead actor for the long-running series ‘Monk’ will voice Splinter.  (Coincidentally, the other Splinter, Danny Woodburn also appeared on ‘Monk’.)  This isn’t entirely surprising, but it’s the first anyone has heard of the initially announced cast not providing the voices, but then again, the motion-capture cast are largely unknown.  (Alan Ritchson is a familiar face– and body– to genre fans, as he played Aquaman/Arthur Curry on ‘Smallville’, Gloss in ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ and also provided the motion capture basis for ‘Beowulf’.)

Presumably, this indicates that further voice-casting announcements are on their way as more well-known names will likely be slotted into the speaking roles of Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello.

You can check out the trailer for ‘TMNT’ here.

The movie also stars Will Arnett as Vernon Fenwick and K. Todd Freeman as Baxter Stockman and opens on August 8th, 2014.

Are there any other actors that you’d like to hear voice the other three Turtles?  Comment below!

Source: Screen Rant