NINJA TURTLES (Cast News)

• NINJA TURTLES

Ninja Turtle gets cast

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been cast in Jonathan Liebesman‘s Ninja Turtles. 

Alan Ritchson

According to Deadline, Alan Ritchson (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) will be playing Raphael via motion capture.

Raphael is usually the wise-cracking rebel of the group, which tends to bring him into direct conflict with the group’s by-the-book leader, Leonardo.  Last month, Megan Fox was cast as reporter April O’Neil.

Deadline has now revealed the names of the other actors set to join the crime-fighting quartet. Jeremy Howard (Galaxy Quest will star as Donatello, Pete Ploszek ("Parks and Recreation") will play Leonardo and Noel Fisher ("Shameless", The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2) will play Michelangelo.

Despite dropping “Teenage” and “Mutant” from the title, Liebesman and producer Michael Bay have said that this reboot will build off the original comic books by Kevin Eastman.  Fans raised on the animated series were a bit miffed when Bay announced that the characters would be created by aliens rather than radioactive “ooze”. 

Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard and Pete Ploszek

However, Eastman says the movie will have “Raid: Redemption-style fight scenes” and “epic Rise of the Planet of the Apes sort of effects,” though it must be noted that he never actually said that the Story would be any good!

The casting doesnt seem to be great at all but who knows this just might turn out great.

Ninja Turtles is due out June 6, 2014

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS

• PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS

The first images from the sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters has landed online.  The follow-up finds the titular Percy (Logan Lerman) and his friends venturing to a mythical land known as the Sea of Monsters to retrieve a golden fleece that is essential to the survival of his home.  Thor Freudenthal (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) takes over directing duties from Chris Columbus this time around, and these images showcase Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T. Jackson, and newcomer Stanley Tucci getting into more trouble in fantastical locations.

The film also stars Nathan Fillion, Douglas Smith, Leven Rambin, Missi Pyle, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Mary Birdsong.  Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters opens in 3D on August 16th.

LADIES NIGHT (Cast News)

• LADIES NIGHT

Charlize Theron

Actor turned director Fred Savage is in talks to helm a high profile feature film with an Oscar winner, Charlize Theron, in the leading role.

The film is described as “Bridesmaids-esque” and centers on a woman who, “when confronted with her longtime boyfriend’s inability to commit, decides to have one last night on the town with her girlfriends before uprooting her life and moving to New York

THR reports that Happy Endings alum David Caspe wrote the screenplay and David Ellison’s Skydance Productions is onboard to finance the comedy, which is expected to start production in early 2014.

 Theron has been mixing it up of late starring in films like the sci-fi prequel Prometheus, the fantasy epic Snow White and the Huntsman, and she just wrapped a starring role in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. The actress is next set to film Seth MacFarlane’s Ted follow-up A Million Ways to Die in the West.

THE WOLVERINE (Images and Mangold Comments)

• THE WOLVERINE

EW just released some exclusive images from the Wolverine, which would be releasing on July 26 later this year.

The Wolverine certainly looks to be quite the interesting and intriguing prospect as director James Mangold has been saying all the right things thus far concerning the film. Looking at the posters as well as images that we have seen so far it certainly looks like the film will deliver and various levels.

Check out the pics below as well as Mangold’s comments on each of the images. You can expect to catch your first glimpse of the Wolverine, when the trailer premiers online on the 27^th of March. So make sure you check back for updates on that.

Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, in Japan. He's now serving as a protector for Mariko (Tao Okamoto), the target of the Yakuza. ''At the time this movie opens, there's a kind of gangland war going on between law enforcement and the Yakuza, and there's been a lot of kidnappings and extortion,'' explains director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma). ''So she's someone who's under threat.''

Viper (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's Svetlana Khodchenkova), a villainess straight from the comic books, is brought in to help another one of the film's baddies. Teases Mangold, ''As her name would imply, she's kind of snakelike. She likes to play with toxins. She's immune to toxins. She's kind of formidable.''

Says Mangold, ''Viper views Logan like a great hunter might view hunting a lion in his quarry. There's kind of an admiration, a desire to destroy and a desire to consume and to have and to hold.''

While in Japan, Wolverine is befriended by Yukio (newcomer Rila Fukushima). Says Mangold, ''I would say they have a unique relationship. She's lethal herself.''

Death, or Wolverine's inability to die, is a theme that echoes throughout the film. ''He realizes everyone he loves dies, and his whole life is full of pain,'' says Jackman. ''So it's better that he just escapes. He can't die really. He just wants to get away from everything.''

A funeral at a Japanese temple is interrupted by an attack by the Yakuza which naturally brings out Wolverine's claws. ''There's an urgency and a kind of intensity and hand to hand physicality to the fighting that I hope is a little different than everything else out there,'' says Mangold.

Mangold stresses that Yukio can more than hold her own in this world of ninjas and mutants. ''She's a tremendous fighter.''

Besides her butt-kicking skills, Yukio also has style. Says Mangold, ''I think she's both sexy and almost kind of sprung from the anime world. It's a real badass character.''