A lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans have mixed feelings about the upcoming reboot from producer Michael Bay (Transformers) and director Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans). It's always exciting to get a big-budget movie based on a franchise you love, but with that comes the fear of potentially seeing it done all wrong.
One of the casting announcements that has had a generally positive response, however, is Arrested Development star Will Arnett being given the role of Vernon Fenwick, the ambitious but cowardly Channel 6 cameraman who often works with the Turtles' friend April O'Neil (Megan Fox). We've already seen a few set photos of Arnett in the role, but now it's time to get a little bit closer to the heart of Vernon Fenwick.
According to an Zap2It's recent interview with Arnett, Vernon is going to get a personality makeover in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and will be an ally to both the Turtles and April. In the comic books and TV show, Vernon was a bit of a wimp who would occasionally try to steal April's stories and take credit for them, but Arnett insists that his version of the character is a lot nicer:
"In this version, Vernon is April's cameraman, so they work together as opposed to being her adversary. He's a little reluctant when she starts talking about [how] she found these vigilantes and they're turtles and all this stuff and he kinds of looks at her like she's crazy. Once the action gets going and she kind of gets in trouble, Vernon steps up and helps her and then he becomes part of it as well. He helps April help the Turtles... There's some really great action sequences that I'm super psyched for people to see. They were really fun to shoot; very physically demanding... I'm not going to say I'm an action star, but it was fun being in it."
Vernon Fenwick leaping into action instead of leaping into people's arms? That must be quite a sight, and could even be an interesting new take on the character. Who knows, perhaps Liebesman will even go for a romance subplot with April and Vernon - nothing brings people together like fighting crime.
Arnett will be helping the Turtles to take on classic TMNT villain Shredder, who will be played by William Fichtner (Prison Break) and who is also undergoing some significant character changes for Liebesman's movie. Screen Rant has learned that Shredder's name in the new movie will be Eric Sachs, and that he will go through "a few stages in his existence," whatever that might mean. Composer Brian Tyler has said that the adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the big screen is similar to what Bay did with the Transformers franchise.
Arnett also mentioned in the interview that he has finished filming his scenes for TMNT, and a recent tweet from Bay's official Twitter feed confirmed that the movie will wrap some time in August. Hopefully that means that it won't be too much longer before we start seeing some promotional images and footage to begin the hype for TMNT's release next summer.
Do you like the idea of Vernon taking a more active role in the plot of TMNT? Tell us how similar - or different - from the comics and TV show you want this reboot to be in the comments.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arrives in theaters on June 6, 2014.