New Ninja Turtles Movie Makes Jackass Move: Johnny Knoxville Is Now Leonardo
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| J.K. pic by Gage Skidmore |
I have tried to keep an open mind on this thing, but I swear to god this sounds like a bad April Fool’s prank. I hope it still is and that Deadline is just running it belatedly.
Johnny Knoxville is going to voice Leonardo, and Tony Shalhoub is going to voice Splinter. Now, I’m fond of both in the right context – Shalhoub’s a talented actor, and Knoxville’s great at getting hit in the nuts. But the former does not sound remotely Japanese – he’s Lebanese-American – and Knoxville should, at best, be Michaelangelo the party dude. Also the fact that this feels like a last-minute saving throw after reactions to the trailer were about what everybody except Paramount expected, and, well…I fully expect them to try to recruit Dwayne Johnson as Raphael next, or something.
Sigh. Hardly worth getting any more worked up about this film. Maybe it’ll at least be funny-bad.
About The Author
Luke Y. Thompson has been writing professionally about movies and pop-culture since 1999, and has also been an actor in some extremely cheap culty and horror movies you will probably never hear much about (he is nonetheless mostly proud of them, as he met his wife on one). As editor of The Robot's Voice since 2012, he can take the blame for the majority of the site's content, all of which he creates because he loves you very, very much. (Although he loves nachos more. Sorry.) Prior to TRV, Luke wrote for publications that include the New Times LA, Los Angeles CityBeat, E! Online, OC Weekly, Geekweek, GeekChicDaily, The L.A. Times, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Nerdist