Megan Fox is probably going to shoot down your tried-and-true pick-up lines on the best of days, even if you’re not wearing a geometrically-patterned turtle shell with oven mitts on your hands and deedlybops on your head.  So imagine how difficult it must be for Raphael (Alan Ritchson) to convince April O’Neil (Megan Fox) to give him back his signature sais.  This new batch of set images from Jonathan Liebesman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shows just that scene unfolding.  I’m assuming the red bandana around Ritchson’s arm is to distinguish him as Raph and that he’s not robbing O’Neil as some sort of gang initiation rewrite.

Hit the jump to view the new images.  The film also stars Danny Woodburn, Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard, and Noel Fisher.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens on June 6, 2014.

The first of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been cast in Jonathan Liebesman‘s Ninja Turtles.  According to Deadline, Alan Ritchson (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) will be picking up a pair of digital sai to do the motion capture performance for Raphael.  For those unfamiliar with TMNT, 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.

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”.  However, Eastman says the movie will have “Raid: Redemption-style fight scenes” and “epic Rise of the Planet of the Apes sort of effects,” so perhaps that will make some of the changes easier to accept.  Ninja Turtles is due out June 6, 2014.

Rejoice, The Hunger Games fans!  Production has officially started on the Francis Lawrence-directed follow-up, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  According to their press release, the film “will shoot primarily in existing locations in and near Atlanta, Georgia.  The film will subsequently be shot on location in the beaches and jungles of Hawaii before wrapping in late December, 2012.”  Perhaps more importantly, the director has recorded a video message for fans, announcing a worldwide sweepstakes that will win some lucky fans a chance to visit the set and participate in a cast and crew Q&A!

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, in addition to Sam Claflin, Jeffrey Wright, Tony Shalhoub, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Amanda Plummer, Lynn Cohen, Bruno Gunn, Alan Ritchson, E. Roger Mitchell, Meta Golding, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland and Woody Harrelson.  Hit the jump for the video from Francis Lawrence and details on the fan set visit contest. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens November 22, 2013.

A bit of casting news to sum up for you today.  Here are the particulars:

• Heather Graham played a memorable character in The Hangover but was absent in the follow-up. Todd Phillips’ The Hangover Part III will see her return, alongside Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Ken Jeong.
• Alan Ritchson (Smallville) is set to play a returning tribute in Francis Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, opposite Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.
• Dawn Olivieri (House of Lies) will join Catherine Hardwicke’s erotic thriller, Plush, along with Emily Browning and Cam Gigandet.
• Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad) has been cast in director Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic, Noah, which stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.

The popular CW series Smallville is currently in its 10^th and final season, pulling out all the stops to go out with a bang for its loyal fans. In this week’s episode, “Patriot,” there are life-and-death stakes once again, as Oliver (Justin Hartley), aka Green Arrow, decides to register for the Vigilante Registration Act, which turns out to be a trick to lure superheroes to an undisclosed location where they can be confined to a jail and subjected to brutal tests under the supervision of Col. Slade (Michael Hogan). As a result, Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, returns with his new wife Mera (Elena Satine) to team up with Clark Kent (Tom Welling) to free Oliver.

In this exclusive phone interview with Collider, actor Alan Ritchson talked about the journey his character has taken over the five years he has recurred on the series, working with Tom Welling as the director of this episode, and his hopes for the remainder of the final season. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Here’s a quartet of TV casting updates coming right at ya. First up, EW has word that Robert Englund, the man behind the original Freddy Krueger, has signed on as a guest star on the forthcoming season of Chuck. The episode titled Chuck vs the Aisle of Terror is set to appropriately air around Halloween with Englund playing Dr Stanley Wheelwright, an evil scientist who can make your waking life a nightmare. Shouldn’t too difficult of a role for Englund to step into, and the content certainly allows plenty of opportunities for homage and jokes. Englund joins a whole slew of guest stars in Chuck’s fourth season including Linda Hamilton, Timothy Dalton, Eric Roberts, Lou Ferrigno, Dolph Lundgren and more.

Hit the jump for more casting news on Fringe, Smallville and CSI.