TMNT voices announced

When Total Film swung by the offices of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie last week, we were treated to a particular piece of information that we were sworn to secrecy over. Now the word is out and the celebrity voices in the film can be revealed.

While writer/director Kevin Munroe has stuck to his guns and not hired celebri-tonsils for Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo themselves, he did agree to let the studio suggest some well-known voices for the amphibian warriors’ friends and enemies.

So Sarah Michelle Gellar will be lending her voice to the key role of April O’Neill, the tough investigative reporter who also happens to be the teen heroes’ best friend, while Fantastic Four’s Chris Evans is filling the part of Casey Jones, street vigilante and boyfriend of April (“we had to figure out how to indicate they live together without going over the PG rating,” laughs Munroe).

On the villain side, sexy Asian star Zhang Ziyi has signed on as Karai, a female Japanese ninjitsu expert who leads the evil Foot clan, the Turtles’ usual enemies. But in place of their regular super-villain (Samurai-suited baddie Shredder), they’ll be facing off against Max Winters (Patrick Stewart), a man determined to live forever, even if it means unleashing monsters on New York. Finally, in a small cameo, Kevin Smith will be playing a chef.

The film sees the four Turtles trying to rebuild their family after a nasty argument splits them apart. And even as they attempt to work together again, the city is threatened by Winters’ demonic creatures…