Megan Fox joins the cast of Michael Bay's "Ninja Turtles"

Surprising news for TMNT fans in Fresno today as producer Michael Bay has announced on his official website that former Transformers co-star Megan Fox will be joining the cast of Bay's next high-profile project based on another classic 80s franchise, Ninja Turtles:

"TMNT: we are bringing Megan Fox back into the family!"

This news is a huge surprise for the already controversial production, especially given the apparant bad blood that manifested between Fox and Bay after she had reportedly spoken out against Bay back in 2010, even comparing him to Adolf Hitler. These remarks were what supposedly kept her from reprising her lead role in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but evidently, as reported by such sources as Silas Lesnick of SuperheroHype.Com, all past disputes have been forgiven as Fox is now the first confirmed bit of casting for the upcoming reboot of the TMNT film series.

It is not known at this time for what role Fox has ben cast, but the natural assumption that can be made by fans is for April O'Neil, longtime human ally of the Turtles who has appeared as a scientist in the original comics and 2003 cartoon series and as a television news reporter in the original 80s cartoons series and the previous film series.

If Fox has indeed been chosen to play April, then it is likely to be yet another extremely controversial decision in the production of this film. Ever since Bay has insinuated that his vision of the Ninja Turtles will no longer be mutants but instead from an alien race, feedback from devoted fans has been absolutely livid, not helped by the critical reception of the Transformers film series and his overall reputation as a filmmaker.

SuperheroHype.Com has also noted Bay's use of the "TMNT" acronym since he had indicated that the film would be released as simply Ninja Turtles. After the fans response to the alien aspect of the story it is indeed possible that the script and even the film's official title has since been changed.

Ninja Turtles is to produced by Bay and directed by Jonathan Liebesman, with a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum, Andrew Nemec, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and John Fusco, which is based on the characters created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman. Nickelodeon, whom have recently purchased the rights to the entirety of the TMNT franchise from Peter Laird in October 2009, have since launched a brand new animated series based on the characters that has thus far been a huge success and will be releasing the film Paramount Pictures, a division of their parent company Viacom. The film is currently scheduled for release on May 16, 2014.

UPDATE: As reported by such sources as SuperHeroHype.Com, Paramount Pictures has moved the release date of Ninja Turtles to June 6, 2014. This new date puts the film in a free weekend, coming out one week after Disney and Pixar's The Good Dinosaur and one week before Universal's Jurassic Park IV.