Another important character has been cast for Ninja Turtles, the new take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being made by producer Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes.

First came April O’Neil, the reporter who befriends the turtles, who will be played by Megan Fox. Next came the casting of Raphael and then Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo.

Now comes word that actor Danny Woodburn has been cast in the movie, where he will play the group’s mentor and father figure, Master Splinter.

You may not recognize Mr. Woodburn by name, but it’s very, very likely that you know who he is. The actor is small in stature, but has had memorable performances in Mirror Mirror, Watchmen, Death To Smoochy, and as Kramer’s friend Mickey on Seinfeld, just to name a few.

Splinter, just like the turtle characters, will not be a live-action character. Instead, they’ll be created using performance capture technologies, similarly to the Na’vi in James Cameron’s Avatar and Andy Serkis’s work as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, King Kong, and Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its upcoming sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

That leaves only one more big character to cast: the villain Shredder. Unless of course they also have people like Casey Jones joining the party. That remains to be seen.

[Source: Deadline]