Ninja Turtles casts its Splinter

Danny Woodburn will play the martial arts expert rat Splinter in the forthcoming remake of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'.

The veteran stand-up, who has dwarfism, has starred in the likes of 'Seinfeld', 'Watchmen' and 'Mirror Mirror'.

[Related story: Ninja Turtles creator slates Megan Fox casting choice]

It's likely to be a full motion-capture role, in the same way that the Turtles will be recreated for the big screen.

Splinter takes in the young turtles and teaches them both martial arts and strategy.

Fellow Turtles star Alan Richson, who is playing Raphael, has said that fans should not be trying to second guess how the Michael Bay-produced film will come together.

“There's just a lot of technology involved. So there are kinks to work out,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.

“We're running around Manhattan, me and Megan Fox, her looking wonderful and me looking like some kind of ant with cameras all over my face.

“The frustrating thing for me since I've signed on is that you hear that it's already got a reputation. I think people assume they know what it's going to be about, and those people are wrong. The assumptions, everything you read online is wrong.

“You want to tell everybody how great it is, and you can't really say why, but it is.”

Fox is playing reporter April O'Neil in the film, which is being directed by Jonathan Liebesman, while Will Arnett also recently joined the cast.

The remaining turtles are played by Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard and Noel Fisher.

It's due for a June 2014 release.