NICEVILLE — Since graduating from Niceville High School in 2001, Alan Ritchson has done things few people even dream about: He serenaded Paula Abdul on “American Idol,” guest-starred as Aquaman in the young Superman series “Smallville” and was a regular on Spike TV’s “Blue Mountain State.”
Despite all that, 2013 is shaping up to be the breakthrough year for the 28-year-old actor. Ritchson’s big year starts, at least in the public eye, Monday night when he guest stars on CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0.”
“He enjoyed being in Hawaii and filming that,” said his mother Vickie Ritchson. “I know it was good experience for him. They were very positive about his part and have even talked about the potential of coming back in that role again. You know, those are nice things to hear.”
Ritchson will portray Navy SEAL Freddie Hart in flashback scenes of when Hart was in the same unit as the show’s main character, Steve McGarrett, played by Alex O’Loughlin. The episode deals with an old mission from McGarrett’s past in North Korea and his attempt to get back to the country in the present day.
While an appearance on network television is pretty substantial, it’s Ritchson’s next role that is potentially a star-maker.
Ritchson will appear as Gloss, one of the District 1 tributes, in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” which will premier Nov. 22. The film is the sequel to last year’s “The Hunger Games,” which grossed $408 million.
Last year, Vickie Ritchson and her husband David were reading The Hunger Games trilogy of books. When they got to the second book, they agreed that Alan would be perfect for the role of Finnick Odair, a tribute from another district who forms an alliance with series heroine Katniss Everdeen.
A week later, Alan called to tell his parents he would be auditioning for the role of Finnick. The studio and director Francis Lawrence liked Ritchson, but didn’t think he was right for Finnick, and instead cast him as Gloss, one of the more villainous characters.
“I just loved the first movie,” Vickie said. “I don’t like the precept of what children are in that show — the whole thing is a little disturbing — but it’s so well done and captivating.
“It was awesome” she said of her hearing son getting the part.
Ritchson now is in New York filming “Ninja Turtles,” the new reboot of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise. Ritchson will portray Rafael, one of the four ninja turtles, in the movie that co-stars Meagan Fox.
Unlike the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movies from the 1990s in which the turtles were portrayed by actors in costumes, the new movie will feature motion-capture work of Ritchson and the other actors’ portrayals replaced by computer-generated characters. The process is similar to the creation of the Na’vi characters in James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Caesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”
“Ninja Turtles” will be Ritchson’s experience with motion-capture in a movie. In 2007, he performed the movements of the title character in the computer animated film “Beowulf.”
“He’s the Beowulf character, and I could see his movements. His mannerisms, his walking, his way of standing I thought was captured perfectly in the Beowulf character,” Vickie Ritchson said. “I’m certain (I’ll be able to recognize him in ‘Ninja Turtles’).”
Filming on “Ninja Turtles” started about two weeks ago and is expected to last another 5½ months. The film is scheduled to be released June 6, 2014.
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.