Magazine Confirms Seven Constructicons

TFW2005's Dinobot Nuva has posted a scan from an article in the current issue of Nick Magazine that has comments from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen lead animator Shawn Kelly were he talks about eyes and the complexity of Devastator and merging seven vehicles. This is, to my knowledge, the first time someone directly associated with the movie has confirmed that seven vehicles combine to form Devastator. Previous mentions were second hand information in articles, a toy, and novelizations.


Devastator

Says Shawn, "Devastator is easily the most complicated character we've ever done because of his size, which is absolutely gigantic. Just trying to figure out how he might form into this giant thing and then walk around was a huge challenge." Animating Devastator required so much computing power that one artist's computer overheated and its insides melted!

"We tried to make a scary transformation for [Devastator] where things are slamming together and getting pulled around. All seven vehicles are shoving themselves together and clicking into place as he grows into this giant, scary dude."

Emotion via the Eyes:

An important part of making the robots look real is their eyes. According to Shawn, "We had to pay a lot of attention to the robots' eyes because a lot of them don't have much more to their face. As long as we can bring the eyes to life, it works pretty well." To do this, animators spent time studying real eyes to see how they move and blink. They also filmed each other and studied the eyes of different actors as they recorded their lines.

LA Building Transformers 2 Advertisement (Update)

In an idea similar to the Luxor in Las Vegas, a building in Los Angeles has been plastered with the visage of Optimus Prime. Thanks to Darin and his friend for the picture.

Update: Darin provided the location and link to the site from his friend Jeremy. The building is in the Hollywood area around Wilshire and La Brea intersection. Click here for a street view link of the location (use your mouse to tilt up) to see the location pre-Prime poster.

The Twins Headshots

Two more CGI images, this time from ACToys, to go with Scrapper. These are just the heads of Skids and Mudflap, complete with gold tooth. Yay, the Twins as Hollywood's vision of a southern redneck. That voice work will have to spot on because their design isn't doing them any favors. Thanks to Scorpio and ghola_tleilaxu for the links.

RoTF Soundtrack Special Edition?

Amazon has a new listing a special edition of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen soundtrack. The CD will be released on June 23rd and costs $22 rather then the $15 of the the standard edition. Exact details on what makes this "special" are currently unknown but usually these things include a few additional tracks or an extra CD or DVD with videos and the like on it. More details will probably be released as get close to the release date.

CGI Scrapper Artwork (Updated)

TFG2.com has posted an image, found by TFW2005's S250, of what Constructicon Scrapper may look like in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The result is rather interesting and based on the detail level, I am guessing it is based on the upcoming video games. Thanks to ghola_tleilaxu and Phil for the heads-up.

Update: For those wondering, yes it is Scrapper that is chasing after Sam and Mikaela in the trailer, the moment when you see a yellow Transformer looking around the side of the building just before its roof blows. Below is a screenshot from TFG2 of that scene to compare with. Thanks to Yoboy, Andrew and Phil for the info.

New Transformers 2 IMAX Poster

Below is the poster for the IMAX screening of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. While similar in design, this poster is not identical to previous posters as Bumblebee is in a new pose and the detail is greater. Thanks to ghola_tleilaxu for the link.

RoTF Pre-Orders Available June 10th

Not sure how I missed it since the news is a couple of months old but I just learned today, thanks to Ellis' efforts, that pre-order tickets for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen starts June 10th. I expect that IMAX showings for TF2 will be popular so pre-order will probably be necessary for seeing the movie in the first couple of days. This date is subject to change and may not be nationwide but Star Trek ticket pre-orders started about two weeks before release so don't see why this would be any different.

Filmed on location at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, and including several scenes shot with IMAX cameras, "Transformers Revenge of the Fallen" promises to be the most action-packed IMAX experience of the summer.

"Transformers Revenge of the Fallen" is scheduled to open Wednesday, June 24 at the Airbus IMAX Theater in Chantilly, VA. Tickets will go on sale Wednesday, June 10.

Edmunds Ducati Article Confirms Arcee Combiner?

Edmunds has a brief article that discusses the use of Ducati motorcycles in Terminator Salvation and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Specifically, they are a new source, outside of the novelizations, to confirm that the Arcee bikes do have a combiner mode.

The Hypermotard ("super biker") will fight for good in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen when that film opens on June 24. The Ducati will join with two other motorcycles to create Arcee, a female Autobot to stop the Decepticons as they return to Earth.

RetroSBK actually created the three Arcee bikes (well probably more since have stunt, hero, and backup bikes for each character) but looking at their website Ducati motorcycles seemed to be used as their base for their customizations. Thanks to Jon for the link.

Alternate Trailer With Terminator Salvation, Museum 2 (Updated)

Based on a report from Trent, it looks like Michael Bay decided to go ahead with releasing alternate cuts of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer with Terminator Salvation (which is getting savaged by reviews so no threat to goal of TF2 claiming box office champ).

For some reason I have not seen this trailer talked about anywhere. I even posted it in the IMDB forums and everyone that has replied said it didn't show at their theatre. The trailer contains: a longer cut of BB in the garage (shorter than showest though), sideswipe doing his thing, a new shot of Arcee, both of the twins talking (something about not being able to read), extended shot in the school library, and more that I can't remember. Just a heads up for you to be looking around for it!

- Trent

Now keep in mind that theatres don't have to bother using any trailers they get so just because an alternate cut exists doesn't mean it will being showing with Terminator 4. Hopefully any alternate cuts that get produced will show up online so Transfans worldwide can enjoy them.

Update: NightShade87 also verifies an alternate cut in the comments, only he saw it with Night at the Museum 2.

At my local theater, I had the opportunity to prescreeen a copy of Night at the Museum 2 and the new cut trailer was on there. Some of the footage was old, but more than half was new. Here's what I remember seeing that was of note:

-Bumblebee crying (Showest footage)
-Twins actually speaking (Sam shows them a tattoo on his arm and they say they can't read. If you listen VERY closely, one of them sounds like Spongebob. XD )
-Galloway and Epps having a conversation that goes like this
"It looks like a normal truck"
*Optimus transforms* (this is a better, fuller version than the T.V. spot)
Epps: "Freaky, right?"
-Better images of Arcee, but I didn't see her fully combined.

Don't remember if there was anything else noteworthy, but I'll make a second look just in case. Please remember that trailers are only selective to certain theaters and it may or may not be on the Night At the Musuem 2 that you watch.

Speaking of Terminator, here is a mix-up of T4 and TF2 trailers called "Transforminator" that Yoboy found for your entertainment.

New Movie Stills from Paramount

Paramount Pictures has released some more images from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that hint at some of the action and the human characters. About half of them have been previousily released and below are a few new ones (at least to me). The full gallery can be found here.

LA Times Profile On Bay

As part of a sneak peek of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the LA Times also wrote a profile on director Michael Bay where he discusses his career and working on TF2. Below are a few highlights and the full article can be found here.

"This one," he said, "is barely going to make it to theaters. You have no idea how complicated my life is."

With this new film, he describes the "huge canvas" of its visual effects in terms of computer memory -- at Industrial Light & Magic, the San Francisco effects house, the first "Transformers" movie took up an astounding 15 terabytes; the new one required 140 terabytes. "That breaks every record," said Bay, who is far more Barnum than Bergman.

"The way I do it, we work hard, we work fast," Bay said. "We shoot 12-hour days. . . . One thing I can't stand about Hollywood is waste. I've gotten to be a very, very efficient shooter. On average, these type of sequels run in the $230-million to $240-million range and we're shooting this for a flat $200 million. A lot of these directors have second unit the entire time, that's millions of dollars just wasted. We do it all ourselves."

Bay likes to conserve his budget so he can film in exotic places that other directors find too difficult to access and, along with emphasis on pyro work and stunts, gives his productions the vibe of daredevil tourism. On this new film, he "weaseled" his way into the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt ("We were the first movie in 30 years to shoot physically on the pyramids") where he shot with a 150-member crew for three days and, a few days later, he took his team to the top of the rock-carved architecture of Petra in Jordan, where military helicopters ferried 36 loads of gear to the perilous perch.

The choppers, by the way, were thanks to a Jordanian prince who loved Bay's first robot movie, while in Egypt it was Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, who turned out to be "a big fan of 'Transformers,' " Bay said, sounding surprised himself.

"We're still not quite sure how he does it when he's directing," says screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, who worked on both "Transformers" films. "People who work closest with him call his method 'Bay-os' because it feels like wartime chaos. There are explosions going off in every direction and half as many cameras flying all over the place, and you stand there thinking none of it's going to make any sense, then you watch the scenes cut together and realize something shocking: He's choreographed a ballet. He knows exactly which pieces he's going to use from each camera and he'd already cut the scene together in his head."

"To make a movie like 'Transformers,' " he said, "you have to shut out everything that's out there . . . we work on it every single day for two years."

He sounded skeptical about directing a third "Transformers" and still surprised that he made the first two. Steven Spielberg came to him with the pitch 3 1/2 years ago, but Bay, no fan of superhero cinema, thought a franchise about alien robots sounded like "a very bad idea." He changed his mind when he considered a dark, realistic tone instead of a shiny, cosmic tale.

In recent weeks, Bay has been in a public spat with McG, whose "Terminator Salvation" has giant robots that Bay feels look too much like "Transformers." Bay has had a number of feuds (because, he explained, "I say what I think") but it turns out that sometimes the explosions are fake. With a wink, he admitted that he phoned McG to turn up the volume. "I told him, 'We're like boxers going at it this summer,' " Bay said. "We have to have some fun with it."

Personally I always liked a realistic tone to Transformers. It has always fit the franchise like a glove; just see last two seasons of Beast Wars and pretty much all of Machine Wars. It just takes creators with the right approach and open mindedness to get the full potential. Shoot the comic films and the like that work best (Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, etc) work best when writers and directors approach it as very real rather than tongue in cheek. If they are unable to take the material seriously then they are no appropriate for the job, thankfully something Steven Spielberg recognizes. As for the McG/Bay thing, it was essentially two guys comparing sizes ("my movies is bigger", "no mine is", etc) and contained no Transformers 2 information so I just chose to ignore it.

UK, Japan Release Date Changes

Glancing at the official global release date site (also on top left column), good news for the United Kingdom and Japan as they are getting Transformers 2 earlier than the rest of us. Now the release date for the UK is June 19th and for Japan it is June 20th.

This may be a result of the planned premiere parties in each country. The world premiere of the movie is on June 8th in Tokyo, Japan and the UK's premiere party is for June 15th in London. The United States premiere has not yet been announced.

Orci, Kurtzman Talk Ehren, Lack of Trilogy Plans

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, while taking about Star Trek, also discussed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with Newsarama. Below is a few segments with the full article here.

Did the success of the first one allow you to go even bigger with this installment?
Kurtzman: Certainly the movie is bigger, but that is definitely not how we thought about it. We feel like the action scenes in these movies are a given to some degree, but they always have to have a serious emotional context or they mean nothing. That means you have to have a small character story at the heart of whatever movie you’re making. For us, it was really coming up with an emotional story that we believed in and felt was sequel worthy.
Orci: And yes, it’s bigger. We have more resources for effects and some of the locations which are just gorgeous and amazing.

NRAMA: With all the destruction they caused, how does the government view the Autobots?
Kurtzman: The Autobots are in partnership with our government, but not everybody here at home trusts them. There’s the question of whether the Autobots are really welcome on this planet, or aren’t they? That’s part of the story that plays in the relationship with the military and soldiers they met in the first one. Because Mission City was under a communication black out, the world is not fully aware of The Transformers. It’s become like the Area 51 which is something that plays out in the movie. Can the secret be kept?

NRAMA: Ehren Kruger is also credited on this script. How much input did he have?
Kurtzman: He was our partner. We all wrote it together. Two weeks before the writers’ strike, we all agreed to do it and literally had a short time to come up with an outline.
Orci: We lived in a hotel room together for three months. Director Michael Bay would come every day to check on our progress. Ehren was on one side of the room. There was a dividing door and Bob and I were on the other side. At noon, we would meet in the middle and trade pages, go back and forth to our respective sides, read each other’s work, and give notes. We were a partnership of three on that one.

NRAMA: Do you see these Transformer films as complete stand alone stories or a trilogy?
Kurtzman: That was not our conscious intent. And Michael was very clear too. We just wanted to make one big gigantic Transformers movie at the time.

Voyager Long Haul in Packaging

TF08.net has posted a look at Voyager Long Haul in his packaging. He is a pretty sweet looking figure and quickly becoming a must have for me. Thanks to Yoboy for the link.

Voyager Long Haul Bio

Long Haul is too bitter to be an effective soldier on his own. Despite the fact that he is part of one of the most destructive and terrifying Decepticon squads of all time, he is often treated as little more then a cargo hauler. Other Decepticons sling their gear into his bed without a second thought, and order him to carry it around for them. Rather than confront them, he'd rather grumble about it privately, then stop on the way and destroy whatever he's been given responsibility for.

Bay Talks Shia, Fox; New Voice Cast Member

LA Times has posted an interview with Michael Bay has he discusses his ongoing work editing the movie and working with Shia LaBeouf. The writer, Geoff Boucher, was even able to view about 25 minutes of footage from the film. We also learn that Tom Kenny (the SpongeBob Squarepants voice) has been cast in the film. As who is not specificed but it sounds like Wheelie. Below are snippets from the article, which can be found here.

He showed me a comedy sequence with the Witwicky family getting young Sam (Shia LaBeouf) ready to go off to Princeton University. There was a lot of "empty nest" humor with Sam's mom, Judy (Julie White), and dad, Ron (Kevin Dunn), and then the house is all but leveled by an unwelcome metallic visitor. The scene has a lot of humor in it but Bay said the film, overall, is darker than its 2007 predecessor. "This one," Bay said, "is less quippy."

There was the first scene in the film for the nubile Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) and of course she was wearing very little and posed like a grease-monkey hottie on a garage pin-up poster. "Of course we had to get that out of the way," Bay said with mock resignation. There was plenty more of Fox in seductive mode and a romantic rival as well -- at Princeton, a curvy mystery girl [Alice, played by Isabel Lucas] pounces on Sam in his dorm-room but there's something a little alien about her. Maybe it's the nasty steel tail that suddenly emerges from under her skirt like a scorpion's stinger.

"People I've shown this to instantly feel like, 'Hey, I know that family, they’re fun to watch.' It’s like when you watch a favorite TV series, there are things about familiarity you like and it can be satisfying. There are other benefits from doing it a second time. Movies do take a life. Things spark and take a life, things you thought would be important drop away and a tone is set. With the sequels, you know the tone. That’s a huge thing."

There was also a section of the film in a Princeton classroom with a leering Lothario of a professor (Rainn Wilson) who has a run-in with new student Witwicky, who is suddenly a sputtering genius thanks to his encounter with a powerful shard of alien technology. Bay based the sleazy Wilson character on a randy film instructor he remembered back at his alma mater, Wesleyan University, who wore leather pants and had a whispered reputation for seducing coeds.

He showed me a sequence with a cranky new Autobot [Jetfire] with a lot of stylized personality (think of a windy old geezer with the metallic equivalent of a braided beard) and he mentioned that the smaller robots will be a key part of this film. Tom Kenny (the star voice of "SpongeBob SquarePants") and ubiquitous voice veteran Frank Welker are on board and I think little kids in particular are going to seize on this movie. "Jeffrey Katzenberg gave me advice once. He said it's great to have little characters with these big huge voices," Bay noted of some of the manic little bots.

"Shia came in and auditioned and he was this little skinny kid. ‘Dude you’re like this action king!’ he was so giddy and he wanted to be in action movie so bad. I told him, ‘All right, all right, just calm down.’ I instantly loved his acting because he is disarming, he is great at improv. He’s got this everyday kind of guy that thing. He’s much more charismatic in this movie, too. He’s coming into his own. He’s a smart actor. You sometimes have to push him when he doesn’t believe it. He’ll go through a dark period. With actors you’ve got to be a psychologist. You have to see the darkness coming, especially with funny actors. I can see it coming on and I have to say, ‘Shia…’ and pull him aside. I explain it to him and he’ll come out of it. And then he’ll say, ‘You’re right, you’re right, I was in that mood…’ The reason is they're scared of things sometimes. It’s not easy being an actor and putting yourself out there.”

On Fox: "I brought Megan in when I was producing a different movie and she auditioned for a two-day part. We gave the role to someone else but I remembered her when it came to this movie. There were a lot of young women that auditioned for ‘Transformers,’ but she got it. She was very junior as an actress. There was a chemistry thing, though, between her and Shia. She’s vastly improved over the last one."

Thanks to Mcat and Austin for the link.

"Bumblebee" Camaro Available To Order

According to Jalopnik, GM has wisely decided to take advantage of the Transformers tie-in to create a limited 2010 Chevy Camaro Bumblebee Edition starting June 1st. The production run of the car will go from June 24th to December and will include Bumblebee specific touches of "rally yellow coloring, black stripes and Transformers badging inside. ...this special Transformers-badging will be on wheel centers, sill plates and embroidered console lid and the package will be available in LT or SS models." I cannot really afford a new car but does make you at least think about it. Hopefully dealerships (at least ones not closing) will get a floor model to drool at in person. Sadly costs and so forth are not revealed, I guess dealerships would have to answer those questions. Thanks to Believer and others for the link.

RoTF Comic Adaptation Preview #2

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Movie Adaptation #2 will be hitting newsstands on May 28th and IDW has provided a sneak peak here. Including bits is a look at the Nemesis (Decepticon flagship, counterpart to the Autobots Arc from G1 cartoons), a few corny lines from Megatron (that I hope isn't in the movie unless the line reading is just kickass), and bits of Sam looking foolish in class as Wheelie spies on Mikaela. Thanks to ghola-tleilaxu and DeceptiFreak for the heads-up.

Neil Kaplan Cast in Video Game

From TFW2005, Neil Kaplan's facebook page reveals he has been cast as the voice of Long Haul and Protectobot (essentially a Ratchet repaint) in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen video game.

I am THRILLED to announce my return to the "Transformers Universe". This summer you can find my work on "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". This brilliant video game is from the geniuses at Activision. I play both sides of the fence as Decepticon - Long Haul and Autobot - Protectobot. So... I can help you save or destroy the Earth. Just try to let me know ahead of time... nothing worse than tearing down what was meant to be saved.

Kaplan's credits are long, sticking mostly to video games with some cartoon work including being the voice of Optimus Prime for the Transformers: Robots in Disguise cartoons back in 2001. Keep in mind that doing a voice in the game doesn't necessarily mean he is doing a voice in the movie or that Long Haul even has any lines in the movie. Thanks to Scorpio for the link.

Luxor's Transformers Billboard Update

The huge billboard that was being placed on the Luxor in Las Vegas, Nevada is now nearing completion according to TFormers. Not really sure what they are putting on the other face though. It almost looks like Optimus is bursting from the building that is very cool looking. Below are two example photos but an additional 12 can be found here.

Meet Sideways, MTV Movie Awards and ... (Updated)

Feeling a touch lazy so just combining all these stories into once story since all of them are brief anyway.

First up, MichaelBay.com has posted a CGI image of Sideways. It’s cool looking but the detail makes me think it’s from the video games rather than the movie. Also, the site has three additional set photos that show Bay and Shia working/posing including a neat pic on an aircraft carrier deck. In addition, go to Megan-Fox.net for four more movie images.

Next, for the MTV Movie Awards airing live on May 31st at 9pm/8pm CST, it has been confirmed that the show an exclusive clip will be aired and introduced by Megan Fox and Michael Bay. Shia LaBeouf will also present an award. Hopefully that clip will pop up online shortly thereafter.

Last is a single image of the repaint of Deluxe Scorponok for the Transformers 2 toy line. It appears that all the gold of the original figure has been swapped out for black and gray.

Thanks to Moises, Phil, Darin, Mcat, and Dave for the links.

Update: The commecial mentioned above is now on YouTube for our embedding pleasures. Thanks to medabotsoundwave for the link. In addition, The Chief sent me the Sideways and Bumblebee renders the other day but I completely forgot to post them, so here they are now. Sorry about that.