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.

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.

LA Transformers 2 Trailer Premiere Video

It is now past 12pm PST/ 3pm EST, so sadly the trailer delay seems to be correct. In the meantime enjoy Entertainment Tonight's report from the LA screening of the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer that included Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson and Michael Bay. Don't forget that E.T. plans on airing the trailer in tonight's show and it will debut online at Yahoo Movies! around 4:30pm PST, 7:30pm EST, or 12:30am GMT. Or just keep an eye on the blog because soon as I know its up, I let you know. Thanks to wickedweezl and migiuman for the link.

Nimoy to Bay: Just Ask

Last week, Michael Bay indicated he is open to casting Leonard Nimoy as a voice in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but "I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like ‘I can’t pay you that much? But would you do this voice?" and maybe use his mother as a go between.

Today, IESB asked Nimoy if he would be willing to do a voice in the movie. Sadly a video of the exchange could not be posted due to a press embargo on Star Trek stuff in the states until May 7th. This is usually done by the studios so that there is a huge amount of talk about the movie before the critical opening weekend and most sites are not going to breach it for fear of losing access. It is also a way to contain bad reviews but that isn't an issue in this case as Star Trek reviews have been glowing.

I am paraphrasing our conversation. Nimoy was in a great mood, laughing and having a good time and said he would be perfectly willing to do a voice in the Transformers sequel, all Michael has to do is ask - but has he?

IESB asked Nimoy straight out if Michael Bay has contacted him yet regarding the voice work, Bay has said he may use his mother as a go between if need be.

Nimoy said he had just seen Bay's mother and she didn't say anything. He doesn't think she wants to be the go between. Nimoy said that he's not hard to get ahold of, if Michael wants to get ahold of him, he can.

Since it is voice work which can be done in a day or so under experienced hands, Bay still has plenty of time to cast who he wants when he wants. Of course with the world premiere now schedule just six weeks away the clock is ticking.

Bay Talks Transformers 2 With TV Guide

TV Guide has posted a brief interview with Michael Bay where he discusses Transformers 2. Most of it is stuff we have heard before but I do believe this is the first time it has been stated that specifically three scenes are IMAX formatted. Thanks to Crisp for the link.

Bay Talks Potential Nimoy Casting

MTV once again, this time talking to Transformers 2 director Michael Bay about voice casting, specifically casting his cousin, Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek's Spock) in the sequel.

“I’m still not done with all the voices,” Bay explained to us recently when we brought up “Revenge of the Fallen” robot casting for the film.

As loyal fans of the robots-in-disguise remember, Mr. Spock himself - Leonard Nimoy - was the voice of characters like Galvatron in the 1986 cartoon “Transformers: The Movie.” And “Revenge” writer Roberto Orci has said that he’d like to see Nimoy return for the summer blockbuster.

“You know, he’s related to me,” laughed Bay. “And now that you are filming this, maybe you can send it to him.”

“[Nimoy] is married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin to me,” Michael explained, saying that he’s afraid of insulting his relative with the mere pittance allotted to pay his voice actors. “I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like ‘I can’t pay you that much? But would you do this voice?’”

So Michael hasn’t worked up the nerve yet to ask his famous cousin – who appears in next month’s “Star Trek” – to lend him his vocal talents. Instead, the pair have been using a third relative as a go-between.

“Would he do it?” Bay asked. “He suggested to my mom that he might do it.”

Bay Comments on ShoWest Montage

Over at Michael Bay.com, Bay posted a quick comment on the Transformers 2 ShoWest Montage (updated with working video) that is getting pulled left and right from the internet (sadly). Thanks to Mcat for the heads-up.

The Showest footage was pulled down because it was just a 12-hour thing.

I just wanted the fans to get a taste of what we have been making for a year and a half because we have been so quiet. The piece was cut about a month ago for this Showest thing I accepted this past month - so as you can see many of the shots were far from being finished renders. This dinky little site received over 1,500,000 hits and 550,000 downloads in this short time. Anyway the trailer is being printed today and coming out on Wolverine and Star Trek. 64 days left!

Michael

Bay's ShoWest Transformers 2 Montage Video (Update 4)

In what can only be a sneak of what the upcoming second Transformers 2 trailer will be, Michael Bay's site has posted the montage video for Revenge of the Fallen Bay showed at ShoWest a few weeks ago. It is freaking awesome with first looks at Devastator, Jetfire, Megatron kicking Optimus across a field, Sideways, Chromia, Megan looking incredibly foxy and lots more. The first part is a scene between Sam, Mikeala and Bumblebee in their garage before he leaves for college. Right off the bat you can see an improvement in the CGI work not only in the design but the movement and mannerisms of Bumblebee. From there it just gets better. If this montage doesn't get you excited for the movie, I don't think anything will. Thanks to Franco, Diego and Tony for the link.


In addition, he also posted the tribute video to his career that was played as part of the award ceremony when he accepted the Vanguard Award.

From the comments, links to download the ShoWest montage:
FLV(Higher Quality) - VLC to play
MP4(Lower Quality) - VLC or Quicktime to play
HD Download: MediaFire (Thanks to Alex for the links.)

Update: Added above download links and the below screenshots of the montage (hover over for comments) that Elis provided (thanks!).


Update 2: From picture 6, someone noticed the blue look and wheel indicating the Transformer is Wheelie. Makes more sense as I imagine Scalpel, being a Decepticon, would simply just tear the safe apart. Thanks to HoosierAussie for the observation. Update 3: Sadly the video has been pulled from Vimeo and some locations on YouTube but did find an HD replacement embedded above. I also removed some of the download links that no longer worked.

Update 3: YouTube video stopped working, replaced that with embed from SlashFilm and Trailer Addict.

Update 4: Trailer Addict pulled the video so did an upload via blogger's interface which as you can see isn't so hot. Tried to make larger but the result looks like crap. Enjoy while you can.

EW Article Reveals "Space Bridge"? (Updated)

The April 24th is of Entertainment Weekly showed up in my mailbox today with a summer movie preview of various films including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. One related story, Shia LaBeouf's hand status, was already appeared online. The main Transformers related articles was not. So with that in mind, below are excerpts from the article including how Shia's injury was incorporated into the film. I would scan, except I don't have a scanner.

Michael Bay remembers the day that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen nearly fell apart. It was Sunday, July 27, 2008. "I always look on CNN.com," says the filmmaker. "And there it was: Shia LaBeouf in a car crash... Oh, God. I read it and thought, 'No, this can't be true."

But it was. The 22-year-old star, who was about one-third of the way through shooting the sequel to Bay's 2007 hit Transformers, had seriously injured his left hand in an early-morning traffic accident in West Hollywood.

While he was naturally concerned about LaBeouf's health, Bay also had a movie to finish. With his leading man's cooperation, he moved decisively to keep from shutting down the production, and a bandaged LaBeouf returned to the set after just a few weeks - against the advice of one of his doctors, the actor says. The screenwriters tweaked the script so that his character...get hurt in a sort of teleportation device called a "space bridge." LaBeouf agreed to postpone additional surgery on his hand until after the shoot wrapped in October, and he was outfitted with a custom-made hand cast designed to be both photogenic and superprotective. (There has even been talk of replacing LaBeouf's hand with CG; Bay says it was ruled as too expensive and "a pain in the neck.")

Seven weeks after LaBeouf's accident, the actor is hard at work on Revenge of the Fallen, his face, arms, and one good hand covered in fake sweat-that is, Vaseline. They and several dozen uniform-clad extras playing soldiers are nestled among desert dunes in a picturesque corner New Mexico near the White Sands National Monument.

"We've blown up so many things," says LaBeouf, squinting hard in the reflected sunlight. "A fish tank, a helicopter, concrete tubes. We blew up a library. This set you're looking at? This will all be gone." Indeed, the buildings were constructed with charges built right into them. They're dressed up to look like an Egyptian village, which will later be intercut with IMAX location photography of a real town near the pyramids of Giza. That's the site of the film's final showdown between the good-guy Autobots and bad-guy Decepticons, including the title character, a Lucifer-like figure actually called the Fallen.

Standing atop a dune, Bay is barking into a megaphone at some crew members who've gotten a little too chatty. "Let's have some quiet and some respect!" he yells. "It's not many sets that have live F-16s flying over!" Minutes later, six F-16 warplanes thunder past overhead, piloted by military personnel - though not at taxpayer expense, Bay hastens to point out.

The Space Bridge is from the G1 cartoons that was built by the Constructicons (and designed by Soundwave if remember right) that allows instant transportation between Earth and Cybertron. It was really a story convenience to allow stories to be set on Cybertron with established characters while introducing new ones (such as Shockwave). How this could play into the movie should be interesting. Maybe it is how so many Decepticons get to Earth without the attention grabbing blaze across the skyline before crashing through something. Of course, if your goal is destruction, not a bad way to go about it as the trailers show.

Update: TFW2005 has scans of the article here to read the stuff I left out.

Second Trailer Gets Official Date

Only 60 days left until the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Director Michael Bay commemorated it by posting about watching a cut with Steven Spielberg and revealing the unexpected release of date of the second theatrical trailer.

Steven Spielberg sat next to me in a big 100 person theater at Sony today. There were 98 empty seats. The lights came up after we just watched my cut of Revenge of the Fallen. He turned to me and said "It's awesome". He felt this movie was better than the first - and probably my best, who knows - at this point in a movie you start to lose your objectivity. I just hope the fans like it. I'm going to start putting it in front of audiences in a few weeks - no you are not invited, yet.

We have 60 days left. Let me tell you it will be a race to finish. It's 12 at night and we are still working here in the edit room. Everyone at ILM and DD are killing themselves right now, they are doing a stellar job on the effects. We also just finished our trailer which is coming out with Wolverine. Talk to you soon.

Michael

I have to admit I am really surprised that Paramount is releasing the trailer with Fox's Wolverine rather than their own movie, Star Trek, just a week later. I don't mind though as it mean in two week we get a good look at more CGI Transformer goodness. Hopefully this time it will include a look at Devastator. For international blog readers, the main takeaway is that sometime during the weekend of May 1st, the trailer will be online for your enjoyment. Thanks to Ken (and Alex) for the link.

Bay Talks Favorite Transformers

MTV has posted another snippet of their interview with Michael Bay. This time he discusses his favorite Tranformers in the movie.

"The Fallen is the ultimate bad boy," Bay explained of the mysterious evildoer glimpsed briefly in the trailer for the June 24 film, whose vengeful mission gives the film's title its double meaning. "He goes way back in the Transformer world. He's one of the first Transformers."

"The twins are quite fun," Bay said of the comedy-relief duo, remembering his inspiration for including them. "I just kept thinking, 'What if we have two dumb Transformers that are young and dumb?' ... They are just irreverent, dumb Transformers."

"[Devastator is] the most complicated model that George Lucas' company has done in 30 years," Bay marveled. "In all the 30 years of [Industrial Light and Magic] making movies, it's the most complicated digital model — and it's tenfold in terms of the most complicated. It's taken a long time to do.

"There's a lot of great new characters in this movie — some funny ones, some devious ones, there are some little teeny ones that are a little irreverent," Bay said of a robot group that includes such newbies as the four-legged Ravage, sleek Sideswipe and others. "You know what is better in this movie? The acting of the robots. It's just evolved from the last one, and in terms of the animation we are able to put these robots' [emotions] in."

Such acting innovations have also helped a big breakout robot from the original "Transformers" film, who Bay insisted remains his favorite Transformer of the group. "Bumblebee is great in this movie," he promised.

Bay: "I will never have a Twitter account"

A recent twitter posted from MichaelBay_Dir account indicated that a new trailer is coming soon. Technically this is true as, while not officially confirmed, I don't see Paramount missing a chance to advertise one of their own movies with the re-launch of Star Trek when it premieres on May 7th at 7PM.

However, it turns out that account is not the real Michael Bay, as Bay recently emphatically posted.

I will never have a Twitter account

Twitter. Never. What a waste of time.

M

I believe the source of the confusion was the admin for the official Michael Bay website linked to it (see photo), thinking it was real (link since removed). It is an honest mistake as it can be difficult to sort out the real from the fake on Twitter. On the plus side, some fake accounts can be amusing reads such as The_Megan_Fox.

In this case, it is also an example on why having a real account might just be a good PR move since the fakes can cause problems. If I ran a PR company, part of the "package" would be to maintain a star's various social sites so that people can easily add the real over the fake. Not saying post as the star (transparency always a must), just provide a destination for fans so they don't follow the fake accounts.

At least you know my account is real so feel free follow me.

Transformers 2 Runtime Locked

Transformers 2 director Michael Bay has informed MTV the runtime of the sequel. “It’s four minutes longer than the last one,” explained Bay, saying that the runtime was locked. The 143 minute time of the first movie + 4 = 147 minutes long movie. “I don’t ever talk (to executives) about run times,” [Bay] grinned. “Studios always ask, ‘What’s the run time?’ And I’m like ‘If you enjoy the movie, do you care?’”

The reason runtime matter to studios is it reflects the number of showings per screening. So a 90 minutes movie might have 7 showings a day to five for a 150 long movie. Over 3000 or so screens that can be a lot of money the studios think they may not get. However, I think its nonsense. A sell out does more for a movie's word of mouth (an excited, full audience raises any viewing) then a half empty theatre will any day of the week. Besides, if someone wants to see the movie, less show times during the day isn't going to stop them, especially with all the screens the movie will likely appear on (my guess, 3.5k). Thanks to Mcat for the link.

Few Transformers 2 In Egypt Set Pics

MichaelBay.com has posted a few new pictures taken while the Transformers crew was filming in Egypt near the Valley of Kings back in October of last year. It was the first time in decades that a major Hollywood filmed there. The first two are new pictures, the other two were two previously posted last year.

More Transformers Tidbits from Bay

MTV has posted more of their conversation with Michael Bay at ShoWest. In their first post, he revealed that Arcee annoyed him enough that she just had to die. In this second part he discusses the IMAX Experience, Megan Fox, and no car chases.

The video portion is below but so far I have not had much luck getting it working, may just be server overload.

Highlights:

- "There's no car chase in this movie. There's a lot of different types of action. In some movies, it's the same action throughout the entire movie. There's a lot of different types of action in this one, and that makes it interesting."
- "You will see Devastator in IMAX. You heard it here first. [Several scenes] are going to be on IMAX, which is awesome. Some of our main scenes were shot with IMAX cameras, so the screen will pop wide [if you see the film in an IMAX theater]. It's the first movie to do serious digital effects in IMAX quality."
- On Megan Fox: "Wait until you see] the very first shot in the movie," he replied when we asked whether Megan gets a moment as memorable as her hood-opening flirtation with Bay's lingering camera in the first film. "You'll see."

Removed video since still not working on the MTV website so embed isn't going to work either
The main takeaway for me is unlike most IMAX Experience movies, Transformers 2 will actually be worth the travel time and ticket cost since its doing more then just showing an oversized scene. As Bay points out, this will be the first movie to make real use of CGI elements for IMAX scenes something previous movies have not spent the money on to create.

Bay: "I Kill Her Later"

When Michael Bay is in a good mood, because of his ShoWest Vanguard Award, bluntness and information seems to flow a little more freely as indicated by recent interviews with MTV and Collider (both with video).

First from MTV where he reveals the death of Arcee:

You know what? I didn't like Arcee," the filmmaker revealed exclusively to us Thursday night, "so I kill her later, all right?"

"You know what? It's like actors," he explained, comparing his Transformers to flesh-and-blood stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. "There are certain actors that blossom on screen, and there are certain others where you're like, 'Yuck, I'm cutting them out of the movie.'"

"This isn't sad," he grinned, discussing Arcee's sudden death. "This is just 'get it out and get it over with.' "

Bay also shot down the long-simmering rumor that Fox will be seen riding Arcee and doing some female bonding with the character. "No," he insisted. "She has nothing to do with Megan."

I don't know if this is serious or not. He is grinning the whole time and seems to be enjoying himself. I almost think he is dropping a fake bomb just to see the online reaction. Maybe this is an example of his misinformation campaign. Not saying it can't be true, just that something seems off. As usual, June 24th will be the day of truth.


On the highlights and video from Collider.com from pre-show press conference:

- Transformers 3 is "the way I shoot is too aggressive for 3D cameras" due to the precision they required. Besides he considers 3-D to be a "gimmick...I am old school."
- In regards to Paramount's 2011 vs. Bay's 2012 date, things have been worked out so I guess that means the plan is a July 1st, 2012 release date for Transformers 3, "Lot of pestering from the studio" to reserve the date.
- When asked if he will direct Transformers 3, "I don't know, let's see how two does."
- The scale of the second movie is larger, goes around the world, the CGI technology is much improved providing better acting from the Transformers.
- The budget of Transformers 2 was $200 million and came in about $4 million under budget.
- Regarding the IMAX scenes, "Pretty awesome. It was much easier to shoot then stereoscopic. It's a bitch to perfect in terms of the digital work because of the amount of rendering you have to do and the detail."
- In regards to CGI work, "It is all challenging. In terms of the digital model that Lucas Films made ...it is the most complicated by 10 ...of the [of the robot] model they ever made."

More AllSpark Shard, Bay Pics

As previously noted, LG had a booth in Las Vegas as a part of CTIA Wireless 2009 ShoWest that included the AllSpark fragment prop. Brian has provided more information of Michael Bay's visit to the booth and what he saw along with more pictures of the prop. Below is his report and a few pictures from Brian's gallery, which can be found here.

Michael Bay was supposed to arrive at 2pm but did not arrive until 5pm into the LG booth. The new phone they are promoting is called the Arena and they had a huge display area with 3 screens up showing this. It changed and went to the LG logo and the TF2 logos on them. They roped off the area and where the All Spark was then Bay came out. He looked at the All Spark display from a distance, did some photos, I got to meet him, was next to him, took pics. The President of LG America Jerry Wong (I think that is his last name) had a planned speech which he butchered up. He introduced the limited edition LG/Transformers Revenge of the Fallen phone. This phone is not yet out, still being developed and when more info is available, LG will post a website they said. This is a conjuction between LG/Paramount/Dreamworks he said too. They showed the trailer that was shown during the Super Bowl on the screens.

Bay was introduced, came up and took the mic. He said that he was excited about this partnership and new phone and was looking forward to getting it. He also said, he isn't too much into phones as he has an old regular phone and proceeded to pull out a Samsung flip phone. That got laughs from the crowd of course and the president shook his head. Bay then said, "that is the trailer we brought out during the Super Bowl. That is just part of it and not a lot of what's going on. There's so much more. I'm finishing up the movie and I’ll be working on it down to the release date. I'll be lucky if I finish it as I'll be down to the skin of my you know what." He then stated why he was in town (Showest, Vanguard award) and that was it. The LG President then made a joke about Bay's cell phone, said "let's get him a better phone, gave him his and took the Samsung away. It was a temp switch of course.

More photos of Bay, then Bay and the President with the All Spark, etc. The All Spark was roped off due to it being fragile and being able to be knocked over. A media outlet (not sure who) was able to ask 3 questions. First was asked about the movie. He said it's bigger, more stuff in it. "We are able to do more now than before with graphics and images and it's exciting" Asked about the USA Today article that came out about the new robots and he didn't comment directly. The other questions I could not hear.

He was supposed to sign 1 sheets but he left quickly and didn't sign any autographs. I was bummed as I wanted one. It was about 30 minutes total. He got out of there quickly. He seemed agitated, but then again, he looks like that a lot I guess.

Bay To Recieve Vanguard Award

IESB.net is reporting that ShoWest is going to reward Michael Bay the 2009 Vanguard Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. ShoWest, held from March 30 to April 2, 2009 in Las Vegas, is a trade show for the National Associate of Theatre Owners and the movie studios. Essentially it’s a chance for people to get paid to party and get a sneak at the upcoming slate of movies so they can the theatre companies can decide which to help heavily promote and which may not be entirely worth their resources or screens.

The Vanguard Award will be given to Bay on the "Final Night Banquet on April 2nd at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas. “We are thrilled to be able to honor one of the most bold and imaginative filmmakers in the industry today,” said Mitch Neuhauser, [co-director of the event]. “Michael Bay’s aggressive visual style and memorable action sequences leaves audiences at the edge of the seats and running back to the theaters for more with each new release. We could not be more honored to present Michael Bay with the ShoWest Vanguard Award for Excellence in Filmmaking.”

Congratulations to Michael Bay. Don't party to hard there (which is the real reason to bother to go and receive the award).

Bay: Wait A Year!

That didn't take long. Michael Bay posted on his forums that Paramount (or at least Variety's source) has it wrong. The third movie is not being released on July 1st, 2011 as reported but July 4th, 2012.

Wait a minute!

I said I was taking off a year from Transformers. Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3 - they asked me on the phone - I said yes to July 4 - but for 2012 - whoops! Not 2011!!! That would mean I would have to start prep in September. No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots.

Michael

Boo! I don't want a year of nothing much to post about! Seriously I would say after four years of Transformers on the brain, a vacation has been earned. If I had the Baybucks that he has, I would probably just not bother to return. At the very least it allows the recharge of the creative battery (and might help increase the budget) to allow for even bigger baysplosions!

Bay: "Megatron is back"

Apparently Hugo Weaving providing official word on the return of Megatron (as if the toy leaks wasn't enough), Michael Bay posted an interesting comment on his forums

Okay cat is out of the bag. Megatron is back ---- but you will only get to see him from the long lost past. We go way back in time as this movie explains the mythology of the Primes. He is not a tank like everyone suggests, but an alien vehicle. But sadly he does not has much screen time.

Michael

Nice of Bay to finally confirm Megs' return. The whole Megatron thing is rather odd between misleading Empire Magazine, the continued denials and so forth but to be fair he is trying to keep the spoiler lid on as tight as possible to create the best possible movie experience, as is part of his job as director. It’s just us Transfans can be a stubborn bunch.

As for Megatron only appearing in flashback, that seems to contradict Hasbro's bio for Megatron from his leader class packaging.

I am really curious to know what he means by "the mythology of the Primes" in the context of the movie. In G1, a Prime is an Autobot deemed worthy by the Matrix of Leadership to lead the race. How and why is that choice made in the context of the movie universe should be interesting to see.

As is always the case when Bay talks, we are left with more questions then answers. June 24th will reveal all.