Saturday, June 28, 2008

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen[1] is an upcoming science fiction 3-D film scheduled for release in 2009.[2] It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers, which was the first live action Transformers film. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons. Shooting began in May 2008 for a June 26, 2009 release date.

Bay desired to give the sequel a bigger budget for a global scale and better characterization for a larger cast of robots. The main hurdle in getting the film produced was overcoming the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as well as possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Bay met his shooting date with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger.

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[edit] Premise

Roberto Orci described the film's theme as the robots confronting "being away from home",[3] with the focus between the robots and humans "much more evenly balanced".[4] The tone will be similar to the first film, but "the stakes will be higher",[5] (with a more global sensibility),[6] and there will be more focus on the science fiction elements. Orci also said "we'll be better at modulating [the humor] this time". Structurally, the plot will be "more organically interconnected in that TF1 had the structure of 3 story lines coming together at Hoover. TF2 will have a different structure."[5]

[edit] Production

Before Transformers was released, producer Tom DeSanto said he had come up with "a very cool idea" to introduce the Dinobots and Constructicons,[7] while Bay was interested in an aircraft carrier, which he considered for the first film.[8] In September 2007, Paramount announced a June 26, 2009 release date for Transformers 2,[9] and Bay began creating animatics of action sequences featuring characters rejected for the first film. This would allow animators to complete sequences if the Directors Guild of America went on strike in July 2008.[10] The director considered making a small project in between Transformers and its sequel, but knew "you have your baby and you don't want someone else to take it".[11] The film was given a larger budget than the first film, which cost $151 million,[12] and some of the action scenes rejected for the original were written into the sequel.[13]

Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman originally passed on the sequel because of a busy schedule. The studio began courting other writers in May 2007, but as they were unimpressed with their pitches, they convinced Orci and Kurtzman to return.[10] The studio also signed on Ehren Kruger, as he impressed Bay and Hasbro president Brian Goldner with his knowledge of the Transformers mythology.[14] The writing trio were paid $8 million.[10] Kurtzman created the film's title.[15] Orci was dismissive of the Dinobots, although after filming began he became fonder of those characters, because of their popularity.[16] Screenwriting was interrupted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, but to avoid production delays the writers spent two weeks writing a treatment, which they handed in the night before the strike began.[17][18] Bay expanded the outline into a sixty-page scriptment:[19] Orci explained Bay "came up with some really fun gags and a few descriptions of the kind of hardware he will need for production".[20]

The Bethlehem Steel site in Lehigh Valley represents a Chinese city
The Bethlehem Steel site in Lehigh Valley represents a Chinese city

Filming began in Los Angeles, California in May 2008.[21] From June 2,[19] three days were spent on an action sequence at the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which represented a fictional Chinese city.[22] Afterwards, they shot at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.[23] The crew moved to Philadelphia on June 9, where they shot at the Exelon plants in Delaware; the University of Pennsylvania; the Eastern State Penitentiary; Fairmount Park; Rittenhouse Square (which represents Paris); and Wanamaker's.[24][25][26] They moved to Princeton University on June 22.[27] Filming there angered the students at the University of Pennsylvania, believing Bay had chosen to reshoot scenes. However, neither school gave Bay permission to be named in the film because of a "funny 'mom' scene" which they "felt it did not represent the school".[28]

A total of $5 million will be spent during filming in Philadelphia, Bethlehem, and New Jersey.[22] The 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike will begin on June 30, meaning filming will pause and Bay will turn his attention to animation.[29] They will shoot at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Tucson, Arizona in July.[30] Filming will also take place in Jordan,[31] and New Mexico (which stood in for Qatar in the first film).[32]

The producers expect that with a bigger budget and the special effects worked out, the Transformers will have a larger role. Peter Cullen recalled, "Don Murphy mentioned to me, 'Only because of the tremendous expense to animate Optimus Prime, he'll be in just a certain amount of [the first film].' But he said, 'Next time, if the movie is a success, you're gonna be in it a ton.'"[33] The director hopes to include more close-ups of the robots' faces.[34] Scott Farrar returned as visual effects supervisor, and anticipated moodier use of lighting as well as deeper roles for the Decepticons. He stated that with the bigger deadline, post-production will be a "circus".[35] Hasbro became more involved in the designs of the robots than in the first film.[5] They insisted on keeping the alternate modes of some of the returning characters similar, so people would not have to buy toys of the same characters.[36]

[edit] Cast and characters

[edit] Humans

  • John Turturro plays Reggie Simmons, former agent of the terminated Sector 7 unit, which monitored Autobot/Decepticon activity on Earth.[21]
  • Kevin Dunn and Julie White play Ron and Judy, Sam's parents. Orci wrote, "Love them! Gotta have them back."[41] He confirmed they learned the truth about the Transformers while off-screen in the last film.[42]

Rainn Wilson cameos as a university professor,[21] while Kym Whitley has an unnamed part.[43]

[edit] Transformers

The voices of the other robots are unconfirmed
  • Arcee, an Autobot motorcycle with a feminine personality and appearance.[40] Arcee was dropped from the first film, as the writers felt there was not enough time to explain her "gender".[47] Arcee has been redesigned from the concept art used for her toy and comic book appearances.[48]
  • Soundwave, Megatron's most loyal lieutenant.[50] Orci "duly noted" his minions Ravage and Laserbeak would need to appear as well.[51] In the 1980s toy line, Soundwave was a tape deck. The filmmakers had tried to work him into the first film twice, and these roles eventually evolved into Blackout (a MH-53 Pave Low helicopter) and Frenzy (who changed into a CD Player and later into a mobile phone). The latter character was particularly thought to be too different from the original.[52][53]

Other robots include the Autobots "Stinger"; "Wheels"; twins who combine into an ice cream van; an Autobot Chevrolet Trax;[54] a Frenzy-like character;[55] and a Decepticon Audi R8;.[40] Names of the individual twins and Constructicons will be determined in post-production,[56] as the dialogue can be re-recorded with the animation.[57] There will be some robots who can transform into weapons.[58]

Hasbro stated "a key character from the first movie [would] make a dramatic comeback and attempt to settle a score": Megatron (Hugo Weaving) was among those killed in the first film.[1] There will be around ten robots on each side:[59] Orci confirmed the Decepticons will have whole dialogue scenes to themselves.[5] Bay also promised a geriatric robot.[19]

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