Di Bonaventura Commits on Transformers

Transformers Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura was interviewed for a forthcoming issue of Wizard Magazine, in which he commented on his various projects including Transformers:

Di Bonaventura also addressed fan controversy surrounding next summer’s “Transformers” film.
“The thing I keep trying to find is how to create a forum between filmmakers and the core audience that is a constructive forum for both sides,” he said. “What we did was to take some people who live and breathe [Transformers], and then everything they could possibly want and know about Transformers, we did.”

I am curious to know who they spoke to. Ben Yee is considered one of the foremost experts on Transformers including consulting for the Beast Wars cartoon series but based on what have read, seen etc, I get the feeling that a casual fan or two was where most of the information about TFs was gathered.

Transformers Movie Prototype Toy Images

Taobao.com, an Asian auction site, posted up images of potential toys in the Transformers movie line coming next year. The toys are clearly far from a final version and sadly none are of the robot mode. Based on what I see, it looks like the design of the toys will be based on ground covered by the previous Alternators/ Binal-Tech toyline.

The full gallery is here.

(source)

Decepticon Bonecrusher Is A Southern

An article on Charleston.net has posted a little article that reveals the Decepticon vehicle mode of Bonecrusher is from South Carolina as the 23 ton Buffalo model is provided from a government contractor in Ladson, South Carolina. The article:

Buffalo transformers into movie role

A Ladson-based defense contractor is going Hollywood.

Or at least one of its marquee products is.

Force Protection Industries Inc., which makes armored vehicles for the military, recently loaned one of its hulking tank-like Buffalo models to the makers of "Transformers," a live-action science-fiction film based on the popular 1980s cartoon and toy line.

The 23-ton claw-equipped behemoth, now back in the company's plant across from Exchange Park on Highway 78, spent about two months on the set, said Force Protection spokeswoman Tommy Pruitt. The vehicle was cast in the film as a "Decepticon" named Bonecrusher, as suggested by emblems that have been painted on its sides.

Pruitt said he did not know who or what the filmmakers plan to transform the Buffalo into.

It is one of about 300 blast-resistant vehicles that Force Protection has made for the armed services. They have been in service for nearly three years in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The company has said no troops have been killed or seriously injured while riding in one of its heavy-duty transports.

(source)

Josh Duhamel Comments on Tranformers

Black Film has posted some brief comments coming from Josh Duhamel ("Las Vegas") in regards to how he landed the role of Lennox for Tranformers.

TRANSFORMERS update
by Wilson Morales

November 20, 2006

While in LA to promote his latest film, "Turistas", actor Josh Duhamel, who also stars in NBC's television series, "Vegas", spoke to blackfilm.com about his upcoming role in Michael Bay's Transformers.

What role do you play in "Transformers"?

Josh Duhamel: I play Captain Lennox and I'm captain of this special ops team in Iraq and we're coming back from this mission and we're about ready to start going home when Vortex comes in as a U.S helicopter and basically transforms and incinerates the base. So then we run for the desert and somehow end up finding our way back and get into communication with the U.S and they come get us, and then we go back.

Was this the first time you have worked behind blue screen?

JD: We didn't do much blue screen. It was a lot of big sticks with tennis balls on them, but not a lot of blue and green screen.

Did you know that "Transformers" has a huge fan base?

JD: I didn't realized it. I was a fan of it as a kid too, but I didn't realize that it was that big still. He told he was going to do it. I was actually in a meeting at Michael Bay's office for the movie "Hitcher" which they just shot, and I was meeting his two partners, and Michael Bay pops his head and said, "Hey, how are you doing?" I shook his hand and I had never met him before and we sit down and we're all talking and he tells me about this movie, "Transformers". I couldn't believe they were making that movie because I remember was the cartoon. Two months had passed and I get a call from his office saying he wants to see me for this movie, for this part of Lennox. So I go in and he starts showing me all the art work that they have and it's so cool some of the stuff that's laying and it's so much more advanced than I could even imagine. Now I get why they are making this movie; because it's so much modern than it was before.

(source)

Another Shia LaBeouf Interview

About.com has posted an interview with Shia LaBeouf. The topic of conversation is mostly about the upcoming movie "Bobby" but a little Transformers movie talk is on page four of the interview. Mostly it just deals with what a pain in the rear Shia felt making the movie was and working with Director Michael Bay.

Well, your next project is a huge studio film - Transformers

Shia LaBeouf: “Again, that’s exactly what that is. If anyone tells you they do that for the art value, that’s bulls**t. It’s f**king painful. To go from Emilio Estevez to Michael Bay is like walking out of, you know, like in a hammock in the sky, hanging out drinking Pina Coladas with Jesus and then getting smacked in the face and thrown in the devil’s s**pile and having to make a movie. I swear to God.”

It affected you that much?

Shia LaBeouf: “I was thinking about quitting this industry. And Michael Bay will tell you that. He’s so hard on his actors, and not in the way that Emilio might be, in that he’ll push you to be something better. Mike is just f**king a hard a**.”

Why didn’t you walk off the set?

Shia LaBeouf: “Because it was too important to my career.”

You’ll never do that again.

Shia LaBeouf: “I mean, until 2 and 3. But just… Look, the four, five months of pain I went through might buy my mom a house and that’s forever, so I’m all right. People go to f**king war, it’s not like I have a hard job. I’m an actor. It’s not the worst thing. We’re sitting at a pool, I didn’t pay for those shoes, I didn’t pay for this. It’s not a bad life, and for a guy that didn’t have s**t going on. There’s certain pains; it’s a tradeoff like anything. There’s things you don’t want to do in your industry.”

Brian Geraghty: “If it’s important to you, it’s going to be painful. I feel sh**ty complaining sometimes, but I complain because I strive to do films like Bobby. You get the perfect situation and then it goes away. …And all these movies now, I never really felt I could believe in myself and not hold myself back. Bobby is definitely a validation. You need reinforcement in life. You show up to an office every day, I wouldn’t like to do that, but yet, you get feedback. You’re going three months without a job go into a dark hole where you get off Transformers and go to the spiral that Shia had…”

Shia LaBeouf: “You get lost in a f**king weird depression, man.”

How did you survive Transformers?

Shia LaBeouf: “I barely made it out of that movie. I was going to a heart specialist; I was having anxiety attacks, losing my mind. And you know, you’re doing physical s**t all day. It’s tough, man. And even Mike at the end, he was like, ‘Look, I know I’m hard on you but you’ll never get this again. If you can go through this with me, you can do anything.’ Sort of like the whole, ‘If you can live in New York you can live anywhere,” type thing. Whatever doesn’t kill you.”

Shia, at this point in your career do you still have to audition?

Shia LaBeouf: “Of course I do. The Guide to Recognizing Your Saints guy wouldn’t even see me. ‘Let me come in, I’ll f**king audition for you.’ He wouldn’t even see me. The guy didn’t want to meet me at all. And I begged him, I begged him. I was the last person who read, but he didn’t want to read me because also at the time I was the ‘Disney’ guy, the Kurt Russell or whatever they were trying to make. I had to break away and that was Guide and that was Bobby. But I’m trying to be Gary Oldman and Hilary Duff, so I’ve got to play a little bit of the politics. I’ve got to do Transformers – I have to - because there’s a part of my audience that’s not gonna go see Bobby or see A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Part of that audience won’t see it.”

It’s a pretty much a sure bet your audience will follow you to Transformers.

Shia LaBeouf: “Yeah. The biggest movie in Hollywood. You don’t get bigger than $250 million robots blowing up the world. I don’t plan on making any other – I mean, I’m going to do Transformers 2 and 3 so that will be my Lord of the Rings.”

You’ve signed on to 2 and 3?

Shia LaBeouf: “Yeah, I’m gonna do it. That will be my Lord of the Rings and then I’ll just make indies the rest of my time, for a long time. Elijah [Wood’s] straight. Elijah can do whatever he wants. Why? Because he’s in one of the biggest, the top five grossers ever. People in China know who he is and people in Iceland know who he is. He can do whatever he wants. That’s my whole thing is I’ve got to get to the point where people in Iceland will go see Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. That’s what I’m trying to do.

It’s a tough deal but again, it was tough to go from the kid thing to the adult thing. That was the toughest jump you can do in this business.”

The more Shia opens his mouth, the less I tend to like him. He seems very full of himself. Its just hard to develop sympathy for someone that gets anxiety attacks over acting much less gets paid so well that he can buy a house in five months of work that usually take 30 years for the average Joe or Jane. He probably found his calling because if he gets this worked up over his current career, the "real world" would have driven him to suicide by now.

(source)

Oklahoman's Peter Cullen Interview

The Oklahoman has posted an interview with Optimus Prime voice Peter Cullen that is actually rather informative compared to most. In it he discusses how he got the job, the inspiration for the Prime voice (his brother), and also how he auditioned for the live action Transformers role.

The movie related bit from the full article:

Cullen said the hard-core Transformers fans are to thank for his reprisal of the role in the upcoming big-budget film.

"(The filmmakers) were thinking more Hollywood big names," Cullen said. "They did start to consider the original voice actors because of the enthusiasm and the ... stubbornness of the fan base. God, I'm grateful for those guys," he said.

Cullen was called in to audition for Michael Bay at his offices in Santa Monica, Calif.

He was asked to read a scene with Optimus Prime and Ironhide, a gutsy Autobot who was a close friend of Prime's, also played by Cullen in the original series.

"The script assistant was there, and she started reading for Ironside," Cullen said.

"I said, ‘Excuse me, dear, do you mind if I read it?' Because I actually played this character.'"

Cullen completed the read-through reading for both characters.

Cullen received a callback. This time, Cullen was called to act out a more personal, one-on-one scene.

"The reason for that was, they wanted to find out if I in fact could act," he said.

"Optimus steps out of his normal frame, and becomes ... a little more human."

Shortly later, Cullen heard from his agent that he was again cast as Optimus Prime.

"And I said, ‘Oh, fantastic,' and that's when I started to get involved," he said. "It started getting exciting, and it's remained that way ever since."

More Protoform Toy Pics

ACToys.net has posted more pics of the Protoform Optimus Prime and Starscream. It seems to me the design is supposed be something similar to a comet or asteroid that is actually an interstellar craft/re-entry vehicle, but to me its seems closer to colored poop with the shape and all. Yeah mean and uncalled for but as a toy, I remain unimpressed.

Rest of the pics are here.