Spike Witwicky goes live

Don Murphy has pretty much made it official by posting on his board an article from Variety or some other magazine that Shia LaBeouf is in negotiations to star in Transformers. He will be cast as Spike Witwicky, 18 year whose first care is an Autobot. Judging by past movies, Shia will be brown haired earnest irritant versus the blondish earnest irritant from the cartoons. Does that mean one of the female cast will be Carly? And what about his dad Sparkplug? I have my fingers crossed that one or neither makes the movie other then as a wink-wink cameo.

Read the "official" post here.

For those saying "who the @#$@ is Shia LaBeouf", chances are you will recognize the face just not the name. He starred in Holes, Dumb and Dumberer, the Project Greenlight movie The Battle of Shaker Heights, I, Robot, Constantine, and the Greatest Game Ever Played. Before pre-judge him, this is one of those times where I think you have to reserve judgment. Spike was such a bland character in the cartoons that really how much like him or hate him will be based entirely on how he is written and acted. Its not like he is a Peter Parker or Clark Kent.

More about Shia LaBeouf check out imdb.com and wikpedia.

Human character rumors

AllSpark.com has posted from a source a list of some of the human character names that may show up in the movie:

We've gotten some very interesting casting information for an upcoming movie. Our source wishes to remain confidential. The following roles are being cast for a movie currently being referred to as "Prime Directive", to be directed by Michael Bay for Dreamworks. Also note that these character names may not be final.

Sam - teenage male, somewhat nerdy, but ultimately heroic.
Miguela Barns - teenage female, Sam's love interest.
Cpt William Lennicks - 30s male, leader of the military.
Maggie - female, really hot, really smart, works as a codebreaker for the government.
John Kellar - 50's/60's male, US Secretary of State.
Glen Whitman - 20's male, technogeek, comic relief.

We've also been told that Shia LaBeouf has been cast in the role of Sam. With the recent rumour regarding Shia LeBeouf's casting in another Michael Bay film, draw your own conclusions (think "Blue Harvest").

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The credibilty of any rumor should always be in doubt but a post on Don Murphy's board where he states "Miguela is not a name in the script nor is Lennicks- this guy spells like TurdTurdTurdTurdTurdTurdTurd/Pavel," lends it some credibility. Not exactly a straight up denial, indicating at least some of the info is correct.

Since this listed characters are a generic action flick cast so that lends it a degree of credibility. You have the usual young smart guy who taps his heroic side, with girlfriend that in real world wouldn't give him the time of day, the thirty something not couple that becomes couple in the end one of which is the muscle and the other the brain. Finally you have the male comedy relief (never female for some reason). You would be hard pressed to not find such ingredients in any action film.

As always time will tell.

FX hirings

Another report of hirings, of note is that three of em have won Oscars for special effects.

May 22, 2006

May 22, 2006

Thats all the post says. The assumption is that is the first day of principle photography for the film. Its the official start date for the film, not including the months of pre-prep.

People hired for this and that

Update at donmurphy.com

Start building sets on location in a week
Start building sets in LA in less than a month
ILM now starting to build our CG robots
Costume Designer - Deb Scott (Titanic)
Assistant Director - Simon Warnock (Lord of The Rings)
Stunt Coordinator - Kenny Bates (Pearl Harbor)
Cinematographer - Mitch Amundsen (Eight Below, lots of Bay films)

Transformers has the Greenlight

It is official as posted over at the Don Murphy's message boards (the pic is a flashing greenlight). What this means is that the movie has the full weight and backing of Dreamworks etc executives. Technically its no guarantee that a final product since the studio can still pull the plug anytime they fancy to do so. However, a greenlight combined with a budget of at least $75million but more likely $100 million, its pretty much a gaurantee that the movie will be made.

Now just need news on what the story is about, casting, special effects, characters, and lots more.