Bay, Spielberg Transformers Hall of Fame Videos

Last Saturday, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay were inducted in the 2nd Annual Transformers Hall of Fame ceremony at Botcon 2011. Below are the two videos that was shown with various producers and actors of the Transformers movie franchise commented on their impact on the TF universe. Thanks to Feris Othman for the link.

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3D Conversation with Bay and Cameron Video

The Hollywood Reporter has posted the full 16 minute video of the "3D: A Transforming Visual Art A Conversation with Michael Bay and James Cameron" that Paramount sponsored last week to promote Transformers: Dark of the Moon's 3D trailer. The polish indicates this will be a future special feature for the Blu-ray/DVD release.

Clip from Bay & Cameron 3D Conversation

Paramount Pictures UK has posted a brief video of some footage from "3D A Transforming Visual Art Conversation with Michael Bay and James Cameron" that was held Wednesday for the press as a promotional tool for the Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D trailer that was released today. (via Tyrese, thanks to Brad for the link).

Update: Previous video kept freezing at 2:31 point. Replaced with video provided by MichaelBay.com. Thanks to Feris Othman for the vid.

First Five Minutes of DOTM from Cameron, Bay 3D Conversation

In a run-up to the release of the 3D version of the Transformers: Dark of the Moon trailer on Friday May 20th with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, a press event called "3D A Transforming Visual Art Conversation with Michael Bay and James Cameron" was held for local LA press by The Hollywood Reporter and Paramount Wednesday night. During the "art conversation", Cameron (huge proponent of 3D) and Bay (forced to embrace 3D by Paramount) discussed 3D before showing the first five minutes from the movie, clips and the 3D trailer. Side note, the 3D trailer is expected to just be an extended version of the recently released 2D trailer. The two talked about the good and the bad of working with 3D. Below is a video from Collider as discuss what they saw and after that is links to various other articles about the event along with choice segments.

Hitflix | Collider | Movieline | MovieWeb | /Film | CinemaBlend | i09 | HeroComplex

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Bay and Spielberg Inducted into Transformers Hall of Fame

Hasbro has issued a press release (below) that announces that the two new human additions to the Transformers Hall of Fame are Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. The 2nd annual ceremony will be held at Botcon on June 4th and will be attended by Michael Bay. Should be fun for attendees as Bay has been very friendly to fans, especially when compared to most other directors and stars. On the Transformer side Ratchet, Ironhide and Soundwave will be inducted. A fourth Transformer will be inducted based on voting from "Fan's Choice" (no idea when/where this was done) but the choices were Grimlock, Shockwave, Erector, Waspinator and Jazz.

HASBRO TO HONOR MICHAEL BAY AND STEVEN SPIELBERG WITH INDUCTION INTO THE TRANSFORMERS HALL OF FAME

Bay to attend ceremony at TRANSFORMERS “BOTCON” Fan Convention in Pasadena, California, on June 4

Pawtucket, R.I. (MAY 18, 2011) — Earlier today on its official TRANSFORMERS Facebook page, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) announced the induction of film industry legends Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg—the director and executive producer of the blockbuster TRANSFORMERS film franchise—into its TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame. The second annual TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame ceremony, which celebrates more than 25 years of “MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE” action, will take place during the 2011 TRANSFORMERS “BOTCON” fan convention in Pasadena, California, and will feature TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOONdirector Michael Bay in person to accept his honor and share some special surprises with the audience.

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$25,000 Bounty Placed on the Twins

For reasons I don't really understand, it seems the suggestion that the Twins return for Transformers: Dark of the Moon in yesterday's movie review from Capone has kicked off a minor fire storm. Bay and co. have repeatedly said they are not in the movie. They were filmed for the movie but later cut from it. The one question the naysayers have not answered is how Michael Bay benefits by lying about this as I do not see the benefit. In the past Bay has lied but in general it has been an attempt to keep major plot points hidden. I don't entirely agree with the tactic but understand the motivation. In this case though there is no value to keep their appearance a secret. Those who read the spoilers (and probably regret it) know there are much bigger secrets to keep for the film. Since yesterday Capone (who has actually seen the film, important to know when the trolls come marching in) has clarified his review and Bay literally put money where his mouth is with a bounty.

From Capone:

Hey, everyone. Just to be 100 percent clear, I'm not referring about the "The Twins" here; they are most definitely not in this film. I'm talking about Wheelie (Tom Kenny, who also voiced Skids in REVENGE OF THE FALLEN) and other similar smaller robots, who act like streetwise teenagers.

From Michael Bay:

After the internet posting of a nice review by someone who saw Transformers Dark of the Moon, the writer had not been clear on one thing. He misstated that the Twins are in the film. They are not.

So I am offering a $25,000 REWARD to anyone who can find them performing in Transformers 3, on July 1, when the movie opens.

Michael

Shortly after he wrote:

The Twins are not in the movie. You will not find them anywhere. Trailer houses sometimes use shots that are not in the movie! End story I'm don't wasting my time this!

I hope this will put the "controversy" to rest but somehow I doubt it. So once again I simply ask "Don't feed the trolls." Thanks to John W. for the link.

LA Times Bay Interview at Playa Vista

The LA Times has posted a "new" interview with Michael Bay as he discusses Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The reason for the quotes around new is the interview took place at the Los Angeles Playa Vista soundstage when production was doing the moon sequences among others shots. That would place the estimated time frame of the interview sometime in June 2010. Over all nothing specific is revealed, just a general overview of the franchise and Bay's desire to make Moon better than Revenge. Choice segments are below, the full article can be found here. Thanks to AiC Hokie for the link.

"The cast this time is terrific, you can't even compare it really, and that was important to me. We needed to take everything up a few levels and that starts with story and with acting," Bay said...

"I think the guy is great, I loved working with him," says [Patrick] Dempsey, one of the new imports meant to bring some acting chops to a franchise that had become far too fixated on special effects and a barrage of gags. "The scale of the movies he makes and the way his crew works for him and the things that they can accomplish, it's pretty awesome to see in action. And I think he believes this movie is going to be a great one."

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Michael Bay Press Preview Transcript

/Film has posted the entire 7200 word transcript form the interviews that Michael Bay participated in when he screened portions of the film for the entertainment press. He briefly spoke of Frank Welker so can call that official confirmation he returns as Soundwave and mentioned a new character called "Brains" that could be the Einstein character (with Mercedes-Benz E550 alt mode). Bay goes into a great level of detail about the complications of shooting in 3D, experience of filming in Chicago, working with actors, film editing, sound design and more. Below are segments from the transcript but if want to read the whole thing, click here. Thanks to Winston for the link.

Question: Does this have a feeling of closure, this chapter?
Michael: I think so. But it still can be rebooted. Not with Shia. He’s turning grumpy in his old age.

Question: Out of curiosity, shooting in 3D, what did it make you rethink about axis in motion and progression…
Michael: A lot. I mean you’ve got to watch the panning because it strobes too much. You’ve got a guy on the set who’s got a control where when the camera goes like this, he can turn the 3D almost off. He sits there and it’s like if the robot comes close, we tell him what’s going on in the shot and he can kinda try to do where you want the eye to kind of look. But I can’t always check over him because there’s a lot going on on the set. So anyway, that was my process for doing it. I was able to shot about 60% native 3D, and then you’ve got 15% of all digital shots that were 3D, and then the rest is converted close-up stuff.

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DOTM Press Sneak Peak Reports

It seems yesterday was a good day to be part of the entertainment press as Michael Bay provided a preview screening of select clips and interview as run up to the news that the trailer is coming in two weeks. The result of this mini-press conference is a bunch of articles from various websites. Hit links below for full articles, I posted choice segments. Thanks to Chris, DJ.BigtymeBeats and Sahara for the links.

The Latino Review focused on describing some of the scenes they were able to watch.

John Malkovich pops up in one scene in all of his spray-tanned glory giving Sam the verbal one-two about the workforce. We even got to check out an awesome scene with a very suspicious man (Ken Jeong) who thinks he may know about Sam's Autobot-filled past leading to a very uncomfortable confrontation in the bathroom.

Then the comedy is pushed aside when we finally get our first glimpse of a war-torn downtown Chicago, completely ripped to shreds by a whole army of Decepticons. Sam's trying to charge into town with Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson) and company but is stopped when a Decepticon starts blasting away at them. Thankfully Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) comes in, shoots the evil robot to kingdom come and utters a couple of fanboy-squealing awesome lines.

There's even a cool part where some military wingmen leap out of a burning helicopter and soar through the city trying to dodge the Decepticons in their neat-looking spaceships that try to shoot them out of the sky which looks really cool in 3D.

ComingSoon focuses on the interview with Bay as he once again promises this movie will be better than last.Read More »

Bay Debunks A Soundwave Rumor

Michael Bay posted on his forums to debunk yet another Transformers: Dark of the Moon rumor. The latest is the theory that Soundwave's alt mode was Carly's white Mercedes-Benz that was spotted on set a few times. Bay wrote:

Mercedes would never let us make their car into a bad Decepticon. Car company's really frown on that - I can't say what the game company and comics do that's their own thing. They don't have the same constraints movies do. It's Carly's car.

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Leonard Nimoy is the Voice of Sentinel Prime

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Leonard Nimoy is joining the voice cast of Transformers: Dark of the Moon as the voice of Sentinel Prime.

Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, has joined the film as the voice of Sentinel Prime, the predecessor of Optimus Prime whose wrecked body is seen in the teaser trailer, found crash-landed on the moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969. Later, after being brought to earth, he takes the disguise form of a fire engine in the movie’s massive, climactic battle through Chicago.

Nimoy is most famous for the role of Spock in Star Trek and might be familiar recently as William Bell in Fringe. This isn't his first foray into the world of Transformers as he voiced Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie.

The idea of Leonard Nimoy returning to the TF universe has been around for a few years now as many fans advocated him voicing a character in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Back in April 2009 Michael Bay was asked about this possibility and he responded, "[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?’" This was followed up a week later with Leonard Nimoy himself who simply said that Bay had to just ask.

Apparently has asked and Nimoy has accepted. Even better it seems the character of Sentinel Prime is a rather important one in DOTM so it might just be a few lines like it might have been if Bay had tried to get him for Revenge. EW tends to be right on the mark with their reports but since no one official with the movie is quoted, I have very slight reservations. I hope Bay comments on his forum confirming this news soon. Thanks to GundamFan89, Chris, Sean and Ryan for the heads-up.

Michael Bay Comments on 3D in Movies

A USA Today article asks the question "Can 3-D technology save the moviemaking business?" and one of the people they reached for comment was Transformers: Dark of the Moon director Michael Bay. Bay has been a vocal opponent to using 3D until he decided to try it out himself and use the latest gen digital cameras to film TF3 in 3D. Having said that it doesn't mean he is completely sold on the tech or at least how the studios are trying to take advantage of it. The full article is here, the Bay related snippets are below.

"The short answer is we did too much with technology that wasn't ready for prime time," says director Michael Bay, whose Transformers: Dark of the Moon was shot digitally, in 3-D and on traditional 35mm film.

"Studios are turning everything they can into 3-D without considering whether it should be done at all," he says. "We're already wearing the experience out. Look, there are simply some movies that shouldn't be shot in 3-D," he says. "It doesn't add anything."

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DOTM Pick-ups, Burglary

Nelson posted a brief update on MB.com about Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Nelson here...

Just a couple of things I wanted to share with you guys.

* Michael was shooting today some of the last pickup scenes for Transformers Dark Of The Moon.
* Burglars broke into the production offices of the movie. Federal authorities have been called in due to the sensitive nature of the burglary.

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DOTM Cast are NASCAR Grand Marshalls

NASCAR has announced that Transformers: Dark of the Moon starts Josh Duhamel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and director Michael Bay will serve as Grand Marshals for the Daytona 500 on February 20th, 2011. The marketing synergy isn't really a surprise considering three of the Transformers in the movie are NASCAR stock cars, which will also be at the event as pace cars. The full press release is below.

On a related note, Rosie and Bay were at the New York Toy Fair on Monday to promote the toys and movie. While there apparently held has a private screening of DOTM. The rumor is Bay showed around 30 minutes of footage to Hasbro execs but sadly whatever was shown was not for public viewing. A few more images of the pair with Ultimate Prime can be found here.Read More »

Bay Confirms Sentinel Prime

In an interview with MTV, Michael Bay has finally confirmed that Sentinel Prime is in the movie but still has not confirmed if it is the red Rosenbaurer Panther airline fire truck as rumored. Bay revealed this information during an interview with MTV at the premiere of "I Am Number Four" that he executive producer of. He continued to re-iterate his promise that this film will be much better then Revenge of the Fallen and that this was his final Transformers film. Thanks to Mcat for the link. Update: Hasbro's released official images that verify that the fire truck is the alt mode of Sentinel Prime.

"The second one, we had a tough go," Bay told us. "It was a very, very tough thing to make a movie under those circumstances. It affected a lot of Hollywood at that time."

This time around, Bay said, "We worked extra hard" and struck upon "a better story." "It's epic and it happens in a city," he added. "It's more accessible because you recognize stuff — it's not in a desert. It's kind of like 'Black Hawk Down' with our small group of heroes in a city."

On the carpet, Bay also briefly touched on two new alien bots set to debut in "Dark of the Moon." "Sentinel Prime is great. He's great," he said. "I can't tell you anything else, other than he's great."

And about the villain Shockwave, Bay say, "He's bad," adding that compared to Megatron, "He's got a much bigger gun [and is] a little bit more vicious."

Though Bay is certain he's got a winner on his hands, the director maintained that "Dark of the Moon" will be his final "Transformers" film. "It does have an end, yes," he said. "Because I am finished doing this."

Bay Talks Revenge, Moon

In an interview with Hero Complex, Transformers: Dark of the Moon director Michael Bay discusses the disappointment he had with Revenge of the Fallen and how he thinks Dark of the Moon is a much better film, comparing its style "as a sort of homeland version of ”Black Hawk Down.” The full article is here.

“[Revenge of the Fallen] was kind of a mess, wasn’t it?” an unsmiling Bay said of the 2009 film, which was far from a flop — it grossed a potent $836 million worldwide, finishing third for the year behind only “Avatar” and the sixth “Harry Potter” movie. But the director still talks about the blockbuster in tones of regret. “Look, the movie had some good things in it and it was entertaining and it did very well, but it also failed in some key ways. I learned from it. And now with this third movie we’re going back to basics and I absolutely believe this is going to be a much better film than the second one.”

“I’m still having fun and especially with this movie,” Bay said. ”Look, we got burned on the last movie. The big thing was the writers strike, it hurt the film and it made it hard on everybody. We had three weeks to get our story and, really, we were going into the movie without a script. It’s tough to do that. It was too big of a movie. There were too many endings or too many things that felt like endings. There was so much animation [in the visual effects postproduction work], too, and we ran out of time. We used the schedule of the first movie for the second movie but on the second one way more labor was needed for the animation. And then it felt like we were writing the script in the edit room, trying to put together a story.”

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Michael Bay Interview on Transformers 3

As a run-up to tonight's debut of the teaser trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Collider has posted an interview with director Michael Bay. The site previewed the trailer and a "huge chunk of footage" but sadly they did not reveal any major story points in the articles. The overall impression of the chunk was very positive and that is without the visual effects (anima tics used as placeholders). Empire also was there but Collider's article is much more detailed.

Below is a video from Collider as "Frosty" and AICN "Mr. Beaks" kind of expresses everything they saw during the three hour visit with Bay while the experience was still fresh on their minds. The article is so click here with a few highlights below. Thanks to Ray and Kris for the links.Read More »

Transformers 3 Set Report, Teaser Online Debut Time

This Friday, the teaser trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon will debut with the next Chronicles of Narnia movie in both 2D and 3D (or next week with Tron). If you don't want to wait that long, then Apple Trailers has you covered with the official launch occurring at 4PM PST (7PM EST) on Wednesday, December 8th. Entertainment Tonight was rumored to be airing a sneak peak earlier today but apparently that didn't happen. Assuming the teaser trailer description is accurate, expect an emphasis on "tease".

This news comes from a new set report from Aint It Cool News' Capone from when Dark of the Moon was filming in Chicago in August. This set report begins by going into the recent rumor that the film was having real 3D problems by describing what he actually saw on set and how much nonsense the report is (for the same reasons I dismissed the idea). From the report:Read More »

Bay Denies 3D Problems, Dates Trailer

Michael Bay has once again popped up on his forums denying the recent report that his 3D footage for Transformers: Dark of the Moon was unusable. On top of that, he reports that "the Transformers announcement piece", aka the teaser trailer will premiere with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (December 10th) and Tron: Legacy (December 17th).

Wow, I read these morons on the internet who think they are in the know. "We have problems with our 3D????” Really? Come into my edit room and I will show you beautiful 3D. There has never been a live action show that has pushed the boundaries of 3D like Transformers 3. We shot the entire movie with 3D cameras. I actually loved shooting in 3D.

I will give full details of my process and why I liked 3D in the next week right before the Transformers announcement piece comes out on Tron and Narnia.

And don't watch this movie in 2D, we made it for 3D.

Michael

The forum specific links are here and here. While some may claim he is lying, in this case I don't see any reason to. As said before, they had a 3D viewing rig on location at all times that easily allowed them to catch any problems with the footage. Also don't forget that Bay had a 10 minute or so edit of the footage put together for the cast and crew early in filming; another chance to find any problems and make corrections. It doesn't make much sense that Bay and his 3D consultants (many from the Avatar crew) would not have discovered any problems until now. Mini-controversy over with the most important piece of this whole thing being we are about two weeks away of getting our first look at Transformers 3. Thanks to everyone for the heads-up.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon ET Report

Entertainment Tonight has posted their article of video of the behind the scenes report from the Chicago set of Transformers 3. The video includes set footage, explosions and the sales pitch of the movie from Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Tyrese Gibson, and Josh Duhamel. Pretty much no spoilers are revealed but the title does drop a "the" with official title being "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" which oddly enough does make a difference. If want to get a little meta, thanks to Colin Hinkle for the picture of behind the scenes of ET filming behind the scenes of TF:DOTM with Samantha Harris in the yellow dress. Also thanks to Teddy83 for the link.

"I think what we were lacking in the second movie was heart," says Shia about the last installment of the blockbuster franchise, 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.' "But, I think with the addition of Rosie and new characters … you still have the magic of the first film, but you have depth in the ending of the third."

"Sam's coming out of heartbreak," explains Shia about the film's emotional center. "He's looking for a rock. He's looking for stability. He's looking for a person who doesn't love him because of his involvement in the wars, or because of his involvement with the robots. … And, so he's looking to define himself and find a person who understands the definition and loves him for him, and he finds it in Rosie."

"The story, I think, is really rich," says Michael. "This is kind of a good old fashioned, kinda espionage 'Transformers' movie." He adds, "I just told Mayor Daley that I'm sorry about messing up his city."