future film
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an upcoming
science fiction film due for release on June 26,
2009. It is the sequel to
2007's
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
Autobots and
Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, the most important of which is
Egypt.
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. Shooting from May to November 2008 predominantly took place in the United States, including the majority of scenes set in outside countries, a minimum of which was conducted in those actual nations.
Premise
Sam Witwicky (
Shia LaBeouf) discovers something about the origins of the Transformers and their history on Earth. The evil
Decepticons need to capture him for information.
The climactic battle takes place at the
Giza pyramid complex,
where a temple is located within.
[ Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained the film will show the Transformers who visited Egypt before the pyramids were built, and "all our heroes end up here because of the Decepticons' masterplan". Furthermore, Egyptian hieroglyphs resembling helicopters and other present day vehicles in real life will be explained in the film as being depictions of those ancient Cybertronians who visited Earth.]
Production
Development
In September 2007, Paramount announced a June 26, 2009 release date for the sequel to Transformers,
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.[ The studio also signed on Ehren Kruger, as he impressed Bay and Hasbro president Brian Goldner with his knowledge of the Transformers mythology.][ 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,]
Orci described the film's theme as "being away from home", with the Autobots contemplating living on Earth as they cannot restore Cybertron, while Sam goes to college.[ Kurtzman created the film's title.][ and admitted he was also dismissive of the characters. During filming though, he became fonder of them because of their popularity with fans.][ and left the Triple Changer idea to another film.]
Filming
Filming began in Los Angeles, California in May 2008.[ three days were spent on an action sequence at the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which was used to represent a portion of a fictional Chinese city.]
Bay scheduled a break for filming beginning on June 30, turning his attention to animation and second unit scenes because of the potential 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike.
Shooting at Tucson International Airport and the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group's aircraft boneyard took place in October under the fake working title Prime Directive (a reference to Star Trek).[ Filming continued at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, with the second unit taking shots of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.]
Effects
The producers expected that with a bigger budget and the special effects worked out, the Transformers would 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 first film.' But he said, 'Next time, if the movie is a success, you're gonna be in it a ton.' "[Michael Bay's DVD audio commentary for Transformers, 2007, Paramount] 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".[ 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.]
Cast and characters
Humans
- Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky, the teenager who killed Megatron. He attends an East Coast college to learn astronomy.
- Megan Fox plays Mikaela Banes, Sam's girlfriend, who cannot afford to attend college with him.
[ Fox had lost a lot of weight for her role in Jennifer's Body, and had to gain ten pounds within three weeks. She explained "Michael [2] doesn't like skinny girls."]
- Josh Duhamel plays Captain William Lennox, an ally of the Autobots.
[ Since the first film Lennox has become part of an international taskforce battling Decepticons with the Autobots.]
- Tyrese Gibson plays Robert Epps, an ally of the Autobots and member of Lennox's team.
[ He has been promoted to the position of Master Sergeant.]
- John Turturro plays Reggie Simmons, former agent of the terminated Sector 7 unit, which monitored Transformer activity on Earth.
[ Turturro was allowed to climb the real pyramids during filming.]
- Isabel Lucas plays Alice, a new character who goes to Sam's college. There are rumours that she is a Pretender. She is a robot underneath her skin and the design is said to have a scanning tentacle, a cannon and a body resembling that of Frenzy.
- Steve Tom has a "principal" role, according to his website.
- Kevin Dunn and Julie White play Ron and Judy Witwicky, Sam's parents. Orci wrote, "Love them! Gotta have them back."
Rainn Wilson cameos as a university professor,[ while Kym Whitley has an unnamed part.]
Autobots
- Peter Cullen voices Autobot leader Optimus Prime.
- Arcee, an Autobot with a feminine personality and appearance, who can separate into three motorcycles.
- Jetfire, an Autobot SR-71 Blackbird. He was a Decepticon, but his wounds and age have made him choose to ally with Optimus.
[ He can combine with Optimus, an idea previously seen in the Transformers: Armada series.]
Decepticons
- Starscream, the air commander who flew into space at the end of the previous film. Orci confirmed he will have more dialogue.
- Soundwave, Megatron's communications expert and his most loyal soldier.
[ He transforms into a Cybertronian satellite. The concept artists also designed an Earth form of a Chevrolet Silverado for him to upgrade into, which Orci stated was dropped.][Their War: Decepticons Strike, 2007 DVD featurette]
- Ravage, a minion of Soundwave. Hasbro said he has a "raw" beast mode.
- A puppet, with a body resembling Frenzy, a cat like face, dreadlocks, and a bird-like beak, was spotted on set.
- The Constructicons, several construction vehicles who can combine into a single robot known as Devastator.
[ The name Devastator was mistakenly given to Brawl, a tank, in the first film. The name Bonecrusher, who was one of the Constructicons in the 1980s and Transformers: Universe, was also used for a Decepticon killed in the first film. The original Constructicon names Scrapper and Mixmaster appeared as drone units in the Transformers movie video game. Orci stated during writing neither character will be resurrected though. The names of them haven't been revealed yet.]
Others
- The Fallen. He is based on a character introduced in the second Transformers: The War Within comic book (2003). He was one of the original thirteen Transformers, and became a servant of Unicron. Bay described the Fallen as "apocalyptic".
Lorenzo di Bonaventura said that in total, there are around forty robots in the film.[ There will be some robots who can transform into weapons,]
Release and marketing
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be released in regular and IMAX theaters on June 26, 2009.
Chris Mowry and artist Alex Milne, who collaborated on The Reign of Starscream comic book, will reunite for IDW Publishing's prequel to the film. Originally set to be a five part series entitled Destiny,[ it was split into two simultaneously published series, Alliance and Defiance. Alliance is drawn by Milne and will begin in December 2008: it focuses on the human and Autobot perspectives. Defiance, which begins in January 2009, is drawn by Dan Khanna and introduces new backstory elements in the film, as well as focusing on Megatron's resurrection and his discovery of another ancient Cybertronian object.][ Original version before Paramount had it censored to remove mention of the Fallen's role in the film is avaliable here: [3]] while Alan Dean Foster is writing the novelization.
During production, Bay attempted to create a misinformation campaign to increase debate over what Transformers would be appearing in the film, as well as to try to throw fans off from the story of the film. However, Orci confessed it had generally not been working.[ However, because of Bay's statement that he would intentionally leak false information about the film, fans also do not believe this.]
The teaser trailer will be released in February 2009, with Bay considering to debut it at Super Bowl XLIII.
