Posts Tagged ‘Transformers-3’
Michael Bay has been vocally against the growing popularity of 3D films, at last year’s theatrical exhibitors ShoWest convention making the very unpopular statement that “I think it might be a gimmick.” He added that he didn’t know for sure, and that he was “looking forward to [James] Cameron’s picture.” And Avatar came, and became the biggest grossing film of all time — that’s what they call a game changer.
We’ve heard that Paramount is pushing to film Transformers 3 in 3D, but will Bay budge? Bay appeared on Starz’ “In the House” last night, where he talked about many things, including the possibility of seeing big giant robots on the big screen in 3D:
“It’s a process we’re testing with some ‘Transformers‘ scenes,” he said. “How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I’ve seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage.”
I find it very interesting that Bay uses the word “process” and not “technology”. Also curious is the comment that he’s “seen some tests that look great on other movies”. Both of these statements lead me to assume that Bay isn’t planning to shoot Transformers 3 in 3D after all, but is considering post production 3D processing, a process that even James Cameron has called out as being a gimmick. One of the reasons Bay mentioned last year for not wanting to make a 3D film was that the 3D technology is too fragile for his explosive-level of filmmaking.
“The way I shoot is too aggressive for 3D cameras. It’s a time consuming thing,” said Bay. “Who knows… It might be a fad. I’m kinda old school. I’m old school because I like to shoot on film. I like anamorphic lenses, and that is old school.”
Other bits revealed on the Starz show:
- Bay plans to shoot his “small movie project”, Pain and Gain after Transformers 3.
- Bay claims that Transformers 3 “can’t just rehash the old,” so they’re “adding a lot of new elements”, … “new characters,” … and “a lot of twists.” Oh, my.
source: MTV
I know this isn’t much, but Michael Bay’s official website has been updated with information big action sequences will be shot for Transformers 3 in Chicago and Moscow this time around. Of course, that doesn’t really tell us much, as the Asian power plant opening sequence of Revenge of the Fallen was actually filmed at a factory in Bethlehem, PA. The film is set to gear up soon, so we’ll learn more in the coming months.
Not that we didn’t expect him back for another go around, but Tyrese Gibson has confirmed that he will be reprising his role as Sgt. Epps in Michael Bay’s Transformers 3. In a post on Twitter, he confirmed by saying that “Yes I will for sure be in Transformers 3.. Get Ready!! Epps is here to STAY!!”. Written by Ehren Kruger, Bay has described the screenplay as “feeling very different from the other two”, promising that the story will be much more about character, and will feature a lot less robots than Revenge of The Fallen. The film is being prepped for a shoot later this year, with an announced July 1st 2011 release date. Last we heard, Paramount was pushing Bay to shoot the film in 3D. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are both expected to return for the threequel, reprising their roles as Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes.
Paramount might force Michael Bay into filming Transformers 3 in 3D following the success of James Cameron’s Avatar. Bay has been vocally against the growing popularity of 3D, at last year’s theatrical exhibitors ShoWest convention making the very popular statement that “I think it might be a gimmick.”
He added that he didn’t know for sure, and that he was “looking forward to [James] Cameron’s picture.” But even if he was impressed with how Cameron employed the technology, Bay explained that 3D is too fragile for his explosive-level of filmmaking.
“The way I shoot is too aggressive for 3D cameras. It’s a time consuming thing,” said Bay. “Who knows… It might be a fad. I’m kinda old school. I’m old school because I like to shoot on film. I like anamorphic lenses, and that is old school.”
But money talks. Variety is reporting that “there have been discussions among Bay, Paramount and Industrial Light & Magic about going 3D” with the third film in the transformers series. The article states that the “big stumbling block is the extra time required to do production and visual effects in 3D, as the movie’s release date is already set.” A possible solution would be to have the film converted to 3D in post production. I’m still not sold on the look of post process 3D. If anything, I feel that is more of a gimmick than anything else - it doesn’t feel real, it’s kind of a cheat.
I’ll probably be waiting a long time to hear that Ken Loach or Joe Swanberg is looking into 3D for their next production, but it seems that stereography really has caught on with franchise-type pictures, genre films and so on. Over the last few weeks there’s been explicit discussion of an ‘Avatar effect’, a redoubled interest in the form from the studios looking, jaws dead on the floor, at the box-office receipts for Cameron’s latest.
Is this perceived effect real? It seems it will be, and I’m sure that seems to be no surprise if you think of Hollywood as cash grabbing. But is it really the money men driving the decision to go 3D? Might it not be the creatives?
Bryan Singer has reportedly requested New Line allow his next picture Jack the Giant Killer be shot in 3D. The discussion is apparently still ongoing. It’s the pen hovering over the checkbook that’s hesitating here, not the artist.
The New York Times say that their sources spoke “on condition of anonymity because of studio policy”. When it comes to Paramount, however, they are able to cite Katie Martin Kelley directly. She says that the final decision on whether or not Transformers 3 and/or Star Trek 2 will be shot in 3D had been made. Here’s the fullest statement on Trek given in the article:
Paramount executives have already begun debating whether to shoot the next film in 3-D, even if that increases the cost and production difficulty, according to one person who was briefed on the talks.
I reported yesterday that the debate over stereography for Transformers 3 was still ongoing. It seems to be that Michael Bay has already said he doesn’t like 3D and is now sticking to his guns, whether or not he’s changed his mind at all. My money is on him losing the fight and issuing some sort of back-pedal statement on his official site - and before long too.
It seems that Transformers 3 is set to start rolling in May. So soon! You’d imagine they’d have a finished script and would have made all of their necessary big decisions too, like whether or not to film in 3D? Yeah… maybe not.
The news of the May shoot came from a small aside in a Deadline Hollywood Daily post on Shia LaBeouf changing agents. A little bit of fact checking later and I learned that, yes, that date was right but,, the screenplay hasn’t been finished yet. I’m not sure how unusual this is with tentpole films any more, but it’s a talking point at least. What was that about “All publicity”?
I was curious if the ‘Avatar effect’ was going to lead to the film being shot in 3D, despite Michael Bay’s earlier protestations aimed at the format. Interestingly, it seems that Bay hasn’t won the argument. Not yet anyway. And with producer Steven Spielberg being so enamoured of Avatar, it seems like Bay might have to concede. That’ll make me happy for one.
Michael Bay has been hanging around at the launch of a Victoria’s Secret Show, with the excuse that he directs their commercials, and discussing his supposed nemesis in lipgloss, Megan Fox. And what does he have to say about her?
I love her.
Er… okay, Mike. He did also discuss the role he’s creating for her in the third Transformers film. “She’s got a great part in Transformers 3” he promised. So he’s not going to kill her off? “No, no, no. She gets enough of that already”. Okay… whatever that means.
USA Today had Andrea Mandell on the scene, who got Bay to discuss the crazy hurtful things that Fox has said about him. Here’s their version of what he said:
She called me [after the Hitler comment] and goes, ‘It’s all bullshit, Mike.’ The press, they just like to prey, and stalk, and pounce and find a good little juicy thing. But she’s always wanted to do these crazy comments. That’s just her. She’s great.
How dare the press pounce on her cute little Hitler comment like that. There was nothing offensive about it at all, not to anybody.
Okay, the only news here, really is that Bay is promising a big role for Fox in the next Transformers film. I don’t believe him when he says she won’t be killed off because I don’t really believe when he says anything he seems to be lying so often, but he does seem to be operating from the assumption that she’ll figure in the film in some sort of substantial capacity.
Well, as substantial as anything has ever been in a Michael Bay picture.
I think Fox’s finest hour to date was quite easily Jennifer’s Body, which I liked a great deal, but she was carried right into that role on the crest of a zeitgeist wave. She was the “that type” we all knew at the time, and soon enough, there’ll be another “that type” come along, and hopefully one we can all like a little better.
Does anybody care if Fox is in the next battling bot-a-thon or not? Surely what appeal there is lies in the hydraulic characters, not the pneumatic ones?
In this week’s /Filmcast, Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley discuss the pitfalls and opportunities of corporate sponsorship, speculate on some plot possibilities for Kill Bill 3, and Devindra and Jeff try and fail to Curb Their Enthusiasm for Friday Night Lights. Jeff Cannata is our special guest this evening, joining us from the Totally Rad Show.
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- (00:40) Jeff Cannata from The Totally Rad Show joins us, and contest winners announced!
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- (40:38) Activision Blizzard files trademark for Call of Duty movie
- (45:20) Quentin Tarantino Promises Kill Bill 3
- (49:00) Transformers 3 for 2011 Release
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Producer Don Murphy maintains a pretty lively website and forum that was crashed for a bit this morning when Roberto Orci confirmed in a forum post that he and Alex Kurtzman would not return at all for Transformers 3, leaving script duties entirely in the hands of Ehren Kruger. (Well, not entirely, as Michael Bay will have his input.) This is no surprise to anyone who’s been following along over the past couple months.
One poster asked today if ‘Bob and Alex’ really weren’t returning for the next film, to which Orci responded “It’s true.” Back in March, Orci had intimated, also on Murphy’s forum, that the pair would not return to write the third Transformers film. “Time for fresh blood!” Orci said . “The main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the opportunity to sing news songs. We’ll see.” Since then, the screenwriting name bandied about with respect to the film is Ehren Kruger, who also worked on Revenge of the Fallen.
I’m no great fan of Kruger’s, and many peg the writer’s work with Michael Bay as being the source of the ‘humor’ in Revenge of the Fallen that many found juvenile and terrible. (And, judging by the box office numbers, more found delightful. Go figure.) Can we expect more of that funny stuff in the third film? Seems reasonable to assume so at this point. The most interesting post from Orci, however, was one concerning the crude humor of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. One post brings up anecdotal tales about parents not taking their kids to see the second film because of the humor, to which Orci responds, “I can’t blame them.”
Meanwhile, we know that Bay has a story in mind and is already beginning work on the third film for that 2011 release date that Paramount announced and Bay originally renounced.
Today is day one of Michael Bay’s hard graft on Transformers 3. He has, apparently overnight, flown to Rhode Island to talk to Hasbro about incorporating new characters into the film and is now working with Ehren Kruger on the screenplay. The final day of his travails will be on July 1st, 2011 which is now the date set for the film’s release - just like Paramount and Dreamworks had initially promised us back in March. But what does this mean for his ’smaller film’, Pain and Gain? And is Megan Fox coming back for more punishment?
According to a post that Bay himself made to his official forum, Megan Fox will indeed be coming back for more. Contractual obligation? Most likely. He’s keeping up the war of words, however:
Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.
Great. That means we’ve literally got over two more years of this daft back and forth between them. Let’s just all agree to tune out now.
When the 2011 date had originally been touted, Bay seemed to balk and talked about shooting a smaller film before returning to his megabot behemoth of a franchise. That turned out to be Pain and Gain, a kidnapping and extortion thriller about a pair of idiot bodybuilders, which he now tells us will follow directly after Transformers 3. I Am Number 4 and Bad Boys 3 seem to have been set on the backburner for a while then, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see either of them derail Pain and Gain. Heck, I wouldn’t really be surprised to see Bay follow Transformers 3 directly with Transformers 4.
Thanks to Twitter user @ImmaculateCale for thinking to send me a heads up on this story. Give them a follow out of gratitude, why don’t you?
