Set Visit Preview: The Transformers

In
many ways, the scene in downtown

L.A.

last Saturday was typical: traffic jams, smashed-up cars, guys with
guns roaming the streets. But the giant film crew on-hand betrayed
the fact that this was no ordinary city landscape; this was the set
of the new live-action TRANSFORMERS
film.

More
than meets the motherf*cking eye, baby!!!

The
fine folks at

Paramount

invited us and a few other outlets to catch a glimpse of the eagerly
anticipated project, in which the heroic Autobots battle the
sinister Decepticons, with the fate of our world hanging in the
balance.

The
massive production blocked off a huge stretch of downtown’s busy
Broadway Avenue and lined it with tons of extras, military vehicles,
soldiers (including several Special Forces-types referred to as
“Sector 7”) and several Autobots (Bumblebee, Rachet, Jazz and
Ironhide) in vehicle form. Behind them lay a few giant piles of
rubble and other debris. Up front was a giant “Furby” (another
fine Hasbro product) semi truck trailer, which was lifted and shaken
by a hydraulic device. No word yet on whether any actual Furbies
appear in the film or what role they might play.

The
scene being shot takes place near the end of the film, in which a
Decepticon (or Decepticons?) descends from the sky to lay siege to
the area below. Suddenly the street is covered in green smoke (could
it be the work of those Decepticreeps?
Hmmmm….), the army dudes scatter and the civilians flee in
panic. Given the fact that it’s a CGI-heavy scene, it was hard to
tell exactly what was happening, but one could safely assume that
the shit was hitting the fan.

In
charge of all the chaos was

Michael

Bay

, shouting from his megaphone and looking pretty jovial for a guy
battling a pretty nasty case of the flu. Clad in a t-shirt that read
“Giant F*cking Robots are Coming,” Bay moved from vehicle to
vehicle, giving instructions to the soldiers (actual members of the
U.S. Armed Forces) and setting up the scene.

The
production is extremely tight-lipped, and crewmembers were
understandably reticent about revealing any details from the film.
However, the producers did strongly hint that the upcoming full
theatrical trailer will definitely include footage of a vehicle
transforming. We were also assured that Soundwave, who will not
appear in this film, will be included in a sequel (assuming the
first film does well enough to warrant one). Which begs the
question: what will Soundwave be? In the 80s cartoon he was a
cassette player. What will he be in the sequel? An Ipod?

We
also got interviews with

Michael

Bay

, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and producers
Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto, Ian Bryce and Don Murphy.

The
studio folks have placed an embargo on us for now. Stay tuned for a
more detailed story, complete with all of the interviews, in the
near future.

Special
thanks to
Tamar
and Karl at

Paramount

!!!

Questions?
Comments? Manifestos? Send them to me at [email protected].