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!!!
