Transformers live action movie!

[Rad]

eh transformers sounds ok..... i mean they changed it so many fricken times it isnt cool anymore

[jmcc]

Hi.

ironside, I have seen this video in the Michael Smith's webpage but I don't know more.

There is other video, which you can see in this website too, about a Citroën 2CV. See it, it's funny.

[ULTIMA1]

Yes it is official, the live action movie will be hiting the big screen in July 2007.

Also check out the guy who built the robot out of a Mini on the Micheal Smith page

[jmcc]

(source)

I believe I'm starting to feel bad...

[the_Web_Slinger]

(source)

I believe I'm starting to feel bad...

Those are not the ones they will be using for the movie. they won't be using that new age "Transformers Armada" crap. This movie is going to be old school, Generation 1, 80s style all the way. can you dig it?!?

[jmcc]

Well, that sounds better for me because I only followed generations 1 and 2 and portions of Beast Wars Transformers.

I like Generation 1.

[Kal-el]

From Aint It Cool News...

Then I met Bay. He introduced himself and I shook his hand. The very first thing he said when we sat down was, "I'm not telling you any of the story." I was like, "Okay... so... did you see that cast list that is starting to circulate on the internet?" He brightened up and said he hadn't, then asked who was mentioned. I ran through the names I could remember offhand. Michael Clarke Duncan, Jon Voight, Bernie Mac... He just smiled and nodded. After a long silence he said, "Well, it sure is a big cast." I thought that was a pretty nice dodge, but if I had to guess based on his reaction I think IGN's scoop is legit, at least as far as those names are concerned.
One thing I can confirm, straight from Bay's mouth (and this is something he wanted the fans to know) is that he is going to audition the original voice actors for the Autobots and Decepticons. He said it's no guarantee they'll get cast, but he's going to give them a listen. His main fear is that the actors have aged since the cartoon and that age may be noticeable in their voices.
Bay then showed me a rough design for the TRANSFORMERS teaser poster. It was a robotic eye overlooking planet Earth, kind of peeking over the curvature of the globe. The eye was in a brow the shape of a right triangle and looked very mechanical, iris and all. The tagline was "Their War. Our World."
I like the tagline and the poster was very polished, but it reminded me a little too much of the ID4 poster. And the font for TRANSFORMERS at the bottom of the poster looked like ROBOCOP's font, not enough like the the TRANSFORMERS font.
Bay was called away to talk to the screenwriters for a few minutes and when he returned he asked me into the meeting room. The monster dog was back at his guard post and I had to step over the beast to get into the room. The dog was very passive this time and even relented to a bit of a scratch behind the ears.
The meeting room had a long table in the middle of the room, a flat panel widescreen TV on the far wall, giant horizontal posters for BAD BOYS 2 and PEARL HARBOR on the adjacent wall, Leatherface's mask in a displace case underneath, a TRANSFORMERS toy above it (it was a shiny black toy with a customized Michael Bay head on it, a gift from Hasbro, Bay told me), People's Choice award surf boards (for 2004 and 2005) resting in 2 of the 4 corners of the room and the bomb from PEARL HARBOR in another corner.
I sat across from Bay as he held a stack of at least 150 rectangular papers with everything from preproduction art to character designs to character tests on them. He flipped through the stack as he was telling me that he has the full support of the US Armed Forces for this film and has met with them repeatedly to discuss how they are portrayed in the movie. With a smile, Bay said that if the world ever had a giant robot problem how we see the Armed Forces deal with them in TRANSFORMERS is how we'd see them deal with them in real life.
He plucked a piece of art from this stack, careful to keep everything he didn't want me to see hidden in the pile, and slid it across the desk to me. He said that TRANSFORMERS will be the first film to be able to use the new fighter jet, the F-22. The image he slid to me was of this jet, a very sleek looking machine. Apparently, this machine has all of its weaponry (bombs, etc) hidden inside it, with panels that slide back to allow the weapons out when needed. It's a stealth jet and, most importantly, it can stop suddenly and hover (think of it rising its nose at a 60 degree angle and just stopping) which would allow the jet to take out enemy fighters as they scream past, unable to stop or turn in time. It's supposed to be a pilot's dream of a machine.
Bay was flipping through more of the concept art and character designs and he seemed unsure of what to show me. Reluctantly, he plucked out another piece and slid it over. This one was the first robot design I saw. It was all silver metal and had many sharp angles. I didn't recognize it, but this started a discussion about the design of the robots in the film.
The biggest difference from the cartoon and toys is that the Autobots and Decepticons aren't going to be as blocky. Bay said that when they started breaking down how these robots transform from vehicles to robots the blocky end result didn't make any sense and looked pretty silly. So, you see the working parts of the vehicles much more on the robots, you see sharper angles, but they all stem from them transforming.
He showed me another robot, a Decepticon called Scorponok (if I remember correctly, although it could have been called Skorpikon), a giant robot scorpion which had three long, thin pliable blades for each of its pincers that could join together and rotate, becoming drills. The tail folded up over its body and had a long sharp barbed pole that would shoot out of the end (presumably to skewer anything in the immediate area).
It was around here that I got my first look at Optimus Prime. I saw three concept art pieces on Optimus. The first was a headshot. He is blue, like the cartoon, but I noticed a lack of red in the early stuff I saw. Mostly steel gray and blue. Not sure what I think about that. His face is a bit longer than I remember the cartoon being, but the image I think of when I picture Optimus Prime is when his face guard is up. Bay was quick to point out that the Optimus I was seeing was him without his battle mask. Like the other robot I saw, Optimus was more angular than the cartoon, but he was still hulking. He was by no means lithe and skinny. Bulky, but not blocky.
The second piece of art I saw had him standing full size, head to toe , on the right side and his vehicle form on the left. Yes, it's still a Mac truck.
The third piece was a close up on his eyes. There was actually 2 different pieces here, two different options for how the eyes would look. They still haven't decided on the eyes yet, but Bay said the robots, and Optimus Prime especially, had to show emotion and you couldn't do that with just glowing red eyes. The one I liked the most had the iris of the eye looking like a turbine engine. Very mechanical, but like a camera shutter it appeared that he could dilate the "pupils." There were metal slats around his eyes as well that looked like they could slide over each other to give the area around the eyes specific movement and life. The other option was exactly the same, but the iris had what looked like wires instead of slats (turbine engine thingys). It was very pretty and mimicked the look of a human iris a bit more, but felt out of place in the robotic skull.

[davids2006]

I've been recently (April 29, '06) researching the TF live action movie, and it seems there may be some disappointments headed our way.

1.George Clooney will voice Optimus, rather than my preference, Peter Cullen of the original series. That kills me. I can actually handle even my beloved Megatron having a different voice, but not OPTIMUS.

2.There will (it seems) be only FIVE (yes, 5!!!) total transformers!!! I'll gut myself if that is true.

3.Soundwave and perhaps other transformers will be transforming into things they never were. As example, Soundwave will be transforming into a HELICOPTER, or so it is said.

I doubt there is anyone that has as much nostalgia and love of the Transformers than myself, but this news is horribly disappointing to me. I DEARLY HOPE that this information is in error.

[Jean-Pierre Bazinet]

1.George Clooney will voice Optimus, rather than my preference, Peter Cullen of the original series. That kills me. I can actually handle even my beloved Megatron having a different voice, but not OPTIMUS.

From the post above...

One thing I can confirm, straight from Bay's mouth (and this is something he wanted the fans to know) is that he is going to audition the original voice actors for the Autobots and Decepticons. He said it's no guarantee they'll get cast, but he's going to give them a listen. His main fear is that the actors have aged since the cartoon and that age may be noticeable in their voices.

In short... Since there is very little know, treat all info as rumour.