Movie Chronicles
In a post on Don Murphy’s message board, writer Roberto Orci stated that Transformers 2 shooting has been taking place “all week and last week”. It was previously thought that TF2 had ceased filming in anticipation of the SAG strikes.
Michael Bay has confirmed this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, where they spoke to Michael Bay at a remote air force base.
Automobile blog, Motortrend, are reporting that General Motor’s electric powered “Chevy Volt” will be making an appearance in the Transformers sequel, “Revenge of the Fallen”. What role the vehicle shall have in the movie is unknown.
Whilst Transformers 2 has no official involvement in the San Diego Comic Con this year, the IESB reported that Hasbro, with permission from Paramount/Dreamworks, would be showing a small snippet of the Transformers sequel. However, since that article was posted and the slew of internet movie sites posted the news about the web, Paramount has issued a brief statement that there will in fact be no Transformers 2 footage shown at Comic Con.
The problem with Arcee is quite simply — how do you create a believable Transformer that fits into the space of a fully functioning motorcycle. The answer is to get 6 custom built bikes from RetroSBK, after Dreamworks contacted owner Will Kenefick, so Ventura County Star report.
Kenefick has since worked ridiculous man hours to get these six bikes (the turnaround for one usually being 6 months), ready in time for filming. The 3 “hero” bikes and 3 “stunt” bikes were ready in time and some were in action at the start of June in Pennsylvania — Kenefick was on hand to fix and maintain the vehicles, sometimes getting only 2 hours of sleep. My guess is that the bikes we have seen were the 3 stunt bikes (this fits in with the call sheet), the 3 hero bikes being used for close up non-action shots, which is probably where most of the paint has gone!
He estimates that 1273 hours were put in and that each bike cost $40,000, with $10,000 on paint alone (which added a further 1036 hours of work). Because the bikes are small it is expected that they will be showcased at the movie’s première.
One of RetroSBK’s awesome custom built bike’s:
Transformer Toys got the scoop on a small description of the Transformers 2 game adaptation, “Transformers 2: The Ultimate Battle” — not sure if that is a working title or not. The article suggests that Starscream is the ultimate baddie, whilst giving some weight to the rumors of Transformers that can transform into weapons:
“Make every second count Transformers 2: The Ultimate Battle, as you choose to seek revenge as the Decepticons or defend Earth as the Autobots. Go beyond the movie and drop into pressure-packed missions where seconds can make the difference between survival and destruction. Play as a variety of Transformers, such as the evil Starscream or heroic Optimus Prime, to either demolish or protect fully destructible environments around the globe. A new Transformation system gives you more detailed control as you instantly switch between Robot, Weapon, and Vehicle modes at any time to drive, fly, fight and shoot your way through gripping levels. Then make your choice online as you go head to head against friends in multiplayer battle zones. Your alliance will decide whether Earth’s greatest cities stand or fall in ruin as you experience the ultimate level of intensity in this race against time.”
Philly.com have pointed out that the Transformers II production team will very soon be starting their work in and around Philadelphia,
Keep an eye out for Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox and John Turturro over the next two weeks as Michael Bay puts Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen before the cameras in Philly, starting tomorrow. Among locations: Peco [Philadelphia Electric Company] plants along the Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania (because LaBeouf plays a college student), and Eastern State Penitentiary. Last week’s shooting in Bethlehem, Pa., was a blast, as the old U.S. Steel plant hosted explosions and whirring Black Hawk helicopters.
Machinegundeath was on location at the Bethlehem Steel site to capture both images and video of Day 2’s shooting. Many thanks go out to him! You can find his set report here.
Transformers 2 has a subtitle! In a posting made by producer Don Murphy on his forums, he linked to a blog post, revealing the full title to the sequel:
DreamWorks — Paramount Pictures have release the new title — Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen — for Transformer sequel directed by Michael Bay. The Office’s Rainn Wilson joins the original cast of Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro and Tyrese Gibson in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is written by Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and produced by Tom De Santo, Don Murphy and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura.