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One other piece of movie-related news from Hascon deals with the second induction for the Transformers Hall of Fame, introduced by Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner - and featuring the producer of the Michael Bay directed movies from Paramount: Lorenzo di Bonaventura!
Starting with Transformers (2007), to Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and then the new trilogy with Age of Extinction, The Last Knight and the next movie (plus of course the Transformers Universe: Bumblebee solo spin-off), di Bonaventura has been behind the scenes, helping shape what we have today in the live action universe. Check out the ceremony below, and head back here for the Susan Blu one that preceded it!
Revving up some speculation engines, we have an image from actor and stunt personnel Rory Markham on Instagram, hinting at a military presence in the upcoming Transformers Universe: Bumblebee live-action movie - with Sector 7 judging by the uniform he's wearing. Check it out below, and give us a comment in the Energon Pub!
Transformers designer Alex Kubalsky, the mind behind Classics Mirage, Hound, Animated Blackarachnia, Prowl and Hot Rod, movieverse Brawn and many many more, has sent us a message about an exhbition of his work in the transformable design sector organised by JaguarShoes Collective: Industrial Origami. It is currently running, and will last until 1st November in Shoreditch, London (UK). We're told that here won't be much artwork that hasn't been seen before but there will be a presentation and Q & A on 24th about developing transformable toys. Concerning new work, there will be more work related to the jaguar animation featured at the exhibition. More information can be found here, but check out an extract, samples and a sneak peek of his work below!
For more than 30 years transformation has been a staple part of the pop cultural landscape in the shape of ‘Transformers’ a toy and movie franchise, born in 1984 which grew from Japanese designed Takara toys, rebranded and distributed in the USA as Transformers.
[...]
JaguarShoes Collective believe that this design practice is long overdue some well deserved admiration and celebration. Therefore we will be hosting a talk and Q&A on 24th September alongside an exhibition of work by prop and toy designer Alexander Kubalsky.
An accomplished product designer Alex specialises in the art of Transformable design and is commissioned by numerous commercial clients inc. Hasbro, Warner Films and many other multinational toy and film franchises.
Courtesy of iTunes, via the magic of IDW's Mariel Romero, we get a brief preview to the aftermath of Slaughterhouse in Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #33. Check out the sneak peek below, and probably head back here in a week for the full works! WARNING - Contains gigantic spoilers for the last issue.
REVELATIONS! The fate of an entire planet hangs in the balance as MEGATRON races to solve the dark riddle of Sector 113. As unseen forces move in for the kill and old friends reveal their true colors, the AUTOBOTS realize that everything—everything—is a lie. All this...and an open briefcase.
Our dear friend Jim Sorenson has updated his blog Disciples of Boltax with the newest page from the Ark Addendum cutting floor. for thsoe that don't know, the Ark Addendum is a book, by Jim Sorenson, that collects the animation models and background art for the original G1 cartoon and it's Japanese Continuations. Since there is so much material not all of it is collected in the actual book, which is where this blog comes into play, each week Jim Sorenson posts a new page for our viewing pleasure!
This week it's the Transformation sequence for Super-mode Ginrai, Godmaster of RAGE!, from the second Japanese Transformers anime show [url]Super God Masterforce[/url]. Ginrai is a human who with the power of the Masterforce can turn into a Godmaster and combine with a transector to fight Decepticons. His toy was released by Hasbro as Powermaster Optimus Prime.
Click the image to view the full sized page!
The latest issue of the Transformers Collector's Club magazine is arriving at the mailboxes of Seibertronians! Issue #35, dated October / November 2010, reveals several new Transformers products, some of which we've already seen unofficially during the past couple of weeks. Here's a rundown on what you can look forward to this issue:
SPRING 2011 PREVIEW!
Brian's Bytes and Bolts - Brian mentioned that they hope to have registration online later this year for BotCon 2011 as well as other exciting details about BotCon, MCAX.com, the Diamond Edition 2010 BotCon comic, and more!
An Interview with Flint Dille - always an entertaining interview!
Q&A with Hasbro - pictures reveal new images of Deluxe Generation 2 Optimus Prime (looks incredible), deluxe Wreck-Gar, deluxe Perceptor, deluxe Scourge, deluxe Tracks and legends Trailcutter. The article reveals some details about a few other characters who have not received updates recently and also alludes or strongly hints that there might be possible future updates of the 3 remaining original Autobots who have yet to receive a new figure yet.
Profiles for Sentinel Major (looks like a non-Animated version of his Animated self) and Ricochet (BotCon 2005 Cyberjet).
Comic: "The Coming Storm: Part 5" which includes an awesome final page that fans will be sure to love.
Transformers Comic Spotlight: Sector 7 Issue 1 (interview with IDW Editor Andy Schmidt)
The issue rounds out with "The Back Cover" which features "Around Cybertron", "Featured Fan Art!" (Megatron by April Ford), and the latest "Recordicons" comic strip by David Willis.
Seibertron.com members Real Devastator and Robinson have let us know that the LA Times reported that Ramon Rodriguez might have a bigger role in the next Transformers Movie instalment.
Rodriguez played the character of Sam's college room-mate "Leo Spitz".
Read the article by clicking here.
How big will "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" get? The movie was closing in on $400 million on Monday, a number that surprised even some of the people at Paramount Pictures. We've had tons of coverage on the film, which is breaking records at the box office, and we're not done yet. Here's a longer version of the Los Angeles Times Calendar story I have in today's paper on one of the new faces in Hollywood, Ramon Rodriguez, who plays Leo Spitz in the No. 1 movie in America right now. A lot of people are expecting big things from Ramon in the future, including Michael Bay, who hinted to me that the third film in the franchise will have a meatier role for the new cast member.
Ramon Rodriguez in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
It turns out that filmmaker Michael Bay runs an audition a lot like he makes movies.
Last year, Ramon Rodriguez visited Bay’s Santa Monica offices seeking a key role in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and, instead of a sedate line-reading, the young actor was told to basically run for his life.
“For 90 minutes, he had me jumping, running, diving over the furniture in his office -- that was the audition,” said Rodriguez, who was adept enough to land the role of Shia LaBeouf’s sidekick in the biggest movie of the year. “I was drenched in sweat. He told me, ‘OK, hide behind the desk!’ ‘Now, run over here!’ And man, I was looking in his eyes, and he was enjoying it. He’s got a passion for action. It shows in the movies too.”
Critics may cringe, but audiences are feeling it: “Revenge of the Fallen,” as of Monday, was closing in on $400 million worldwide. That's a staggering number, and the domestic gross, $201 million, fell just short of the five-day record of $203 million set last year by “The Dark Knight.”
It’s been dizzying to watch from a distance, but it’s an especially wild ride for newcomer Rodriguez, whose career surged this summer with the “Transformers” role as well as his work in Tony Scott’s “The Taking of Pelham 123,” which put him side by side with Denzel Washington and John Travolta.
“I’m coming out of nowhere this summer,” Rodriguez said on recent bright afternoon on a basketball court in Studio City. “At least that’s how it seems to people. It feels that way to me sometimes too. And it’s been a major education.”
For Rodriguez, this summer is the equivalent of a half-court shot that hits nothing but net.
The actor, who grew up on Manhattan’s lower east side but also spent much of his youth in his family’s native Puerto Rico, was a college and prep-school basketball star but didn’t have the height needed to achieve his NBA dream.
After picking up a sports-management degree at New York University, he was working for the New York Knicks in their community relations department but hating it. “You would think I would love it, but working for a team that’s losing is just no fun,” he said. “It was so gray, so dark, there were layoffs and turmoil."
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen cast with Michael Bay
A friend coaxed him to enter a Nike basketball-trick competition and, with the lure of a free pair of sneakers, a disinterested Rodriguez agreed. He ended up winning by spinning a ball, putting it on the tip of a pen and then gripping the pen with his teeth without interrupting the revolving ball.
It was a heck of a trick: It led to the ballplayer joining the Nike freestyle team and a tour of Asia and Europe as a sort of latter-day Harlem Globetrotter. At NBA games, Rodriguez performed in front of stars he had hoped would be his peers.
“They were checking us at halftime, I could see out of the corner of my eye that they were smiling,” he said. “We got paid, we traveled, people cheered. And then there’s another thing: When you’re the halftime show, you never lose.”
His work in Nike commercials gave him a foothold in a new sector: acting. That path became more than a lark in 2005 when Rodriguez had an eye-catching, two-episode guest appearance on “Rescue Me,” FX's firehouse drama, in which he played a young man who had been molested by a priest.
“The firefighters went to the priest and at the end of the story arc, in front of everyone, I kill myself,” Rodriguez said. “I put a gun to my head in the middle of the church. I was finding out what it meant to be an actor.”
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
Rodriguez then immersed himself in acting studies even as he did an eight-episode run on “The Wire” in the role of Renaldo, the dangerous lover of stick-up man Omar Little. Next was Rodriguez’s memorable turn in Alejandro Gomez Monteverde’s “Bella,” the 2006 film that won the people’s choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
That set the stage for “Transformers,” which allowed Rodriguez to get in touch with his youth – he used to watch the cartoon series while munching on sugary cereal. The role of the fast-talking Princeton freshman Leonardo Ponce De Leon Spitz – who is the new college roommate to LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky — makes Rodriguez the comic relief in the film about giant alien robots.
Director Michael Bay has a third "Transformers" film in mind, and if it plays out as he expects, the next installment would have a more substantial role for Rodriguez. The filmmaker, speaking at his office a few weeks before "Revenge of the Fallen" was released, seemed to have some pride of discovery when talking about Rodriguez.
"I've worked with big stars, people like Will Smith, Sean Connery and Bruce Willis, but casting is a weird thing, it takes you places you don’t expect," Bay said. "We went looking for a sidekick in this movie, Shia’s sidekick, and we find this new kid who really pops on screen. I think he’s going to have a real bright career. It’s great to work with big stars, but it’s always fun to discover people."
Bay said the actor is a mix of rough charm and refined intellect.
"He’s got a street edge and a realness to him," said the director, whose past films include "The Rock" and "Bad Boys.” "He’s a New York kid with a street feel to him. He adapted to the actors very well, which isn’t always easy in a big movie, a sequel, where a lot of the cast chemistry has been set already. He’s funny, charming, comes off cool and accessible.”
Rodriguez is eager to diversify his résumé and do arty films and ensemble pieces as well as the huge summer fare. But he said, no matter what comes next, he won’t soon forget this summer.
“It was the full deal: I remember flying to Egypt to climb the Pyramids … and then taking a Blackhawk helicopter to Petra to shoot there,” he said. “We shot on an aircraft carrier. I mean, all of it, it was just mind-blowing. I got my shot and, man, it was a good one.”
-- Geoff Boucher
Stay tuned to seibertron.com for all your Transformers related news!
The Hollywood Reporter has posted an article regarding the casting of Rainn Wilson for TF2. In the article, it gives us a look at the production of the film and some of the events that will be taking place during the filming. Another interesting bit of info is the mention of returning cast members. Taken from The Hollywood Reporter:
"The sequel to last year's megahit about a race of automotive automatons smashing it out on Earth reteams director Michael Bay with returning stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro."
Most of the cast returning had already been confirmed, but this is our first report of Josh Duhamel and John Turturro returning. It is easy to assume that Duhamel will resume his role as Captain Lennox of the United States Air Force, but as for Turturro and the disbanning of Sector 7, its anyones guess what his role will be.
In addition to the previously reported casting requests, Seibertron.com's own moldavite has found a new article with possible additions to the cast, including "Sam's older brother". Be reminded that this information has not been confirmed as of posting time.
In additional to the human characters reported on IESB earlier, this website has listed some added human characters:
Head of Sector 7
60s, female, aggressive and no-nonsense leader of a secret government agency & speaks with sass;
NASA Shuttle Pilot
Early 30s, male, Caucasian, African-American, Asian or East Indian, intelligent and sarcastic. Most gifted pilot NASA's ever had;
Murray
40s, a NASA IT tech, spastic and brilliant, he's capable of breaking down and reassembling the world's most complex computer;
Sam's Ex-Girlfriend
Late Teens-Early 20s, cute and cerebral, a total arty girl that leads her own punk band;
Eric Witwicky
Early 30s, Caucasian, Sam’s much older brother. A stiff and pedantic personal injury attorney. Loves money and having more of it than everyone else. Supporting Lead;
Funeral Director
50s, male, spacey yet kind-hearted funeral director that buries Simmons. Can't help but put his foot in his mouth every chance he gets;
MJ
19-25, Sam's RA. Third year college student studying bio-chem. Stuffy and stiff lipped, he's a hater of all things fun;
President of Uganda
Meets with US Special Forces to give them access to his land;
Leroy Mason
Late 30s-Early 40s, super tall ex-basketball player turned business man. Bumps into Sam to give him advice;
Basketball Player
19-25, tall, well built athlete who will be asked to participate in scrimmage basketball game.
Did you know that Michael Bay will be in the Transformers Movie? Well, it won't actually be Bay himself, but somebody will be mimicing his character. Syfy Portal recently spoke with with John Turturro and discovered some interesting information about Turturro’s character, Agent Simmons, who is the head of a top secret military unit called Sector 7.
Turturro told SciFi Wire that he based his performance as a preening government agent in the movie after Bay. "It was mostly Jon Voight's ideas translated from my body," Turturro claimed about his co-star. "Michael Bay was a little bit of an inspiration I would say."
"Michael likes to improvise a little bit," Turturro explained. "Everyone got a chance to do that in certain situations but he encouraged me to improvise and do different things. He's very child-like himself and had a good sense of humor and a lot of energy so I kept looking at him and thinking, I should do it more like Michael Bay -- at least a little bit. I'd tell him sometimes, 'I was doing you.' He's such a narcissist that he was just seeing me through (him). So it's OK."
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