Sci Fi NewsTransformers As Real As Possible
Ian Bryce, one of the producers of Michael Bay's upcoming Transformers movie, told SCI FI Wire that the director shot as much of the SF action live as possible. "I think that as much practical photography as you can get is the best," Bryce said in an interview on the film's Los Angeles set last August. "I think the audience is so sophisticated these days that they can tell what's [computer-generated], what's animatronic, what's not real. So we certainly like to capture as much original photography as we can, and then enhance it with the CG shots."
The production even built a number of full-scale versions of the title robots, the Autobots and the Decepticons, who have come to Earth to wage a final battle.
"We've got a few," Bryce said. "We've got a couple of robots that we built in full scale that are used very specifically for some shots. But, yeah, we like to get as much live action as we can."
The production also made use of less-than-full-scale robots. "We've got a little one, too, that's fantastic, that's actually very, very articulate, if you will, in terms of his range of motion, and he's puppeteered. He's great. I love that robot. I think he's awesome. We're going to sell a lot of toys."
Based on the 1980s TV, toy and comic-book franchise, Transformers will follow five separate storylines, which will all converge with a final battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, starting at Hoover Dam and ending in an American city that looks a lot like Los Angeles.
The movie will mix SF with the signature action of Bay (The Island), Bryce said. "Mike [is] one of the greatest action directors ever," he said. "He's going to have some of that, you'll see, in the ending sequences. Once we get into the third act, there's some great ground and air-based action, both with military and not with military. And we've got a big road sequence we're going to do next week, so I think he'll blend in some of his traditional and expected action into the story." Transformers opens July 4.
Murphy Talks Transformers
Don Murphy, one of the producers of Michael Bay's upcoming Transformers movie, told SCI FI Wire that the film will deal with several elements of the comic, TV and toy franchise, but not any single storyline. "There's so many things that make it Transformers, but there's no ... one classic story, like [Spider-Man's] death of Gwen Stacy or something like that," Murphy said in an interview on the film's Los Angeles set last August. "I think it proved a little bit tricky. ... The real balance was that ... if you just wanted robots smashing robots, then that's [computer animation] or that's 2-D [animation]. And what we were always trying to do was a live-action movie. ... So you kind of have a nice balance now between the robots and the human interactions. And the first movie, as I'm sure you already know, is about the arrival of the Autobots and the Decepticons to Earth."
Transformers will offer background about the origin of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. The plot will be set in motion when 18-year-old Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers his grandfather's pair of century-old glasses, improbably laser-etched with a map and information about the location of a key artifact, the "Energon" cube, which he then tries to sell on eBay. The movie will follow five separate storylines, which will all converge with a final battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, starting at Hoover Dam and ending in an American city that looks a lot like Los Angeles.
Murphy said that the movie will make use of generation-one Transformers. "Everything that the original writer, John Rogers, had grown up on," Murphy said. "When [additional screenwriters] Roberto [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] came on to do their subsequent drafts, it was all the first season, because that was what I think had been earmarked as the traditional thing, ... as this is what kids grew up on and everything." Transformers is eyeing a July 4 release. —
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