Transformers 3 – Photo of Megan Fox and Bumblebee on set

Here is our first look at Megan Fox and Bumblebee from the set of Michael Bay’s Transformers 3. They were taken at Los Angeles, California on Sunday, May 2 for some previsualization shots while the crew readies for production.

Source: Movie Web

Transformers 3 – New Decepticon spotted

Recently there was some news on the cast for Michael Bay’s third Transformers film. It also mentioned a new Autobot in the shape of a Ferrari.

The Realm Toys had news from a studio mole who spotted a new Dodge Charger sporting a certain Decepticon badge. The Mole said:

I was doing my normal rounds on the lot and came across the Transformers 3 work. The main Transformers cars are all there including 2 that I didn’t see in the previous movies. One is a autobot that I couldn’t get close enough to take a picture of because it was being guarded so that it would not be scratched/ damaged. It was a red Ferrari. The other (which wasn’t being guarded as heavily) is a decepticon. It was a dark navy Dodge Charger. I managed to snap a couple of pics with my cell. Sorry for the poor quality.

So far the cast for the new film consists of Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, James Avery and is due out on 1st July 2011

Transformers 3 – Malkovich and Frances McDormand join the cast

Looks as if the third Transformers film will have to up the quality of the script as they’ve got a couple of great actors joining the cast. Plus they’ll have a new Autobot in the shape of a Ferrari.

Here is Michael Bay’s announcement:

Transformers 3 Update From Michael Bay
03/22/2010 06:40 AM
Hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Just been a little busy.

Transformers 3 has been going very well. We are going to shoot in LA, Chicago, Washington DC, Florida, Texas, Africa, Moscow, and China. On the talent front, we just locked in Frances McDormand and John Malkovich. Both amazing actors I’ve always wanted to work with. We also just got Ken Jeong, he is the super funny actor stuck in the trunk from “Hangover” and the Doctor from “Knocked Up.”

We start shooting pre-shoots in about one month.

I also was at a Ferrari charity event this week raising money for a hospital being built by Ferrari in Haiti. I announced that night the newest Autobot to join Transformers: the Ferrari 458 Italia.

I also want to thank everyone on this site that donated to the Make -A-Wish charity. We raised $20,000 which I will personally be matching. This is a great charity where they make wishes come true for kids who are very ill. We have had many Kids from Make-A-Wish visit us on our Transformers sets and this time we will be posting video of they’re visits on Transformers 3.

Michael Bay

How do you feel about Malkovich and McDormand joining the crew? Any people who hate Transformers but who’ll now give it a watch because of their involvment?

Source: io9

The 2010 Razzies – Sandra Bullock won worst Actress, could she win an Oscar as well?

Sandra Bullock turned up in person to collect her Razzie for Worst Actress. The thing is in a few hours she could win Best Actress at the Oscars.

Sandra, who along with co-star Bradley Cooper also won Worst Screen Couple for their performance in comedy All About Steve, arrived with a trailer filled with DVDs for the audience. She’s a good sport for turning up to collect the prize. Has anyone seen All About Steve? Is it as bad as they say?

She is in the running for Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Blind Side.

Michael Bay and Transformers 2 won Worst Picture and Director.

Below is the full list of Losers. Do you agree or disagree with any of them?

WORST PICTURE

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

WORST DIRECTOR

Michael Bay – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

WORST ACTOR

Jonas Brothers – The 3-D Concert Experience

WORST ACTRESS

Sandra Bullock – All About Steve

WORST SUPPORT ACTOR

Billy Ray Cyrus – Hannah Montana: The Movie

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sienna Miller – G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

WORST SCREEN COUPLE

Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper – All About Steve

WORST REMAKE/RIP-FF/SEQUEL

Land of the Lost

WORST PICTURE OF THE DECADE

Battlefield Earth

WORST ACTOR OF THE DECADE

Eddie Murphy

WORST ACTRESS OF THE DECADE

Paris Hilton

2009: The Year of Smart Sci-Fi

By Richard Bodsworth

As 2009 comes to a close the inevitable “reviews of the year “come out to play like The Warriors. I always like to look back, build a list and maybe sadly watch my Top 10 in order. While I was compiling, I noticed that the vast majority of them were Science Fiction films and it dawned on me it has been one Hell of a year for Sci-Fi. Something we were sorely starved of last year with the likes of the wooden wonder boy Keanu Reeves in The Day The Earth Stood Still. So I thought it may be appropriate to have a look at the Sci-Fi films of the year, in what I guess you could call, “2009: The Year of Smart Sci-Fi”

It seems to be universally accepted within the film industry that you can’t make a low budget Science Fiction movie, it’s all got to be about effects, explosions and all that nonsense. Shit, if science was at all like it is in films I might have received a higher grade on my exam at school. However, with his debut feature film, MOON, director Duncan Jones managed to turn that notion on it’s head. Shot on a budget of £2.5m, Moon is a dark, thought provoking modern classic. Making use of retro effect techniques like miniatures, the lunar landscape and the vehicles look as entirely, if not more, authentic than in most films using excessive CGI. But with Moon, the visuals only serve as the backdrop for the psychological core as Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) battles with the idea he may not be alone on the Lunar base. Jones’ direction coupled with the haunting score of Clint Mansell help create a claustrophobic environment not unlike that of Alien. Sam Rockwell’s tour de force performance is one of the best I have seen all year (bearing in mind I have yet to see Clooney’s Up in the Air) and hopefully there is a chance he will be acknowledged by The Academy come February‘s nominations.

Despite having a slightly bigger budget than Moon another debut feature director, Neil Blomkamp, showed you don’t need the net worth of a small country to make great Sci-Fi with the fantastic DISTRICT 9. After an alien spacecraft stops above Johannesburg, South Africa, the malnourished species onboard are given asylum on Earth. After a while some of the extraterrestrials become engaged in criminal activities with some becoming violent. As a result the human public want more control over the new arrivals. The government therefore sets up a secure camp called District 9, and the aliens – derogatorily referred to as “prawns” are sent there. However, crime again begins to spiral out of control and the camp becomes a shanty town. We follow one of the men in charge, Wikus (Sharlto Copley) of relocating the “prawns” to the new District 10. Filmed partially documentary style, the initial set up of showing how the aliens come to land on Earth is simply brilliant. Sharlto Copley’s improvised dialogue, especially during the relocation process, adds to the realism and builds a great character. Not unlike Moon, the film does feature some impressive visual effects but they are put on the back burner (for the first part of the film at least) as Blomkamp weaves the completely believable scenario with the underlying themes of xenophobia and the use of a privatised military. The final act does fall into action packed blockbuster territory but not without the thought provoking build up, all the more poignant by the country in which it is set. Under the watchful eye of Peter Jackson, you really wonder what the producer/director duo’s Halo could have been.

Sadly it seems lately, the best thing to do when times are tough is for big studios not to bother investing large sums of cash into original films and so we are spoon-fed the endless list of, sequels, prequels and reboots. While some are pointless, unoriginal and frankly crap (as I shall mention later), J.J. Abrams take on STAR TREK showed how it should be done. The film benefits immensely from the talented screenwriting combo of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. By using the time travel and alternate universe plot, the film is able not to disrupt the continuity set by the previous films and television series. I believe J.J. Abrams best attribute is his ability to pace a film perfectly, he showed this with MI:3 which is personally my favourite of the trilogy. This pacing makes sure we aren’t stuck in the almost boring plot points of an origins story, something Wolverine could have benefited from. Casting of the younger crew was also spot on, no actor overdoing their part and turning it into a parody. Critics may argue that the new film failed to portray the usual themes of the earlier incarnations, but I’m convinced the filmmakers did an excellent job with the amount of stuff they had to fit in as it was a prequel. It is intriguing to see what is next for the Enterprise.

While these were some of the highlights, there were also some spectacular failures this year including the laser blasting bukkake that was Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. After praising Orci and Kurtzman for Star Trek, their talents were nowhere to be seen in this loud, overlong, plot less monstrosity. It’s easy to Bay bash so I will stop, even though there is no chance he will because yet again suckers (myself included) queued up, paid the entrance fee, and there will continue to more films like it for years to come.

The daggers were already out before the film was released when McG was announced as director for the 4th Terminator outing in TERMINATOR SALVATION. Minds were momentarily put at ease after some footage was shown and I myself was genuinely excited… then I watched it. Just another plot less action film with too much shooting and not enough character, a high profile and talented cast ultimately wasted. I know some people enjoyed the film, even reading some 4 star reviews but isn’t this always the case? When a film with big expectations is released people think it is instantly great then after consideration and a few years down the line, opinion changes. See the Star Wars prequels, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull etc. It would be nice to see these big budget films concentrate a bit more on story instead of thinking about what can be blown up next.

So what can we expect in 2010’s Sci-Fi bundle? No doubt there will be a few surprises along with a few disappointments, but three films that should be marked on your film calendar include, Nimrod Antal’s PREDATORS. The film written and produced by Robert Rodriguez is apparently a direct sequel to the original 1987 Arnie classic, but that is yet to be confirmed, it is also rumoured the big man himself may even cameo as his original character, Dutch. Starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace and Danny Trejo there is every chance it could be an ultimate flop, but here’s hoping Rodriguez knows what he’s doing. Cant be any worse than Alien vs. Predator: Requiem anyway.

Probably my most anticipated is Christopher Nolan’s, INCEPTION. The trailer is short, and all we really know about the plot is it‘s “contemporary science fiction action thriller set within the architecture of the mind”. But with a cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger and the legendary Michael Caine how can you not be excited?

Finally at the end of the year TRON LEGACY. The footage already released has been simply breathtaking and word is it has come along way from that.

As you may have noticed, the biggest Sci-Fi film of the year and most probably the decade is not mentioned here. Sadly it has not yet been released. Look out for a separate Avatar review in the next few days.

A great article by Richard. Looking forward to the Avatar piece. Be sure to check out the LFF Review of the Year.

What have been your science fiction highlights and lowlights of the year?

How Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Should Have Ended

UPDATED: Peter Berg to take on Battleships

UPDATE 08/11/09: Now it appears the film will involve the battleships fighting aliens! More here.

Universal has set 1st July 2011, for the release of Battleship, confirming Peter Berg as director of the live-action pic based on Hasbro’s naval combat board game.

According to Variety the deal is part of a two-picture pic pact Berg has made where he’ll follow Battleship with an Afghan war drama Lone Survivor.

Aside from “Battleship” and “Stretch Armstrong,” Universal is separately developing “Clue” with Gore Verbinski, “Monopoly” with Ridley Scott, “Candyland” with director Kevin Lima, and “Ouija” with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes.

Personally I find the whole adapting a board game into a film a bit strange. Although the original Clue (Cluedo to us Brits) was rather funny. Mind you I would love to see adaptions of board games such as Dark Future, Zombies!!!, Arkham Horror and Descent.

For Berg, the picture realizes a passion for ship-bound war stories that he picked up from his naval historian father.

“I’ve been consumed with doing one of these since I tried to convince Tom Rothman at Fox to make a film about John Paul Jones, the founder of the American Navy,” Berg said. “As a kid, I was dragged from Navy museum to museum, and spent so much time on ships, listening to my father talk about the great battles of WWII, I did my high school thesis on the Battle of Midway. When this came up, it didn’t take me long to find a take for a film that is filled with raucous action-packed naval battles.”

That does sound cool though. Lots of ships blowing the crap out of each other. As long as they get a good cast involved then it could be a great war movie.

Berg called the film “a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle” — but he would not disclose any details about the enemy force.

The film will be the next directorial assignment for Berg. Obviously this means that some of Berg’s other projects such as Hancock 2 and a remake of Dune will be pushed even further back.

What do you think of a Battleship film? Any other board games out there that should be made into a film?

Bad Boys 3? Seriously. What you going to do?

A third installment of the Bad Boys franchise is in the works at Columbia Pictures, which has set Peter Craig to write the screenplay.

According to Variety, the hope is to have a script that would reunite director Michael Bay, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. At this point, with the project in the early stages, none has a deal to return.

The Bad Boys movies star Smith and Lawrence as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, caught up in cases involving car chases and explosions.

All parties have expressed a willingness to return if a story can be hammered out. One potential hurdle, however, would be the costly deals with the players.

No production date has been set.

Source: MovieWeb

Michael Bay to direct I Am Number Four

Michael Bay is undertaking a new sci-fi venture to produce and possibly direct. According to Variety, DreamWorks is finalizing a deal for I Am Number Four, which will be the first in a six-book sci-fi novel series. Bay is currently attached to produce the film, and it was said that he may direct the film as well.

One of the more unusual developments is that one of the book’s two authors was said to be James Frey, the infamous author who penned A Million Little Pieces. The book was shopped around under psedonyms, but a source for the trade indicates that Frey is one of the authors of the new book. The studio wouldn’t confirm if Frey is indeed one of the authors.

The book centers on nine teenage aliens who escape their home planet right before its obliteration and head to Earth to blend in as high school kids. The title character then discovers that he is being hunted by the enemy species that destroyed his home planet. It was said that the book’s publishing and screen rights were being shopped simultaneously.

Frey became embroiled in scandal when it was learned that his beloved non-fiction book, A Million Little Pieces was partially fabricated and embellished by the author.
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Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, 2009 – Movie Review

Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson
Running Time: 150 minutes
Score: 6.5 / 10

This review by Jinja. Spoilers ahead….

What’s it about?

IMDB blurb: “Decepticon forces return to Earth on a mission to take Sam Witwicky prisoner, after the young hero learns the truth about the ancient origins of the Transformers. Joining the mission to protect humankind is Optimus Prime, who forms an alliance with international armies for a second epic battle.”

Was it good / bad?

I probably didn’t do myself any favours by watching the first one the night before seeing the sequel. But I did have my expectations very low due to a couple of friends mentioning their disappointment.

+ The CG again was phenomenal – but, I said this first time round, the transformations were overly complex.
+ The eye-candy in this movie was spectacular.
+ Giant transforming robots fighting!

– Unfortunately I think the CG is also what totally overpowered the flick.
– The story was overly ambitious and complex – not for the younger audience.
– There was unnecessary language, that again I wouldn’t be overly comfortable with my 10 year old nephew hearing.
– Some gratuitous shots of Megan Fox and Isabel Lucas – now don’t get me wrong I enjoy the sight of an attractive woman, but the bit with Megan Fox painting the bike at the beginning was ludicrous!
– Slow-mo overload!
– A robot that transforms into a human!?
– Way way to long.

Just another thought what happened to the characters played by Anthony Anderson and Rachael Taylor?

Coolest / worst scene?

Coolest scenes were Optimus going berserk (on a few occasions) on decepticons and BumbleBee kicking ass.

Worst, the ridiculous geography that goes on at the end. One minute they are at the pyramids in Cairo, then the adventure takes them to Petra in Jordan. Then from Petra they see the military parachute out and land near the pyramids…and within minutes they are driving to meet up with them (I know I’ve seriously paraphrased that). Now Cairo and Petra are around 251.1 miles (give or take) apart. Sorry no, that last part of the film all took place within the same ‘evening’ – I know this is a film about alien life-forms that transform from giant robots into vehicles but come on. There wasn’t even a mention of the fact Israel even existed between Egypt and Jordan.

The Robots – What about the robots?

The twins were initially annoying, the half way through they were annoying and by the end you had enough of them as they were annoying and you hope the devastator kills them! A pair of street jive idiot punks, mildly ammusing but generally annoying – did I say that already?

The return of Megatron – acceptable, was expecting the whole cargo ship to transform rather than just the five overly suspiscious vehicles on-board. Unfortunately too many bad guys leaders, Megatron, StarScream and the Fallen, wanting screen time.

Soundwave – good idea as the satellite, but where was the voice!?

The Devastator – the biggest overly complex transform of the lot. Was just too big.

The Fallen – a lazy bugger who’d been hanging out on one of Jupiters moons for the past 17,000 years.

Did you laugh / cry / cover your eyes / walk out?

Laugh – yes, some very funny bits especially John Turturros paranoia and still some of the ‘aliens out of place on earth’ moments.

Cry – not even with laughter.

Cover my eyes – followed by a shaking head of disapproval at some of the continuity errors and pretty much the whole last half hour.

Walk-out – I didn’t walk out of Vertical Limit (my current leader of absolute chod movies) so wouldn’t walk out on this – worth staying for the visuals.

Anything we should watch out for?

You may miss it near the beginning, but the bit of an argument in China between the army and couple of Transformers. The governments manage to cover up the whole thing as a little earthquake or something…its complete and total destruction of downtown Shanghai!!! (BTW yes sarcasm set to very much high on that comment)

Why should we see / avoid it?

Big robots, lots of fighting, CG overload – your choice.

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