Thursday, July 22, 2010

di Bonaventura: Replacing Fox a Risk

E! Online has posted another interview with Transformers 3 producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has he once again comments on replacing Megan Fox with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Thanks to Brian for the link.
Is the Victoria's Secret model simply filling the hot-girl quota needed in a blockbuster franchise? "Well, Rosie is pretty hot," laughed Lorenzo. "But she's been great. She has a fantastic attitude, and she's been having a lot of fun."

"Rosie will definitely be [Shia's] love interest though," dished the famed producer. Well, we saw that coming a million pouty-lipped miles away, but how is LaBeouf taking a liking to the new chick on set?

"You know what? Their chemistry is proving to work out. You never really know. That's the biggest risk," Lorenze ‘fessed about the decision to replace Shia's good pal. "Megan and Shia had very good chemistry. Fortunately for us, these two have good chemistry.

It's a larger cast in general," the producer added about what positive changes to expect. "We've got [John] Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey...So what's happened is the shape of the movie has changed because of all the new people."
I wish di Bonaventura would quit talking about this. In the long run I think it is a dis-service to the movie, but also does not favors for Rosie. He is creating a situation where if the movie does well its despite Rosie and if it fails its because of Rosie. I don't see the win in continuing to comment about it. Also the unfortunate reality is Fox has proven not to be useful in helping a movie succeed. If people are watching Transformers for Fox and only Fox then I would think that would have translated into her other movies being successful but instead pretty much all her non-Transformer releases have been box office bombs. I wish her all the success and happiness in the world, but her lack of involvement is irrelvant to the success of Transformers 3. That will depend on the story, the action, and the special effects. The human characters exist to move the story along and keep the budget realistic. The Transformers are the real stars of the franchise.

Side note, since article means the Megan vs Rosie debate (which I had banned in a previous post) is completely on topic, feel free to discuss in the comments. However, two caveats. 1) Keep it to this post and only this post and 2) Keep it PG. Start in on the moronic cussing/insults (which doesn't nothing to help your argument) and I will delete the comment.

16 comments:

  1. I would have to agree. Jennifer's Body, which she had a seemingly lead role in, wasn't really all that great. Granted... I have yet to see the unrated version of that film, and that's the true version I should judge. That film did nothing for me in the theaters, however.

    Jonah Hex... well... let's face it... she might as well have not even been in that film. Her character has little to no impact in the story. Her character is strictly eye candy, and really not even that (not the magnitude of the Transformers flicks, at least).

    I'm sure there are more films, some of which I probably haven't seen, but those two are the ones I've personally seen, and within the past year.

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  2. 1) Other movies with Megan Fox were not produced by Spielberg, were low budget movies with other directors, other studios not Paramount/Dreamworks and not Michael Bay directing. So.. don't compare apples to oranges.
    2) di Bonaventura knows that there is no good chemistry between Shia and Rosie on set... that is why he is now worried and he clearly tells that. Of course he is now telling that chemistry is there in a hope that millions of people will buy it and give the movie a chance.. but all pictures from set so far simply proved that chemistry is not there. It's a big mistake to have Rosie play the new love interest. They should have avoided any new love interest and having her character named Carly shows that producers and director are quite a bit in desperation mode... di Bonavenuta himself here is now showing and telling that he is really worried.. and he better be worried because the new couple doesn't work on screen, unfortunately but what did they expect? They chose the wrong girl for such an important replacement role.

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  3. Well ofcourse the chemistry is not there on the pictures! You have to see the movie, and not a couple of set pictures, to judge if there is chemistry between the 2 or not. But that's just my opinion. :-)

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  4. Ultimately the question of how Megan Fox's departure affects Transformers 3 won't be answered until next July. How well the Carly character is written and how well Rosie performs will determine how audiences respond to the change. Fox's fame was a result of the sucess of Transformers(2007) but I can't say it was enhanced by ROTF. She was everywhere last year, on so many magazine covers and talk shows and yet there was little buzz around Jennifer's Body. True is wasn't a very good movie but I think it also points to the general public not being as infatuated with Megan Fox as the mainstream media was. I liked the Mikeyla character but I don't view her as being as much of an iconic movie-verse character as are Sam, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime or Megatron.

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  5. @Ray: they should have avoided any new love interest. Sam Witwicky is a nerd Peter Parker-type and that is a fact..that is what the character is.. and his own Mary Jane is Mikaela Banes in the movies.
    The fact that now they decided to give the Rosie topmodel replacement the role of Carly Witwicky it's a clear sign of desperation. They know it's wrong what they are doing but as diBonaventura points out they hope to be able to sell it to the general public.. The problem with all this is that it's a flawed idea to follow. It creates a huge contradiction and it's not going to be easily accepted by the public, just like on Spiderman3 the new love interest given to Peter Parker in the movie wasn't really accepted by the general public if not just disliked BUT there the movie still worked and was a huge financial success because Mary Jane and the actress playing her were still in the movie, they didn't just fire her like in this case.. so that triangle was accepted anyway despite script and characters flaws caused by all of that the majority of people still liked the change.
    But in this case the situation it's way critical an the fact that they have to resort to naming the new love interest Carly is more than a huge risk, it means that director and producers only hope is that long time fans will spread the word to tell that the new Carly is good because she would be the Carly from the original series and Mikaela now would be not anymore... although the general public on the first two movies loved the Mikaela and she was made to be the Carly of the movie-verse after all just like Sam is the Spike.
    So.. it doesn't look any good at all.
    They should have avoided giving Sam any new love interest. They should have focused more on other characters and maybe the bond between Sam and his parents.

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  6. I dunno about you, but the general public doesn't give a damn. The general public has only seen the movie ONCE. And you mix that up with aaaalllll the other great and memorable movies out there, honestly, you're really reaching for the stars if you believe that the Regular Joe is gonna remember who Mikaela or Carly is. They don't care. It's a hot chick in a big toy robot movie and it's directed by Michael Bay.

    And there's some cute Bumblebee in there too. :)

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  7. ANON 7/22/2010 10:46 AM you bring up a very good point. I was thinking POTC films with the Will and Elizebeth theme. Spiderman 3 is a good example. For the sake of continuity the Mikaela Banes closure needs to be done. Killed off between films is about the lamest thing that can be done. About as bad as not even mentioned at all. A better way is to have a walk on cameo maybe call her Kaela for short and have her leave Sam for that closure. IMDB has a Sams Girl listed as Micaela Johnson. Rosie was listed as Mikaela Banes, I have no clue how long that will still be up. Everyone knows that last part is wrong.

    The biggest insult to injury is the fact Megan Fox had a picture taken with the new Bumblebee Camaro just a few days before the whole mess blew up. That picture is still on flickr.

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  8. @LionBoogy: you don't care and you don't remember who Mikaela Banes is on the movies but the general public will immediately question why she is missing, what happened with Sam, why they split up and it will be very hard to sell the new topmodel Rosie as a new love interest for nerd Sam Witwicky.
    Spiderman3 it's the best example but it's not the only one.. it's the best comparison because they mostly tried to replace Mary Jane with the new love interest but they were smart enough not to fire the actress and get rid of the character.. so the trilogy had a proper closure and the general public didn't question the love triangle too much.. otherwise the movie would have flopped or underperformed rather badly.
    This is the big risk that diBonaventura is talking about Transformers3 there... he knows that what Michael Bay did when he fired the lead actress it's a very dangerous thing to do for the third movie.. and he better be worried because the Rosie topmodel doesn't have any chemistry with Shia on set.. at max they look like little brother and older sister.. nothing more than that.
    It's a sign of desperation that they need to have the Rosie topmodel character be named Carly hoping that long time fans will tell other who Carly Witwicky is and so the character won't be rejected... it's not going to happen simply because it doesn't make any sense, it's a forced too quick thing to do.. Spiderman3 risked a lot just playing the triangle thing.. how can they believe to be able to sell the new love interest and the movie will be a success? It's surely going to be affected by all of this.
    They should have avoided any new love interest for nerd Sam Witwicky, the general public knows and remembers Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes couple just like Peter Parker and Mary Jane.
    They should have switched focus on other elements in the movie, it's a bad sign to see that they want to force the Carly character on the general public at any cost. diBonaventura knows the risk and is trying to do some early damage control, he knows that it's highly likely that a large percentage of the public will reject the new couple and dislike it, and he better be worried because the new couple looks like a joke, which is a really sad ending for Michael Bay first trilogy and Transformers first live action trilogy.

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  9. I can't take your words seriously if you're gonna be Anonymous and write with terrible sentence structure. ^_^

    My views still stand. Go to a Walmart or Target or Toys R' Us and ask anyone if they remember who Mikaela is in Transformers the movie. I guarantee you nobody will and probably think you're some crazy psycho loony raving fanboy. And yes, that's who your general movie public is, the boring masses who eat up this stuff and don't bother to remember any of it. That's who dished out your hundreds of millions of dollars to see both films, regardless of whatever and whoever starred in them.

    The fact of the matter is that it's a summer blockbuster and it has explosions with Michael Bay written all over it. People just remember the explosions.

    And Bumblebee. They always remember Bumblebee!

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  10. And just to keep this in perspective...

    I've seen both TF movies over 15 times in the theaters. I couldn't remember half of the human names. I just remembered the robots and "Saaaamm~!"

    I've seen The Dark Knight about 5 times in the theaters. I know Bruce Wayne but honestly couldn't remember his former love interest's name.

    I've seen Spiderman many times but I still can't remember the female star's name... ?_?

    And oh god... Harry Potter... don't even start me on that.

    Iron Man was pretty good. Tony Stark was hilarious. But Iron Man 2? I heard they changed the black dude, but I haven't watched that movie yet. Not exactly on the top of my movie list.

    Twilight. Eh. Biggest movies of the summer and I haven't even seen those yet.

    So it's a matter of perspective. If you believe that Megan Fox kept this movie franchise chugging along, OK, fine you go ahead and believe that. ^_^

    I believe it was Bumblebee all along.

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  11. i so agree with lionboogy dude after every time we disagree with you you come back ranting about the movies gunna flop without megan fox, and im not kedding you but just to make sure i ask about 20 poeple but not in one day though, if they watched the movie just for sam and mikaela you know what they said? there like what? i liked it for the robots! and about 9 of them are my friends and all the rest just poeple. im am so not joking im not lying! all i here are the robots. and i tell some of them that megan fox is not in it you know they didnt look suprized and they didnt seem to care. and its a blockbuster summer flick action explosions people like my self go watch in amazmint at the CG robots the slo mo action scenes its just amazing! and if it is gunna be in 3d then wow i cant wate to see a 30 foot tall TF in action, and you know what people say they love bumblebee i mean thats like there favorite robot. and just to clear things up i did this a few days ago. im so not lying im telling the truth and i stand by what i said.

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  12. who cares....rosie..megan....big deal..they really weren't that important to the story as much as they were eye candy......I didn't watch TF1 or TF2 to see Megan..I watched it to see giant robots in action....and Spiderman 3 sucked because it wasn't a good movie and that's it...get over it..


    my two cents...

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  13. @LionBoogy:

    @op vs megs:

    It's no use guys. This same individual has been spamming just about every single Transformers related forum he can find. He always uses a different name(if he even uses one at all), but it's the same unintelligible rambling(about the same subject... and I'm almost positive that he was the one who Nelson at Bay's official site threatened to ban a while back), the same grammatical errors, the same bizarre way of phrasing certain things(Rosie Topmodel... etc... etc...), and my favorite, the same ridiculous habit of replying to his own posts and pretending to be someone else who agrees with his point of view. Hell, sometimes he even cuts and pastes the things he posts here.

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  14. DarthMuppet: Yeah I kinda figured that. :) Thanks for the heads up.

    Bumblebee is the best. Screw everyone else. hahaha

    But I have to admit every time I see Rosie in those super sexy tight skinny jeans, goddam... GOD. DAMN. :) :) :)

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  15. @LionBoogy

    Trust me... I know. Those really ARE some damn nice jeans!

    :D

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  16. Sure, the hot girl quota is rapped up. Anybody on the wish list can fill those painted on jeans well enough.

    How well will she play off of Sam?

    Or, be the foil to Simmons and/or Leo?

    Those are the big shoes Megan Fox left to be filled. We just don't know till the film is put together and released. At the moment the only one that knows anything about Rosie is Bay himself. Five minuite videos are way different from a two plus hour movie.

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