Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Transformers 3 Over Budget? (Updated)

An interesting article for Marina City Online, building complex on State Street in Chicago, suggests that Transformers 3 may have gone over budget during production leading to stunts being cut. A planned stunt for August 8th in Marina City's west tower parking deck that involved throwing four burning cars off the deck but was cut, apparently due to time and budget issues.
Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, says it was the film’s director, Michael Bay, who backed out of the stunt. “As far as I know, it was all set to go,” said Moskal Tuesday evening after giving a presentation at DePaul School of Digital Cinema.

“Michael Bay is always trying to do more and more,” he said, “but it was one of those things where they said, ‘do we really need to do this?’” Bay apparently had to get to a location in Detroit, a mansion that was a popular tourist destination and offered a limited opportunity for him to film there. “He had a shopping list and they were running out of time and they were way over budget to be honest with you.”

Bay, says Moskal, remembered Marina City from The Hunter. “The funny thing was, he said, ‘they did one car, I want to do four. And I want them to be on fire. I want there to be four burning cars.’ And it just kind of came down to, how much time do we have and how much more do we really need? And they did some pretty hairy stuff. It’s not like they were starved for yet another spectacle of explosions or flying cars or stuff like that.”

Other scenes for the movie, expected to be released next July, were planned but never filmed. “Their final scene was supposed to be in the reflection of the Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park where they wanted to see the city [on fire] and smoldering.”
The Millennium Park scene was probably cut because that was around the time production shut down for about a week due to the extra being injured in Indiana. It is also possible that the deck scene was repurposed for another location as the description seems to match some of what was filmed at another parking deck location a week later.

The idea of Transformers 3 scenes being cut or altered is not big deal as that is common for any movie. What would be surprising is if the movie is over budget as Michael Bay takes a great deal of pride in getting his movies completed on time and under budget. If Dark of the Moon is currently over budget, will steps be taken to get it back under control by possibly making cuts on post-production decisions with cuts for possible visual effects heavy scenes? Since every second of Transformers robot action is literally 10s of thousands of dollars being spent, there are many different cuts, both big and small, that could be done to get the film budget back on track. Thanks to rumah and Ray for the link.

Update: Michael Bay once again did one of his quick drive-by's on his forum and explained the situation:
Why did I cut the stunt, because the building wanted a $40,000 location fee. I told my producer we are not paying that - Why? Because I like to stay on budget, and I also don't like to get ripped off. So there's the truth. And yes, we are are still under budget today.

Michael

19 comments:

  1. No paramount should just pay more money to get the scenes done, even if it costs 300 million, they will get at least 900 million at the box office

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  2. TF3 is over budget? Isn't that a litle bit of irony?

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  3. if you are making WATER WORLD 2 then maybe, you should worry about going over budget... but it's transformer... like as if you are not going to get your money back.

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  4. This just proves that Michael Bay didn't want to do this movie nor he did want to do it in 3D. And he did his best to sabotage the franchise and kill it, firing the lead actress, less on set security than before,they are still filming some scenes.. it's a real mess. Bay killed the franchise already. He was known to never go over budget in his movies and the fact that now it has happened on Transformers3 tells everything..

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  5. Martinus Prime11/18/2010 7:49 AM

    @anon 4:24AM above: stay away from this blog douchebag. Get a life.

    Bay stated they are not over budget, he's a to disciplined director that will never go over budget. And even if he did, say with 100.000 of a million, I think Paramount would say that Bay at first has to pay it out of his own pocket and when box office hits 800-900 million bucks, he gets it back.
    But again, I think Bay would never go over budget.
    I think that Rick Moskal only means, that they were over budget with what they probably wanted to spend in Chicago.
    No worries.

    Only 3,5 months away(probably) from the first teaser!

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  6. @Martinus Prime: are you 5 or what? insulting people like a little brat would do just proves that you have no right to discuss with anyone about anything, grow up first.

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  7. IMO, I think the reason Michael Bay and especially those Paramount execs in budget-concern mode is because they're preparing for the upcoming lawsuits and more investing in the CGIs. Another factor that might be put in consideration is that; let's face it, the year 2011 is a 'bloodbath' year for summer time blockbuster movies. So with those in minds they really have to keep a "tight" budget.

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  8. Martinus Prime11/18/2010 11:34 AM

    @anon 7:54AM who doesn't have the guts to use an name instead of 'anonymous': I think you have to grow up, for real, are you like 12 years old or something? What the hell is wrong with you dude?? Don't you have anything better to do than trashing on blogs and insulting everybody of insulting?? Amazing how ignorant people can be.
    I have no right to discuss with anyone?? You put a smile on my face man.
    I'm not going into discussion with you, cause it's time wasted of my precious life.


    Now back on topic with Transfans, a 'tight' budget has nothing to do with a 'bloodbath' blockbuster summer, that would be a dumb excuse. All blockbusters are at least for 2 months in cinema's for people to see, so enough time for people to go see all blockbusters. The studio's don't plan for nothing the release date's ahead, so that no movie has the same week of release as another. So one week you go see Thor, the next Cap America and the next week TF3 :)
    The last 3 years, every summer was a 'bloodbath' year.

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  9. @Martinus Prime: since when using a nickname is not the same as using anonymous as the nickname? Where is any logic in that? Or is Martinus Prime your birth name, perhaps? What are you a real Autobot? Yeah,sure...

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  10. I do agree that Bay killed the franchise abit. I might be more of an old school TF Gen1 lover and that might be why I say this. Maybe it is the writers (is Bay part of that?) and the new direction they took TF on, but I was soooooo hoping for a story that followed the original series and updated it. Of course that is old news and this blog has discusions on that from day 1. (my BumbleBee is a Camero?)

    Being over budget or not is nothing to worry about, the film will still be finished anways. So they don't make as big a profit cause they have to pay back the over budget money, but there will still be a profit. If anything, it is smart not to film another scene if they were asking 'do we really need to?' cause that would be a was of money if it just ends up on the cutting room floor.

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  11. get out geewun and you to guy obsessed with megan fox that has nothing better to do but just bash the movie even though we never seen it yet.......[that was a mouth full]

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  12. like i said he'll never leave just ignore him

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  13. Michael Bay should be given money to stop making movies

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  14. ha ha another hater--new record

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  15. http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/transformers-fan-art/27104742d1249008693-shockwave-sw-body.jpg
    Fan made Shockwave but worth taking a look at!!!!

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  16. That shockwave picture came out ages ago, at least a year, probably more

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  17. Bay never killed the franchise. because this is not G1 transformers. this is Michael Bay's transformers.
    is his interpretation of Transformers.
    and If you don't like you can always re-watch the 80's series episodes.

    Im not argin with no one. just saying

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  18. Transformers Michael Bay movie one was the best thing happening to Transformers since the comics in the '80's.
    The 86 movie was daft.

    It is a pity Bay killed his own brilliant start with the daftness that is called Revenge of the Fallen.

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  19. yah but i think tf3 will be better then tf2

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