Roberto Orci Interview

IESB.net posted an interview with Roberto Orci, one of the TF script writers, where he talks about Transformers and Star Trek 11 (his post TF project).

The highlights:
- Started writing the TF script over two years ago. Don't know how many drafts wrote but project was green lit on the second draft.
- Spielberg's main involvement in the writing process was the "boy and his car" theme.
- Tone for the movie was to be more realistic then the movie but not "lose its sense of fun and those two things are actually at opposition, so it was absolutely a tightrope walk."
- Script wise, in writing it there was no "sequel" setup in mind as "not our responsibility" to worry about a sequel but just to make a good movie.
- Orci indicated he estimated the cost of Transformers before word one would be $150 million but apparently final cost was $147 million. Personally I am curious to know the size of the marketing budget. I am guessing in the $40 - $50 million range.
- Spike's parents, Ron and Judy, are named after Orci's in-laws.
- Orci and Kurtzman are not working on the Transformers 2 script.
- On the Star Trek info, the script is done, shooting starts in November and casting information will be revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con in July.
- The early leaked script reviews of Transformers insured greater security with the Star Trek script with encryption programs and a person hand delivering it (and assume leaving with it once read).

The full article is here.

Access Hollywood Video Interviews

Access Hollywood has posted video, broken into two parts, with the main cast of Transformers. The videos don't provide any new info as most interviews from this point forward will probably not as the goal is to sell tickets.

Video Part 1
Video Part 2

Is it me or does Shia show entirely to much interest in what Fox is saying? (Not that I don't blame him, any excuse to stare). An intriguing note is Megan Fox might have a geek inner core, as she collects comic books including Fathom and Gen 13. And yep, only a comic fan would know those so don't think she is making that up (nor any reason to really). Wonder if she wants my collection, she has money to blow now.
(source)

Anthony Anderson Interview

Blackfilms.com has posted an interview with Anthony Anderson who has a bit role in Transformers as a tech head working for the government. Its may purpose, beyond selling the movie, is gives more info about his character Glenn.

The highlights:
- Anderson said grew up with the Transformers so excited to be in the film.
- Character is a "computer genuis, geek, nerd" brought in to translate the Autobot language by Rachael Taylor's character.
- His character's quirk is liking to hack things such as the Pentagon.
- Thought the Megatron set was "wow". Son's draw dropped.

Click here to see the video.

Josh Duhamel On Today Show

Josh Duhamel appeared on the Today Show to promote the movie. Had a nice crowd of Transfan to support the man while the 3 on 1 ackward interview was conducted. Nothing much was said as it was a soft sell to the morning audience but if curious Jalopnik.com has the footage here.

AICN Peter Cullen Interview

AICN interviewed Peter Cullen via telephone about Transformers. The highlights:

Quint: Was it weird for you to have to audition for a role that you are so tied in with in the first place?
Peter Cullen: Yeah, there’s a lot of mixed feelings there, Eric, because you can’t help but feel that “No, I did this once before and evidently I was successful and they got rid of me,” and… yeah, kind of personal.
Years later, you’re brought back again, but you’re not really brought back, because you have to audition for the role all over again.

Quint: Have you recorded all of your dialog?
Peter Cullen: Yes I have, but then again, you know up until the [Laughs]… up until the final word is in… I’m poised and ready to go in. As early as a week and a couple of days ago, I was tentatively on hold for another recording and I’m still kind of waiting, but that was 11 days ago, so I’m not really convinced that they finished all they’ve had to do… but ready, you know, ready at any moment to do whatever they need.

Quint: It looks like just the hugest, most crazy science fiction action thing… like nothing that we have ever really seen executed at this level, you know?
Peter Cullen: Yeah it’s better with Michael Bay, you know even just a couple of cars would be special… the guy is just brilliant. I mean, he really is brilliant and he’s got a vision. He had a marvelous vision for the entire beginning from conceptual… through the process. He’s responsible for so many great things, including giving Optimus Prime a sense of humor, which makes him more believable, working in the human relation situation along with the real people. Prime is actually charmingly funny. That’s a step in the right direction!

Quint: Yeah, well I think the very first thing the talkbackers and the readers of Ain't It Cool, the site that I write for, are going to want to know… is your opinion on the redesign of the robots, specifically Optimus. What do you think about flames on… you?
Peter Cullen: Well, number 1, just to see it, it’s overwhelming, there are changes, but everything in life changes… cars change every year and I think if one uses his imagination and you separate the sentiment and the history and the memories and tradition and that stuff, because nothing really stays the same anyway, you can actually justify Optimus Prime… a mechanical situation, going to advanced… advanced designs, which makes perfect sense to me, because he still maintains the core of character, with all the ingredients of leadership and that’s what made him an icon. I mean, the writers are fantastic and they have never gone away from that. They have maintained a very strong commitment with his qualities and they did a wonderful job. They’re brilliant, brilliant guys… wonderfully talented…

Quint: Cool, you said that when you were recording your dialogue that Bay was always right there. Was he very hands on with your performance?
Peter Cullen: Yeah. We collaborated and he was very encouraging. He had a calm control that gave me a confidence and the level of relaxation that… just great ideas. I could well understand why he is the director he is. He is everything of that, a pleasure to work with… a real pleasure.

Quint: Now you mentioned that Optimus has more of a sense of humor in this one, is there anything else? Optimus has had many iterations in the past… Is there anything besides the sense of humor that’s kind of new and different about Optimus in the movie?
Peter Cullen: I think that any changes that were made were subtle and defined in the area of well… that the human relationship with the mechanical becomes more believable as they go into the more human qualities for him for sample. On another level, his size, compared to a human being is huge, so there will be minor subtleties in sound to compensate for that for that size and on a big screen outlook, you are going to feel that in the theater and it wouldn’t make sense to have Prime’s voice… I was a little hesitant at first when they said they were going to give me a fuller sound and then when I heard it I realized perfectly (what they meant). The only thing I cared about was did they maintain his characteristics and they did, so I felt great.

Quint: Was there any difference in how you personally approached the character?
Peter Cullen: Not at all, no. Prime is Prime and yeah, he still has all the traits that were first initiated in the break down, the first character breakdowns that I read back 1983 or 84. He hasn’t changed one bit. Hey if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

Quint: What’s next for you? I can imagine that this movie is kicking off such a demand for more Optimus stuff, because I know that for the video game that you have done…Peter Cullen: Which is fantastic… I saw some stuff on it. It’s brilliant! It really is… and yeah, you’re right there are other things too, like commercials… Optimus Prime is stepping out of the box you know, he’s even doing Burger King…

Full article here.

Peter Cullen Online Interviews

Peter Cullen has apparently been on the online promotion circuit as their are 3 interviews up for him. They can be found at Latino Review, Superhero Hype, and MovieWeb.

The interviews mostly don't cover any new ground but here are some of the highlights:

LatinoReview: After reading the script, do you believe that the writers Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman stayed faithful to your character?
Cullen: Yes, they have, absolutely. In other words, the old phrase of don't mess with a good thing or if it's not broke don't fix it – they've done that. They've honored the feeling and the sentiments of the fans after all of these many years. They've brought him back and I think that's a great honor a sign of respect for the fan base that they so wonderfully deserve.

LatinoReview: How was it working with Michael Bay?
Cullen: Fabulous. He's brilliant. He's not the most exciting person in the world emotionally. He's so together. You just become charged with the fact that he's in total control of what he's doing and what he's thinking. He's inspirational in that way. I went in from the very beginning with a sense of trust and I knew that I was in good hands and I knew that I could relax and do the best work that I possibly could and there was no coloring or phoniness or anything. He's a genuine guy and I have a great deal of respect for him.

LatinoReview: Did you have a good chemistry with Hugo Weaving as you did with Frank Welker who played Megatron? I don't know if you two were ever in the studio together.
Cullen: No, we weren't. I didn't even meet him. I only discovered just several weeks ago that Frank Welker would not be Megatron and I was extremely saddened by that. He's just an uncommon guy and one of the rarest people in the world, one of the most talented and nice people. I have such great respect for Frank and to find out that he wasn't Megatron was very disappointing for me, but Hugo Weaving is a great talent and his work is phenomenal. So, having not worked with him, but knowing his reputation and his work I'm pretty sure that it's going to be impressive.

LatinoReview: Now did you have a part in that? Did they digitize your lips at all?
Cullen: Well, I don't know if they used me or not. This is an ongoing kind of mystery to me. They had a camera focused on my mouth while I read every line and whether or not they used my lips, I have no idea really. I mean, I don't know how they did it or how they would do it. It's all a mystery to me. So in the final analysis his lips move. I don't think that there will be too many times in the picture where we'll be concentrating on it though because it's so overwhelming seeing the character in full-screen to begin with. It's just one of the many things to look at. It's just unbelievable.

SHH!: What was the experience like making the movie? Were you just in the booth doing the dialogue or was there anything else?
Cullen: Correct. I worked with Michael Bay in the sound room, in front of a big screen and that's where I did all my work. And I worked by myself, except of course with Michael Bay right there with me.

SHH!: You said you had to look at it on a big screen, have you seen what it's going to look like yet?
Cullen: I've seen portions. Everything else that I've seen has been on television. I worked in front of a huge screen, nothing like IMAX or anything and nothing like High Definition, it was just working prints in the studio, but enough to indicate to me that this is huge and it's overpowering. I was just explaining to a person earlier that when I watched Optimus for the first time and the beeps went off to signal me to speak I was speechless. My jaw kind of hung down. I went "oh wow." And they rolled it again and I was speechless still because I'm gawking at it and it was rather humorous. I had to apologize – "I'm sorry guys but this is awesome." So that's how that went.

SHH!: If I remember right you did Ironhide's voice as well, for the show…
Cullen: That's right.
SHH!: ...but you're not doing him for the movie.
Cullen: No.

SHH!: Do you know anyone else who's doing a voice?
Cullen: I have no idea, Josh. I'll tell you, I haven't even heard Megatron, so I have no idea. It's just going to be as new to me as it is to everybody else. And I'm excited.

MovieWeb: Can you tell me what your favorite scene in the movie is, or are you not allowed to talk about that yet?
Peter Cullen: Quite honestly, Paulington, I have only seen bits and pieces. For me to judge that would be impossible. Of the scenes that I saw completed, I was impressed. The Industrial, Light, and Magic stuff is beyond description. I will give you a little hint of that. When I was listening to my beats to cue me in as Optimus Prime, it was my first opportunity to see some of the work done on the big screen in front of me. As I was cued in, I couldn't speak. I was knocked over by it. I just looked in awe, and said, "Oh, my God! This is incredible." Then they said, "Okay, Pete, we're going to have to do that again." I said, "Oh, sure, okay." It went again, and I still couldn't speak. Because I saw more. It took a few passes before I could collect myself. If that's any indication of what we can expect. It's going to be incredible.

MovieWeb: What kind of feedback have you gotten from the makers of this film?
Peter Cullen: I've gotten excellent feedback from every corner. And I'm not just talking about people on the net, or folks who have just seen glimpses or something. This has been coming from the major studios that are evolved in all aspects. Promotion, marketing, just average office people. They have that glint in their eye, and they say, "This is gong to be fantastic." From those points of view, I'm quite excited. I'm also quite confident, too, that it is going to go on to another one. Possibly even a third one.

MovieWeb: Did you do all of your voice work after the film was shot?
Peter Cullen: No, during. I looked at sketches. Rough animations as well. And finished product. It was an ongoing effort. Even though I didn't start my formal recording sessions sometime after the beginning of the New Year, Michael Bay would call me in as scenes progressed. That was exciting, because I always had this idea about how the film was coming along without too much information. The news on my end was that this was powerful. That this was a metamorphosis of excitement. God, where am I coming from today?

MovieWeb: Did you work with any of the other actors on this?
Peter Cullen: No, I didn't. I worked alone. It was very unlike the series, where we all worked together as a unit. We would have ten to fourteen guys in one room crammed around a microphone. That was missing during this go around. But it didn't affect anything form my end. I was working a lot with on-screen actors who were staring off into space at an imaginary object. In this case, that would have been me. And I would have to relate to that on the big screen. So, I tried to make Optimus more human. More one-on-one with the characters. But I didn't work with anybody physically. It was all on film.

MovieWeb: I'm sorry. I thought [Frank Welker] was in the movie.
Peter Cullen: No, we combined forces on the game. The videogame, which is incredible. Frank and I got together, and we teamed up on that. We had a ball. We even had Carl Weathers directing us. You know, Apollo Creed from Rocky?
MovieWeb: That's funny.
Peter Cullen: Oh, Paulington, that was great. What a combination. They recorded us for about forty-five minutes on videotape. This guy had the opportunity to ask us two questions, and we took those two questions and turned it into almost an hour. It's supposed to be hysterical. I hope I get to see it someday.

MovieWeb: Do you know if that's going to be included on a DVD release?
Peter Cullen: I don't know. That's a mystery to me. It is tied solely to the game. I don't think I had an opportunity to ask that question yesterday. If I did, I forgot what the answer was. There was so much happening. I would expect somewhere down the line it will be viewed. What isn't? It seems to me today nothing is private anymore. You have to be careful of what you say or do anywhere.

IGN Cast Interview

IGN has posted an interview with Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, and Megan Fox regarding working on Transformers. Pretty much nothing new is revealed as the interviews where done in August '06 so most of it is about cheerleading the movie up to release date rather then revealing the ins and outs of doing the movie. Full interview is here.

The highlights, some spoilers:
- "They make first contact with me because of my great-great-grandfather, Captain Archibald Witwicky, who made first contact with Megatron in the 1800s and had… I don't know if I should be giving this all away!" laughs the actor, before continuing. "[He] had language and maps burned to his glasses through a laser and the glasses were passed on through lineage and they wind up with me and me trying to sell them on eBay as well as his other items, his compass and his sextant and other things a 19th century seaman would use. And they come after me to retrieve these glasses, which has the directions to where the Energon Cube is at."

- Megan describes herself as playing the "Carly" character from the animated show. "[I didn't feel it much] on my character, because she was hardly ever in the animated series so it's not like I'm taking on something that people are attached to and expect me to perform in a specific way," says Fox. "But for me it's just the realization of how huge this movie is and how many people are going to see it. And I actually, because the script was on lockdown and you couldn't really read it the whole time I was auditioning for it, I wasn't aware how big my part actually is and how much I'm in this film and how much people are going to see of me. So that's what's nerve-racking."

- "It's never been like this for me, especially not with Michael Bay," says LaBeouf. "Michael Bay's the fastest, most intense director I've ever worked with. The explosions are right here. They're not CGI. You know, the other day they had me on top of one of these buildings one-handed with wire, a wire here and a wire there and a cube here. It was insane, but that's stuff that you usually shoot CGI and Michael doesn't do CGI. He likes seeing the immediate, he likes being able to go into his trailer and go, 'You're never gonna believe what I just shot.' Rather than have to wait for the CGI to be put into greenscreen. He likes to see immediately, so things like explosions, I mean, it's all very real."

- "You know, you sit and you think, 'This isn't realistic and people are going to hate this and I feel like a f--king douchebag and I can't do it,'" laughs Fox. "But then you think nobody's even going to give a s--t. There's going to be so much happening around this that they have to tie you into the story somehow, because there are a lot of people who would just watch a movie that was nothing but robots fight[ing]. Sure, but the majority of people… I heard Shia say they want to see some sort of human interaction, human involvement, so those things have to, I think unfortunately they have to be thrown in there. And we're trying to steer away from -- we know the fans and they don't want any sappy bulls--t. We're trying to stay away from that and keep it as realistic as possible and as much about the Autobots and Decepticons as we can."

- Fox's favorite animated Transformer is Starscream and movie TF is Bumblebee. Thinks Megatron is "really sick".

- "Michael's great with me," she says. "I got really lucky. I don't know what I did in the beginning or what happened, but he is really great with me; he's great with Shia. And he yells. People always talk about how he yells, but he's not like malicious or scary when he yells. He's always half joking and he says things that if you don't have a thick skin might hurt your feelings, but if you don't have thick skin you should get out of this business anyway."

Yahoo Movies Michael Bay Video Interview

Yahoo Movies has posted up a video interview where he talked a little about Transformers. You can find the full video here. Thanks to Chad for the link.

The highlights:
- Bay said he did listen to the net "quite a bit." Acknowledged the early draft that was leaked but mostly listened to the comments about the Transformers artwork.

- Why flames on Optimus? Because he wanted flames. "Why pick a green house, why a yellow house? I wanted flames on Optimus."

- About fans saying he is wrecking their childhood: "I don't think I wrecked your childhood. If you look back at the cartoons now, they look really dated. My thing is I had to make these robots look real in real life situation."

- "Optimus Prime has 10,108 parts that are all moving and all interactive. Very complex model that fits in our live action very real."

- Engineering: They talked about parts discussing if alien or terrestial. Also how walked with the "bird-like things" for Starscream. Used 3-D models to determine how could move and joints that couldn't so correct them.

- Used AKA for the sets of robots which is why Frenzy was labeled Soundbyte for a while. Like Frenzy because he was "vicious."

- Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are Bay's favorites.

As for comment about the original cartoons, I have to agree. I have all the seasons on DVD. By the end it was just painful to get through. Just more sophisticated tastes now vs then I guess. Beast Wars to me, especially Season 2 and 3 was really the height of Transformers writing and execution. That the movie writers clearly used that series as a source of inspiration is part of the reason why have high hopes for this film.

Details Magazine Michael Bay Interview

Another interview with Michael Bay is available at Details magazine website. Pretty interesting interview as includes comments from actors, producers, etc about Bay.

Some highlights:

- “It’s a bitch working with robots,” the 42-year-old director says of his movie’s stars. “Ten thousand moving parts and you have to make them fucking emote.”
- “We had a test screening in Arizona,” he says, “and I’m thinking, ‘Nobody’s reacting. This movie fucking sucks. It’s stupid.’ But then we get our highest numbers ever. Most movies get a 65. Armageddon got a 92. This motherfucker got a 94. I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ, will I ever understand this business?’”

- His actors tell similar stories. Steve Buscemi, who’s been in two Bay films, says, “With Michael, you just let him blow up and then you get back to work.” Adds Josh Duhamel, who plays a Special Ops captain in Transformers, “He gets heated up and then it passes. He’s definitely not a prick all the time.”

- And to make them fun, you have to be a dickwad (a word Bay uses repeatedly). Really. You do. At least on the Transformers level of moviemaking. Think about it. You’re orchestrating a carnival of costly effects, you’ve borrowed an arsenal of tanks and fighter jets, and your executive producer, Steven Spielberg, is breathing down your neck to the point where you have to tell him, “Steven, I love you but we’re different directors. I don’t work by committee.” Now the movie posters and the action figures and the goddamn Pepsi tie-ins need your attention. And you’re not going overbudget—you just won’t fucking do that.

Interesting article, can read the whole thing here. Thanks to a site reader for the link.

IGN Interview of Michael Bay

IGN has posted an interview with Michael Bay and producer Tom DeSanto about Transformers. The highlights:

- "Steven [Spielberg] called me I think a year ago last April, and my first thought was, 'No, I'm not interested,'" says Bay. "Just because I thought, 'O.K., how am I going to do a toy movie?' And then when I went to Hasbro I realized, 'O.K., start over and go for the realistic alien invasion robot movie on Earth.' So with that thinking in mind, that's how I went about it."

- "The thing that attracted me to Transformers at first was they're great characters," says producer Tom DeSanto. "You just instantly got pulled into the mythology. Optimus Prime and Megatron weren't robots. These were almost Shakespearean type characters that had all this drama and all this background. And that's the great thing about this world, that it's not just about robots."

- The movie is PG-13 but according to Bay is "pretty edgy for a family film."

- "You've got to go through… First you write down what all the character points are in your head," says Bay. "It's a tough thing. With Cullen, he's not an actor actor. He's a voice actor, so when you see his face, he's got a great voice, but I need to hire another actor to do his (expressions). He's going to do the voice and I'm going to have another actor study the video when he does how he's going to say it. They're actually going to have to work in tandem. They do this on animation features as well. We did a very funny study where we did De Niro and Hugo Weaving. We put our Optimus to Hugo and De Niro. Hysterical. I mean, it looks just like them!"

- "It's not fully like a human face but it does have certain human things to it, you know," he says. "Otherwise as humans we wouldn't associate with it as much. We did a lot of different studies; if you do nothing, it kind of like doesn't hit us. … If they're just frozen robots, pure metal that doesn't move and like the eyebrow kind of thing -- we have these eye slits that can kind of move and the eyes, how they move. And it's got to have some human things to make it sort of successful to us. Because, you look at the cartoons, that is ninety percent away from where we have to go. Right now they're just big glowing eyes that have no emotions. It's what I keep trying to tell the fanboys is that this is gonna be so much more realistic than what they've seen in the past. But you know, they're angry about everything anyway." (ooh thats going to piss those angry guys off)

Click here for the entire article.

Interesting bit about hiring someone to do the face capture for Prime (think Gullom in Lord of the Rings). I wonder who? I just hope they have prepped a crap load of "how they do that?" extra features for the DVD set and not the "lets sell this movie and pat ourselves on the back" features usually see but a real Lord of the Rings style behind the scenes documentary (for lack of a better word). The Rhythm and Hues montage when Superman came out is an excellent example of using a "how to" to both sell a movie and present how something was done in an entertaining fashion.

Bay Comments AICN Review and TV Spots

Bay drooped by his Shoot for the Edit forum and dropped two quick posts regarding the recent AICN review of Transformers and the TV spots possibly revealing to much of the movie.

About the review:

If he did in fact see the picture, he saw a very early cut. I can tell because of the music he mentions - those were 3 months ago. So much changes in these months those are the months when it becomes a real movie.

About the TV spots:

I promise you we are holding so much back - things that will blow you away that you will only see in the cinema.

The review comments pretty much confirmed what I guess with the temp music. The CGI will probably continue to be tweaked right up to the premiere dates.

As for the trailers and TV spots giving to much away...have to admit its not really a concern. If notice the advertisements are really the same 10 or so moments recut in different ways and different angles. Maybe 15 minutes (to be generous) of the movie has been revealed and a couple story beats but nothing major.

A flash of this and that isn't what we want to see anyway. We want to see big Transformers kicking butt in a way never seen before. The advertisements seem to show this promise might be fulfilled. Since this is a CGI extravaganza even if memorized the script and spoiled out the ying yang, its not really spoiled because reading that Optimus and Megatron fight isn't the same as seeing it. Knowing something will occur and seeing it occur are two different things in movies of this nature.
(source)

Bernie Mac, Anthony Anderson Movie Stills

Blackfilm.com has posted two movie still from Transformers with Bernie Mac and Anthony Anderson. Not sure what Anthony's role is in the film. Bernie is the car salesman as seen in the various trailers. Thanks to Wilson M. for the link.

Transfromers Set Interviews

Superherohype.com has posted five interviews conducted during the Los Angeles set visits that occured back in August for various members of the press. Usually these visits are when entertainment magazines, sites, etc bank their stories to release later to help promote the film and their own stuff since that is when the attention and the hype is the highest the closer get to the release date. Its annoying but also smart business.

The site interviewed Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, and Tyrese Gibson during the filming of the climax of the movie in LA involving most of the Transformers and the car modes of Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz.

Michael Bay

CS/SHH!: How are you turning "Transformers" into a Michael Bay movie?
Michael Bay: I don't know. I don't know if that makes any sense. It's got a lot of action but it's very funny. It's got heart. I only wanted to do "Transformers" if I could do it realistic. What I've seen, what we've done with our digital studies, putting it -- real world stuff that has lots of effects around that are real effects, that's how we make it realistic.

CS/SHH!: When did you realize the fanboyness of this movie?
Bay: Of course I knew, of course. When did it hit me? Before I even took on the movie. I knew there's a huge following for this thing. Steven called me I think a year ago last April. My first thought was no, I'm not interested. Just because I thought okay, how am I going to do a toy movie. And then I realized when I went to Hasbro, okay, start over and go for a realistic alien invasion robot movie on earth. So with that thinking in mind, that's how I went about it.

CS/SHH!: Are you going more family film or hardcore?
Bay: It's pretty edgy for a family film but it's definitely got stuff for families. It's PG-13 but it's edgy.

CS/SHH!: How do you introduce the idea of all the ridiculous names?
Bay: I'm not going to tell you but we justify how we do it. We have logic stuff in the script to explain why we say it.

CS/SHH!: Would you come back to this franchise?
Bay: Well, I'm having a great time making it. I really have. It's gone really smoothly this movie. It's been a lot of fun. So we'll see. I've done a lot of digital effects before but this is really fun because you're really animating characters and giving everyone a little different kind of thing going on, just from the way they walk, the way their armor's scratched or hurt.

CS/SHH!: How do you do that without the voices yet?
Bay: First you write down what are all the character points in your head? That's a tough thing. With Colin, he's not an actor actor. He's a voice actor so when you see his face, he's got a great voice but I need to hire another actor to do his voice. Does that make sense? He's going to do the voice and I'm going to have another actor study the video when he does how he's going to say it. They're actually having to work in tandem. They do this on animation features as well. We did a very funny study where we did De Niro and Hugo Weaving, we put our Optimus to Hugo and De Niro. It's hysterical. It looks just like 'em. It's very funny.

CS/SHH!: So it's motion capturing the faces?
Bay: It's not fully like a human face but it does have certain human things to it. Otherwise as humans we wouldn't associate with it as much. We did a lot of different studies, like if you do nothing, it's kind of like it doesn't hit us.

CS/SHH!: What did you try that didn't work?
Bay: If they're just frozen robots, pure metal that doesn't move and the eyebrow kind of thing. We have these eye slits that can kind of move and the eyes how they move. It's got to have some human things to it to make it so successful to us. You look at the cartoons, that is like 90% away where we have to go. Right now they're just big glowing eyes that have no emotions. It's what I keep trying to tell the fanboys is this has got to be so much more realistic than what they've seen in the past. But they're angry about everything. I hear they want to protest in front of my office by the way, but I won't be there. I'm shooting.

CS/SHH!: We're seeing four cars here? Who?
Bay: I don't have time to go through the whole thing because each one has got like three paragraphs. That's Ratchet right there [the ambulance], that's Ironhide the black truck, and that's a newly transformed Bumblebee. It started out as an old Camaro, becomes a new Camero, there's a reason for that in the script. and we've got Jazz right here [silver car]. Jazz, when you have full height on Jazz, I think he's about 13 feet tall. Bumblebee's about 16-17 feet tall. Ratchet's about 23 ft, 24 ft. Ironhide's very wide when he's transformed and he's about 26 foot tall robot. Then Optimus is I think 28. Megatron is like 34.

CS/SHH!: Changing Ratchet?
Bay: We just made him more like one of those kind of modern rescue kind of ground type vehicles.

CS/SHH!: Is that Furby truck a transformer?
Bay: No, we wanted to have burning Furbys. Burning Furbys somewhere on the ground. Have you seen those little Furbys? We're going to be blowing up a lot of little Furbys.

Shia LaBeouf

CS/SHH!: Tell us about the role you play.
Shia LaBeouf: I play Sam Witwicky, aka Spike.

CS/SHH!: How do you interact with the robots?
LaBeouf: He's the liaison between the robots – at least in our script – in a way, he's the liaison between the government and the robots. Because it's too outlandish for the government to cling on to, this idea of this alien and they're too close-minded to latch on to it, so they use me as a liaison between the idea of what these things could be and what they actually are.

CS/SHH!: With the Autobots?
LaBeouf: Right. Because they make first contact with me because my great great grandfather, Captain Archibald Witwicky, made first contact with Megatron in the 1800s and had – I don't know if I should be giving this all away.

CS/SHH!: Yeah, it's okay.
LaBeouf [I] had [a] language and maps burned into his glasses through a laser. And the glasses were passed on through lineage. And they wind up with me and me trying to sell them on eBay, as well as his other items – his compass and sextant and other things a 19th century seaman would use. And they come after me to retrieve these glasses, which have the directions to where the Energon Cube is at.

CS/SHH!: Do you have more action scenes in this film?
LaBeouf: Yeah, it's never been like this for me. Especially not with Michael Bay. Michael Bay is the fastest, most intense director I've ever worked with. The explosions are right here. They're not CGI. The other day they had me on top of one of these buildings, one-handed, with a wire here and a wire there. It was insane. But that's stuff that you usually CGI. And Michael doesn't CGI. He likes seeing the immediate…he likes being able to go into his trailer and go, "You're never gonna believe what I just shot." Rather than have to wait for the CGI to be put into green screen, he likes to see it immediately. Things like explosions are all very real.

CS/SHH!: Was that the craziest thing you had to do?
LaBeouf: No. I can't even list what we've had to do. I've never had to do anything like this. When we did "Constantine" and "I Robot," it was very minimal. Of course there was insane action. I had a shot gun and we were shooting demons, but the demons weren't there. They were ridiculous men in green suits and codpieces. It wasn't what this is, which is you actually have a Bumblebee, or it'll be a pole, but you'll see Megatron. He's really there. And they really go for it. It's just very real. My job is very easy here. It's very reactionary, as opposed to having to conjure up these fantasies of what I would think it would be, it's there.

CS/SHH!: Can you talk a little more about your action scenes?
LaBeouf: It's exciting. I mean yesterday they blew a helicopter up right over my head. You don't get to do that at home, you know?

CS/SHH!: Did you parents have concerns?
LaBeouf: Yes. I brought my mom to the set.

CS/SHH!: You seem to be the right age to have played with these toys as a kid.
LaBeouf: Yeah. For me it wasn't the comic book or even the toys. It was the movie. "Transformers: The Movie" was like, that was my sh*t. It was that and like Yogi Bear. That was like what I grew up on. Those were my movies and I watched them over and over and over again. I must have seen "Transformers: The Movie" 70 times before.

CS/SHH!: So what's it like for you to be in this movie now?
LaBeouf: Well, when you see "Transformers: The Movie," Spike is only in like three scenes. Then you find out he's even more apparent in the comic book. Other than the robots, he's the only character that goes back. So it's very rewarding to be here. It's also a humongous thing for my career, as you could imagine. So on a number of levels it's very fulfilling to be doing this. Again, it's a completely different film, you know? My goal at the beginning of doing this was to be as diversified as possible. This fits a part of filmmaking that I would never have been a part of, nor would I have ever thought of myself as being involved in this way. Ben Affleck has that job, Josh Hartnett has that job, not some Gary Shandling look alike. It's not something you would assume. I didn't assume that I would ever be sitting with Turturro and Megatron. It's just a thought that you could ever conjure up.

CS/SHH!: What is it about "Transformers" that you like?
LaBeouf: You know, the same reason that you guys are into it. The thought of having something like an alien life form be able to take the form of this and transform, it just became more real than, let's say, E.T. which was this magical figure that came down to earth and you'd never seen anything like it, whereas the Transformers were real. It was very real to me. If you had an imagination, you could sit there and look at a car and go, "Yeah," and you could conjure up ways that it could transform. It was more real than fantasy for me. The same thing with "Constantine" – you do stuff that you love. Like Neil Gaiman, Vertigo, that's what I love. The Transformers is that other side to me. It's more popular, yes, but it's realistic to me. I really think that there is a possibility that you could do some of the sh*t that we're doing. I mean, some of it is real. And it's not like this fantasy, like this alien life form that comes... it doesn't feel like that to me. It feels like it could really happen.

CS/SHH!: It's more tangible?
LaBeouf: Correct. It's more tangible. That's the word.

CS/SHH!: Seeing that you're part of the demographic, did you have more creative input into the decisions?
LaBeouf: No. Everybody's got their job and holds down the fort. I mean, Michael Bay knows what he's doing. It's not like he comes here and then is thinking of shots. He knows specifically. You used to hear stories about how [Stanley] Kubrick used to draw everything and create and Michael works the same way in that he has these visual effects shots that he created a year ago, that's the actual shot in animation form. Kubrick used to do these long-hand forms of his film, whereas Michael has already filmed the movie in digital and he's got all these VFX shots of sh*t that's already been conjured. So in that respect it's there. It's not ever questioned. My opinion means nothing as far as that goes. But Michael is very – and I've worked with some pretty dope directors – he's very freeing. "This dialogue sucks!" He takes the page out and throws it away. "Just roll with it." He'll let you ad-lib more than any director I've ever worked for. He literally hires people based on how they can ad-lib. In the auditions it was, "Ok, put the script down and go," for 20 minutes. Just go with this. When I was auditioning with Megan, 70% of our audition was just riffing. Where can you go? How can you keep it on the storyline without going in some weird place that's not helping us? And that's the way that Mike works. So people say that he's not an actor's director and all this garbage and I don't know. It depends on what kind of direction you want. If you want somebody to be there and be on you, and be the Woody Allen "Cough here and breathe here and sneeze here," he's not that. He's the director who's just gonna let you go. And so in a sense that is an actor's director.

CS/SHH!: What message do you have for Transformers fans?
LaBeouf: How do you describe what we're doing? This is nuts. I've never seen anything like it. We're staying true to a lot of it. But again, you can't make Megatron a gun. You make Megatron a gun and you've gotta have an orange cap, because you can't make a movie with a gun transforming when you've got kids out there killing each other. You can't publicize a gun like we used to in the '80s, when Megatron was a gun. If you were to make Megatron a gun now, you'd have to put the stupid orange cap and that would ruin Megatron. He'd look like Herbie the Love Bug or some dumb sh*t. If Bumblebee was a bug, it would be a totally different interaction. You wouldn't look at Bumblebee and go "wow." You wouldn't do that. You would look at him like he was Herbie. And that's not what Bumblebee was. We stay true to the tone of what Transformers was. But again, it's a movie and in movies it's a different art form. You're taking on another face. So you stay as true as you can and there are certain things that you do have to extend for the film, such as the human aspect of this. There wasn't a lot of human interaction in the Transformers movies. It was all about the Transformers. But to just have the Transformers talking would be like the new "Ninja Turtles" movie. It's just garbage. Now it's a Pixar film. That's not what we're making. It's not a Pixar film. We're trying to make the coolest action film ever. You gotta make it human.

CS/SHH!: How old is your character? Is he in high school?
LaBeouf: Yeah, he's 18.

CS/SHH!: And how old are you?
LaBeouf: I'm 20.

CS/SHH!: So yesterday you were hanging off a building. What are you doing today?
LaBeouf: Today? I know we're blowing something up. (laughter) I'm not sure what it is yet. But we're blowing something up for sure.

CS/SHH!: What was your personal favorite Transformer?
LaBeouf: My personal favorite? Soundwave. And he's not in this film.

CS/SHH!: Are you going to be made into an action figure?
LaBeouf: I hope not. I don't know. They can do whatever they want. They have their own contracts and I'm sure Hasbro is gonna try to profit off of it as much as possible, just like any company would. I don't know.

CS/SHH!: As an actor, is it hard for you to hold on to what you're doing when the crap is blowing up?
LaBeouf: No. It's easier when the crap's blowing up. It's harder when the crap's not blowing up and action – "The crap's blowing up! The crap's blowing up!" That's hard for an actor. Or interaction with the robots is tough. It's difficult to have any kind of emotional connection with Bumblebee when it's a pole with plastic. But when you're sitting there and Megatron is built, it's a different type of performance, because it's reactionary rather than conjured. Conjured sh*t is hard.

CS/SHH!: Have you seen any of the footage yet?
LaBeouf: Yeah. It all looks crazy. It's nuts. It's amazing looking.

CS/SHH!: Since you were a fan of the show, does it mean anything to you that Peter Cullen was cast as the voice of Optimus?
LaBeouf: Well, for everybody here that was a big deal. I know what it means to you guys and what it means to the fans. Michael knows the same. But then again you get into performance stuff – who's gonna bring the better performance? And when you start measuring the original to maybe an update? You have to think about that stuff, you know? If it had been Michael Clarke Duncan, would that have been a better voice in the original than Peter Cullen? A lot of people would say no, but then there's a fan base that would say yeah. So you have to modernize it. And thank God we got him in because it brings us back and we can still modernize the film but still keep some of this historical truth in the voices of the characters. So it's a big win for all of us and we're all excited to have him. I haven't met him yet or been able to work with him.

CS/SHH!: Are there any cast or crewmembers that you talk to about the Transformers as fans?
LaBeouf: I know Megan is a fan. I know Josh is a fan. I know that Turturro's son is a big fan. I know John is really into it based on what he's read. I don't know if he was a fan previously. But when you're here and you're seeing it, you're a fan. You're an instant fan. When you see Bumblebee, you can't not be a fan. When you see the actual Bumblebee standing there, you can't not be a fan. It's like seeing Batman's car. You're in right away. I'm sold. Boom, there you go. Done.

CS/SHH!: What does Dane Cook play?
LaBeouf: Dane Cook? I think he plays a gas station attendant. It's a small cameo. But there's a lot of cameos, you know? The way that Michael works is there's action, and in the middle of the craziest action there's a joke. If you watch his films, that's how he goes. He genre-flips. So there's a lot of humor with the action. Because we have the humor aspect we bring comedians in. There's a lot of comedians here.

CS/SHH!: Any other big cameos?
LaBeouf: Bernie Mac's got a big cameo. I'm sure there's other people coming in. It changes every day. It's a big movie, so there's a lot of people that want to be in it. They might create roles. I've heard a lot of names, but I don't want to throw them out there because I might be wrong and you never know if they might come in or not.

CS/SHH!: Who's gonna be the breakout character?
LaBeouf: I don't know. There's a couple of them. They all have personalities. I don't know if I could point one out. There's a bunch of different storylines happening with different robots, but of course it's Megatron and Optimus. Those are the dudes.

CS/SHH!: I understand there is a love story as well.
LaBeouf: The love story element humanizes this. It humanizes the story a little bit. Sometimes it gets fantastical when everything's a robot or everything's an explosion or everything's in the Secret Service. People in Iowa want to relate to a character. The love story humanizes the robot storylines.

CS/SHH!: Are you signed up for a sequel?
LaBeouf: Uh, hmmm…yeah, I'm sure there's something somewhere. I don't know. I was signed to do sequels for "Constantine."

CS/SHH!: What is going on with that?
LaBeouf: Well it's up to Keanu [Reeves] and where he wants to go. It really comes down to what he wants to do on his slate. If he jumps up and goes, "I want to play John again," – which I don't think he will 'cause that took a lot out of him – I don't know. He might; he might not. Again, people talk about an "I, Robot" sequel. Any movie that makes money, there's gonna be sequels. They made a "Kangaroo Jack" sequel, you know what I mean? That's "Kangaroo Jack." They made money. It's a business. At the end of the day, it's show business. It's a business.

Megan Fox

CS/SHH!: Tell us about your character?
Megan Fox: My character's name is Mikaela. I'm essentially the Carly character from the cartoon. I'm Sam's love interest throughout the film and I sort of get sucked into all of the action and become a little bit of an action hero myself.

CS/SHH!: You were a fan?
Fox: I did watch the cartoon. I was a bigger "Ninja Turtles" fan if I'm going to be honest. With Vanilla Ice in the second one. But I did watch the cartoon and I did like the cartoon. It was really entertaining. I remember when they would always come back from commercial break, they had the one animatic. I don't remember which Autobot it was but he was like a motorcycle and he would transform in midair into a robot.

CS/SHH!: It's kind of unusual for girls to be so into "Transformers" or "TMNT" isn't it?
Fox: I don't think so. I don't think you can generalize girls as saying they all like to play with Barbies or whatever but I was a tomboy so I liked all of that kind of stuff. I found it very interesting.

CS/SHH!: Are you disappointed there's no female Transformers?
Fox: Not really. Can't say that I am. I think that would be lame. Kind of like I don't think women should be rock stars.

CS/SHH!: Any pressure walking into a franchise?
Fox: Sure. Not so much on my character because she was hardly ever in the animated series, so it's not like I'm taking on something people are attached to and expect me to perform in a specific way. But for me, just the realization of how huge this movie is and how many people are going to see it. Because the script was on lockdown and you couldn't really read it the whole time I was auditioning for it, I wasn't aware how large my part actually is and how much I'm in this film and how much people are going to see of me. So that's what's nerve racking.

CS/SHH!: Craziest thing you've done?
Fox: We've done a lot of crazy stuff like that. For me personally, I had to break a window, an actual car window with safety glass and all of that. Mike, who likes everything very realistic, so I had to break it with a sledge hammer and then he wanted me to reach inside and open the car door so I'm scraping my arm across the glass to get in. and it wasn't high action, it was just actually like I had shards of glass sticking in my arm afterwards. It' real. So for me, that was probably the hairiest thing.

CS/SHH!: What are you shooting today?
Fox: I don't know what I'm doing today. I think I'm a glorified background today. We're doing a lot of crane shots and reactionary shots of there's a big battle that happens on this set. We're just getting coverage, reaction, inserts, things like that.

CS/SHH!: Why will girls want to see this?
Fox: I'm not the person to ask because I don't really relate to women that well but the CG in this movie is incredible. Just that alone, I think is reason for anybody to go see it. But the love story. There's a really great kiss at the end. All girls like the kiss in "Spider-Man" and all that s**t, so that'll be in here also. It's just a sick movie. Everybody's going to want to be a part of it because it's so big.

CS/SHH!: Are you damsel in distress?
Fox: No, I'm not that girl. Luckily, my character is a tough girl. She gets into some situations where Shia's character, Sam, has to help her. He doesn't really necessarily come to her aid and rescue her. She doesn't need to be rescued. She actually kicks a lot of ass.

CS/SHH!: Why don't you relate to women well?
Fox: I just never have. I grew up, all my friends were boys growing up and I liked playing in the dirt and all of that. I liked sports and windsurfing, surfing. I'm just not very girlie.

CS/SHH!: What's going on with you and Shia before the robots come?
Fox: He's not the nerd in school but he's that offbeat guy that everybody kind of knew. He's cool but he's just very strange and my character is dating the jock, as things go. There's the fight between the two of them because I'm stuck in the middle. Each has an interest in me. He ends up helping me out in a specific situation and in his personality, I sort of fall for him. I start to at least. I don't know how much I can give away. Anyway, there's something specific that happens. He's selling the glasses on eBay and that whole deal. I get sort of caught in the middle of this chase and that's how I get dragged along and become a part of the rest of the film with the interaction with the robots and all of that.

CS/SHH!: Does your jock boyfriend get stepped on?
Fox: Not that I know of. I think he just sort of fades away. I don't think there's really a resolution to him at all.

CS/SHH!: Is it hard to play a story with explosions going on around?
Fox: Yeah. You sit and you think, "You know, this isn't realistic and people are going to hate this and I feel like such a douchebag and I can't do it." But then you think nobody's even going to give a s**t. There's going to be so much happening around it, they have to tie you into the story somehow because there are a lot of people that would just watch a movie that was nothing but robots fight. Sure, but the majority of people, I heard Shia say, they want it to be some sort of human interaction and human involvement. I don't mean unfortunately but they have to be thrown in there and we're trying to steer away from, we know the fans, they don't want any sappy bulls**t. We're trying to stay away from that and keep it as realistic as possible and as much to do with the Autobots and Decepticons as we can.

CS/SHH!: Do you and Shia get into swearing contests?
Fox: Does he curse a lot also? No, we don't get into swearing contests but we have ongoing battles like the other day I told him he wouldn't... I don't remember what it was over, but I said, "You won't do that for sure. You're a little girl." And he s**t in my trailer. So definitely that happens all the time.

CS/SHH!: In the toilet?
Fox: That time in the toilet but I'm afraid he's going to do it in my purse.

CS/SHH!: Did Michael ask you to improvise?
Fox: Yeah, Shia really excels in that. He's a comedian, he's so funny. They brought me into the audition and it was like the sixth time I had been in so I had been going off script, rehearsing. They put me in there with him and he was going off on all these tangents. Mike wanted me to follow along with it which is difficult for me because that's not my area of expertise. Shia, the most difficult thing working with him is that he's so funny, it's really hard to play it straight, to play the straight man in the scenes with him. Mike actually gives me, he writes my lines for me moreso than he does for Shia because like I said, Shia's a comedian and I'm not. So I sort of have to stick to some sort of scripted material.

CS/SHH!: What got you the job?
Fox: I'm pretty sure they wanted to cast an unknown. A lot of girls were blonde actually and I think the fact that I was dark haired played a part in it, the aesthetic of it. The other female lead is blonde and they had already cast her I think, so they wanted me to be opposite. And I just think Shia and I do have some sort of chemistry that worked well.

CS/SHH!: Do you have nightmares about Shia making you laugh in the middle of an important scene?
Fox: No but I have, not nightmares, but I do have dreams, like I never leave the set. I have dreams and I'm always dreaming about this movie. Sometimes it's me on set making this movie and sometimes it's me in the movie and I wake up and I feel ridiculous that I've had that dream, that I'm like all this stuff, the Energon Cube, I dreamed about that the other day. Because we spent all day filming where we're supposed to see the reveal of it, like 16 hours and then I went home and of course I dreamed about that all night, of the actual Energon Cube and how it did transform and all that stuff, I just feel totally retarded. I probably shouldn't say that word. That's going to be a big deal.

CS/SHH!: Did Michael start off with the most intense action scene?
Fox: No, not really. There's so much action in this film, the majority of what we've done is all action, but it would be hard to pick that scene and make it the first. I actually was working by myself my first day. Shia was working on some other movie he was doing and I had to film some stuff during a chase scene. It was high action. It was really difficult and I wish I could go back now and redo it because I'm so much more comfortable doing this stuff, it's going to kill me now to watch it. But I was made uncomfortable the first day, to answer your question.

CS/SHH!: How big of a break has this been?
Fox: Well, I try not to pay attention to that at all. But this movie, it's going to be big for all of us. It's just impossible to actually avoid if you want to because there is such a huge fan base for the series already and then just the trailers and things that are coming out, they're like ominous, the things they're putting out. It just makes you need to see this film so people are going to see me in it and they're going to like it or they're going to hate it or they're going to be indifferent. I guess there's a lot of things they feel but I am going to be seen, so I'm sure my profile will be raised on some level.

CS/SHH!: Have you received anymore offers yet?
Fox: I am but not necessarily the things that I'm interested in doing. It's really hard to pick what your next project is going to be after this movie because of the size of what this is.

CS/SHH!: What would you like to do next?
Fox: I actually would like to do a very small film that's character driven that I can really work on that way, sort of prove my ability as an actress.

CS/SHH!: How intense is Michael Bay as a director?
Fox: Michael's great with me. I got really lucky. I don't know what I did in the beginning or what happened but he is really great with me. He's great with Shia and he yells. People always talk about oh, he yells but he's not like malicious or scary when he yells. He's always half joking. He says things that if you don't have thick skin might hurt your feelings but if you don't have thick skin, you should get out of this business anyway.

CS/SHH!: Have you finished shooting with Jon Voight?
Fox: I don't know from day to day what we're filming and I have no idea. Really I have no idea what I'm doing here today. So I don't think Jon Voight's been wrapped for picture so I'm sure we will work with him again soon. We have approximately 16 days left in the shooting schedule and he by the way is the nicest man I've ever met in my life. He's really great. I feel really honored to even be in the same room with him.

CS/SHH!: What's your favorite Transformer?
Fox: From this film? I liked Starscream in the animated series. From this film, I would have to see Bumblebee. I know that's such a given but he's so heroic. I really like him. Megatron is really sick also, the artwork on this film is incredible and it's hard to pick but personality wise, I'd go with Bumblebee for this.

Josh Duhamel

CS/SHH!: What is the difference between guys in green and guys in black?
Josh Duhamel: The guys in black are part of the underground sector of government called Sector 7. I'm part of the regular military. I'm a captain of special forces in the army.

CS/SHH!: What's the name of your character?
Duhamel: Captain William Lennox.

CS/SHH!: How does he get involved?
Duhamel: Well, it just sort of happens. They're not expecting it, of course, which I think is part of the beauty of the script is the fact that it's set here, now, it's current and it deals with something that's actually going on. We're over in Iraq coming back from a special ops mission when we first encounter them. And the reason I guess, I don't know how much I can tell, but part of the reason is to take out communications. Yeah, we run across them just sort of accidentally and from there, we figure out... we try everything we have to penetrate or disable them a little bit. We finally figure something out and we come back here to help. It's pretty cool. I'm having so much fun.

CS/SHH!: Were you a big fan?
Duhamel: Yeah. I look at these things now and I'm like I'm gonna collect all these little toys. You can see the truck's going to be a toy.

CS/SHH!: So as a fan, you collected different Transformers?
Duhamel: I used to be a huge fan of these things when I was a kid. Just to be out here and just to see how they -- just the art alone on the Transformers and how it's sort of evolved. Just to be part of it, it's definitely a movie about the robots for sure. But I'm stoked to be able to be on a screen with them. I mean, right here, you can see--you can only imagine what it's going to look like when the Transformer takes the place of that big pole.

CS/SHH!: Did you do boot camp?
Duhamel: Yes, it was sort of... I wouldn't really call it a boot camp. I heard about military movies and how they put these guys through the ringer, they try to harden these p*ssy actors basically, which I categorize myself as. So I tried to get in shape for it before I went in. For three or four weeks, I was trying to get in cardiovascular shape, everything. I get there and it was more or less an intensive on... at Fort Irwin, that's basically the training ground where all the soldiers go from the army before they head over to Iraq. It was more or less an intensive learning, the preparation and the way they sort of live and everything else.

CS/SHH!: Are you working with real soldiers in the movie?
Duhamel: Yeah, those guys are all the real deal, all of them except for Tyrese. Navy SEALS, they're all Navy SEALS except for one of them who was a ranger. You learn a lot from those guys. You develop a real appreciation for, these kids are like 17-18 years old, men and women about to go over to Iraq and that's real. So, was something that was pretty valuable to me.

CS/SHH!: Have you seen any of your scenes finished with the robots?
Duhamel: I saw the opening sequence when we were over in White Sands when we first encounter the Transformers. It was still sort of rudimentary but it's pretty amazing, the amount of technology. This is beyond anything I think they've done as far as CGI and making it as photoreal -- they said this is going to be more photoreal than anything they've done yet.

CS/SHH!: Are you satisfied with your reactions to the robots?
Duhamel: With my reactions? I don't know. We'll see. That's my biggest fear is I just don't want to suck. Because you never know if what you were looking at, how tall it was. You don't even know what it looked like at the time. They seem satisfied so I guess that's good enough.

CS/SHH!: How much of your stuff is you interacting with invisible robots?
Duhamel: Quite a bit actually. Quite a bit of it. Everything we did in the beginning was fighting these things. even though you don't see them though, these guys, the explosive teams and everything, they make it feel like you're actually in war, only you don't see what you're fighting against. So it felt as if, you know, the bombs are going off, dust and everything was flying everywhere, so it felt real. We just looked where it was coming from and stuff like that, so I did see a little bit of that cut together and it looks pretty wicked.

CS/SHH!: What harm's way has Michael Bay put you in?
Duhamel: Jeez, the first few weeks was pretty intense. He goes as hard as any of us so you can't really be soft. You just have to be on the set ready to go whenever. It was 120 degrees out in the desert out there which kind of made it feel more real. But just mostly a lot of bombs. A lot of bombs going off in you ear. At one point, he was like, "Dude, you've got to lower your pitch. Your pitch is too high." And I was like, "What do you mean" and I pulled my thing [ear plug] out and I realized that that's what, I was trying to scream over the top, like give orders over the top of these earplugs. So there was one day that he was pretty rough on me but otherwise he's a lot nicer than his reputation. He really is.

CS/SHH!: Looking forward to getting back to TV?
Duhamel: We're shooting it now. At the same time. We worked last night until like 1:30 and then came here this morning. But it hasn't been bad. I thought it was going to be a lot worse because I knew there was going to be an overlap of about three months. But this three-four week period now will be the... because we're working all week on "Vegas" and then come here on the weekends. So, but hey, it could be much worse. I'd much rather have too much work than no work.

CS/SHH!: Do you have many scenes with Shia?
Duhamel: A fair amount. Like I said, the first few weeks, he wasn't there. It was mostly just the military team. Now that we're all kind of come together, we met up at Hoover Dam and a lot of this final battle stuff is with him. We're going to work together in sort of, he sort of takes the thing that he has to and sort of does his heroic thing here.

CS/SHH!: What scene are you shooting today?
Duhamel: Today is part of the final battle scene. We think that we've got them and the Decepticons deceived us.

CS/SHH!: Is there any talk about sequels?
Duhamel: As far as I know, yes, but it's up to them. However ,they write it afterwards. Part of the contract was to do two, but as you know, they can go any way they want in the second one.

CS/SHH!: Do you ride in any of the Transformer cars?
Duhamel: You know what? I actually haven't ridden in any of them. We do the dune buggies all the time and I look at them all the time. What are your favorites of the ones you see here? [we answer] I like Ironhide. I like the truck. You should see the Decepticons. They're really badass. Just mean. They look... it's different from before. I think that the people who sort of designed them really made it really cool again. I think people are really going to dig it. I hope.

Tyrese Gibson

CS/SHH!: You were a soldier in "Annapolis" and now again?
Tyrese: Oh my God, this is much more of a soldier than the "Annapolis" movie.

CS/SHH!: Were you a fan of the toys?
Tyrese: Loved it. I was just talking to my mom the other day and she said, "Well, I guess it wasn't bad that you missed homework all that many times after all." Now I know all about the movie. All they can do is give me my lines. I know everything about Transformers, Decepticons everything.

CS/SHH!: What are they doing right and wrong to adapt this?
Tyrese: I think the only thing people are going to be disappointed in, it's all over the internet already, but Bumblebee is not a bumblebee. It's a Camaro. But other than that, I think Michael Bay and Spielberg, when you think of the idea of them putting their heads together for one film, they both are doing incredibly well by themselves. So I don't really think between the opinion of Spielberg and Bay you could ever go wrong. The beautiful thing for me is sometimes you can get a huge director to do the first one but blows up and he decides for whatever reason not to do the second one… the beautiful thing is even though I know both of them will still be a part of the sequel, if Michael Bay decides I'd rather go do something else, we've still got Spielberg. Nothing like having an incredible cushion.

CS/SHH!: How much fun dressing as a soldier and fighting robots?
Tyrese: You talking about running up the street from things that ain't there? I love it, man. It's the biggest thing I've ever done ever, as far as an actor. It's a dream come true to work with Michael Bay. When I was doing "2 Fast 2 Furious," they were filming "Bad Boys II" in Miami. I remember I went to the set to visit Martin and Will and they were just schooling me on the $20 million club. I went to the set and it was big for me, like damn, that's Michael Bay. Now I'm on the set working with Michael Bay. That's the real deal.

CS/SHH!: Are you making $20 million?
Tyrese: No, no, not 20 million.

CS/SHH!: What's harder, singing or acting?
Tyrese: Singing is much harder. You can take like three days to do one song.

CS/SHH!: Seen any completed footage?
Tyrese: Oh yeah. Ooh. Ooh. This movie is something. This movie is going to be something.

CS/SHH!: What's the craziest thing you've gotten to do?
Tyrese: You know what? As soon as I think I've topped it all, we show up and wow. All I can say is everything is much bigger and much greater and much grander than you could ever imagine every single day. This is actually medium compared to what we're used to seeing when we show up to the set. Big huge like whoah. Just crazy. This is the biggest thing ever, man. It's almost like there's no limit to the things they can go by and do with this film.

CS/SHH!: Talk about working with real SEALS and real Rangers?
Tyrese: Oh, it's crazy. Crazy thing is we had actors in the film that were dressed up just like us and they've already died and they actually got the SEAL guys still alive. So the SEAL guys made it and the actors that were playing SEALs died. They're gone. I guess they were able to put on a believable death before they had to go.

CS/SHH!: Who is your character?
Tyrese: Josh is our captain. I'm a combat controller so we're like the ying and yang. He's telling everybody that's on the floor around us what to do, and I'm telling everybody in the air what to do. All the B2 bombers, B2 stealth bombers and all of the helicopters and Black Hawks and Medivacs and whatever else, they're all going under my command. I'm the CCT, combat controller.

CS/SHH!: Any internal conflict there?
Tyrese: Oh no, we don't have any internal conflicts at all. There's not one moment in this film where he's going to decide to do something and I'd say, "Why would you ever do something!" We're not at odds. We're having a good time.

CS/SHH!: Favorite Transformer?
Tyrese: Yeah, Michael Bay. The greatest Transformer of all time.

CS/SHH!: As a fan, did you care about having the original voices?
Tyrese: I didn't really get that far into it. I'm a fan of the thing but I'm not going to go on the internet and have an argument with somebody about the possibility of there being a new Megatron voice or Decepticon voice. It's all good. I told Michael Bay, I've got a nice voice. Let's have me doing a little voiceover work. I won't tell nobody.

CS/SHH!: Did he go for it?
Tyrese: He just went he he he.

CS/SHH!: You have two big gashes today?
Tyrese: That's makeup.

CS/SHH!: So the humans are taking a hard time?
Tyrese: No, no, we've just been going through some things. Sometime when you're running, you trip and fall, scrape your neck.

CS/SHH!: Do you ride in any Transformers?
Tyrese: No. I know, right? It's messed up.

CS/SHH!: But the army vehicles are cool?
Tyrese: Oh yeah, I love it. We've been having a good time though. This will be the biggest film of 2007. Guaranteed. No questions asked. And I'm just honored, very honored all over again to be a part of it. There's no one day that I show up to this set like all right, I'm used to it, I'm here, I've arrived. It's a big deal.

CS/SHH!: Can you talk about Anthony Anderson's scenes?
Tyrese: He has a little more than a cameo. He's probably worked all of 15 days so far, what I know.

CS/SHH!: And what about Jon Voight?
Tyrese: Oh yeah. My honor. I call him pops. That's my pops. Jon Voight is subtle. He's very subtle. He's one of them type of guys that if you do a scene really well, he'll just look at you when nobody else is looking and do like this. Then when he turns away, you're like Yaaaa!

CS/SHH!: Are they making an action figure of you?
Tyrese: Oh man, that would be nice. Maybe they can draw me some muscles I don't have.

CS/SHH!: How did you survive the desert heat?
Tyrese: Ooh, barely did, man. Ooh, that was a problem. It's a lot of work, man. A lot of work to be out there making all that stuff happen in that hot sun. One day it was 124 degrees and we were in the sand dunes, the white sand dunes. The sun was beaming off the ground and it was heavy on your eyes. It was a big challenge working out there but we was out there for four days and we at least shot probably 25% of the movie there because he works fast. He probably does 30-40 setups a day. He got camera angles everywhere you can think of. He's not going to miss a beat. That's why my appreciation for him as just a director went through the roof. You look around, everybody on this entire street is here because of this film and he knows what everybody on this entire street is supposed to be doing on this film. Including the camera people, including the lighting, including all of us as the actors. It's hard. I know some directors who can't even handle this amount of actors, let alone a cast and a crew and know everything. He don't miss a beat. He can tell you what you did wrong through the smoke.

CS/SHH!: Favorite Transformer?
Tyrese: I can't say. Don't even try it. He thinks he's slick.

CS/SHH!: Are you doing a superhero, Cage?
Tyrese: I don't know. Why'd the microphones get so close? Right now, they're doing a rewrite on the film and John Singleton got me at the top of his list. I'm not full on committed to the project but it's something that I'm extremely interested in. Met up with Neal Moritz a few times about it, met up with Avi Arad a few times about it. We'll see what happens. It's not my movie, for the record, but it's something they're really interested in me being a part of. I'm interested in being a part of it and I think we'll be able to determine if John Singleton, if me or whoever else is going to be on the project, we're waiting on the product. We can't do a movie without a good bible. What are we going to read?

CS/SHH!: Your stock will go up after Transformers?
Tyrese: Oh, I'm rich. I'm rich. Oh, I'm rich. No. Not yet. I can enjoy my modest years because it's on the way. Ooh.

CS/SHH!: Your production company?
Tyrese: Right now we got about 12 different projects in development and about four of them are set up at studios. And it's called HQ Pictures. It's one of my more prouder accolades because you out here looking for projects, trying to figure out what you should attach yourself too and not too many people got the courage to go and try to do it themselves. So we've got a bunch of directors looking at various projects, bunch of actors reading and actresses reading. Right now it's crazy. We're having a little back and forth amongst a few agencies about representing my production company.

Transformers vs Die Hard 4 Game On

Last year it was Superman vs Pirates, this year its Transformers vs Die Hard 4 for July box office dollars. To the victor goes...well bragging rights since both are probably going to bank a crapload of money.

In this battle, Bruce Willis launched the opening salvo by commenting on the AICN messages boards:

Bay...Would have ruined DH4. Few people will work with him now, and I know I will never work with him again.

Michael Bay in return responded via his blog:

Hard to believe it really is Bruce saying that stuff on AICN. I
loved working with Bruce. He gave me a big hug one month ago at the GM party and
we talked for 20 minutes. We even talked about working together again! I mean it
would be sad if he felt this way - he's never one to hide his feelings - I say
sad, in that he wouldn't be man enough to say it to my face. But truly sad that
such a big time actor would have to hide on a little talk back section. So I
really don't believe this story.

I find it also totally odd that my
agents at William Morris got the call from Bruce's people to inquire if I would
like to helm Die Hard 4, but I was already on Transformers.

Michael

Real feud? Friends having fun over competing films? Marketing stunt? Who knows except those two.

Bay: LA Times Article

Michael Bay was interviewed for an LA Times article that was helping to advertise Transformers by doing a retrospective on Bay's movie career (ie hey you liked ? see Transformers!). Sadly to read the article requires a subscription but TFormers.com was kind enough to provide a summary including a new movie image.

One thing of note though is the article does use the previous image of Optimus Prime without faceplate pretty much confirming that the "battle" for the faceplate has already been decided. We all knew that due for multiple reasons the least of which the faceplates are part of several Transformer designs and represent a battle-mode. The other is the expense in designing and implementing the face plate and not face plate look and not to use it would be a tremendous waste of money.

Anyway, back to the article. He is satisfied with the final product as it does represent his vision of the Transformers "as not a toy movie but as a live-action spectacle loaded with visual effects." Producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura said the movie has huge action scenes but "I think people will be surprised by the movie. There is a spectacular amount of heart and humor in it."

Click here to read the full article courtesy of Michael Bay's blog.

Peter Cullen Q&A

TFW2005.com has posted a transcript of a Q&A session with Peter Cullen during the Anime Matsuri in Houston, Texas from April 27th to 29th.

The highlights:
- Cullen is not voicing other characters in the movie.
- No changes where requested when Cullen auditioned with Bay and co as Optimus
- Game recording sessions where tiring, as took 3-4 hours per, requiring lots of screams, grunts, attack sounds and the like on three different levels.
- Worked with Bay to make Optimus more human due to the live action elements and interaction with Spike Witwicky character.
- While recording for movie, worked with Bay and assistant but no other actors.
- Find the voice of Optimus once again was "he was so set and so strong and foreign in substance that it was like riding a bike and he came right back."
- In regards to the script "The qualities of the characters are still there. It's like an elastic band and stretching it, but it's still the elastic band and the strength of the characters are still there."
- Also reiterated the $150 million budget that has yet to be 100% confirmed but assumed (at least by me).
- Optimus will have a larger role in second and third movies.
- Apparently during movie audition, Bay was speechless when Cullen seamlessly switched between the voice of Ironhide and Prime while reading lines.
I doubt Bay is accustomed to actors who exclusively only do voice (and usually many different ones) so not particularly surprised. Probably not used to the lack of ego compared to on-camera actors either. Hugo Weaving at a convention other then San Diego, that will be the day.
- Had to do a second audition with Bay because Bay wasn't convinced that voice actors could you know "act". Again probably his lack of experience in that realm of Hollywood.
- Despite the successful auditions "I don't believe I scared them but I actually believe if it weren't for the fan base and the communications you had between yourself and the powers that be, I would have never got that role and I really appreciate you people for it and I love you for it."
- Cullen's other favorite Transformers besides Prime is Ironhide.
- When it comes to changes to Transformers such as Bumblebee as a Camaro "I can understand where the feelings you guys have for that and I don't blame you...Nothing stays the same, things change, but I'm trying to be optimistic here without sounding like I'm trying to hide anything. I have a lot of confidence in the changes that have been made and I'm sure you guys will too."
- Cullen's involvement began around June of last year.
- As far as lines...apparently the "My Bad" line stays in when Prime crushes Spike's Mom's garden. I just hope it works in execution cause when read it in the leaked script, it was a groan moment for me.
- Doesn't remember if uses the famous "Autobots transform and roll out."
- Cullen hasn't heard any of Hugo's work on the film but wished Frank Welker was doing it. I still say they need to record a Frank Welker track for the DVD but I am thinking actor ego (Hugo's) will prevent such an event from ever occurring even if powers that be wanted to.
- Script was kept a secret even from Cullen. He only saw the pages with his lines.

Full Q&A transcript is here.

Peter Cullen: Two More Transformers Movies

According to TFormers.com, during a Q@A session at Anime Matsuri (I guess a convention), there are plans for at least two more movies. Part of the reason is because of the cost of the CGI development for the Transformers designs. Bay has previously commented on sequel plans and Shia has already confirmed he was signed up for at least two sequels, so it makes since to do the same for the voice of Optimus Prime. Really, to me anyway, this isn't really news as it has already been known that Transformers was being prepped as another franchise for Dreamworks. You don't drop $150 + marketing on a movie without hoping for future sequels. Of course all the hope and contracts in the world are not going to guarantee a sequel unless the audience shows up at the theatres. If opening week is as solid as everyone hopes (probably $100 million first week) then a sequel will be a lock.

Chance To Ask Michael Bay A Question

According to TFormers.com, Yahoo! Movies is sponsoring an opportunity to ask Transformers Director Michael Bay a question. You can send him a question using at askmichaelbay@yahoo.com. Selected questions will be answered in a video interview with Bay. I tried to get more information but unable to find more specfic details so don't know what the end date may be.

Two Shia LaBeouf Interviews

Shia LaBeouf is doing the media tour to promote his new movie Disturbia and during this, Transformers comes up every now and then. One interview is with AICN and the other for MoviesOnline. No new information is revealed.

Relevant part from the AICN interview:

C: I should ask one TRANSFORMERS question. When Quint talked to you, you were in the middle of it. So, now you’re done making it. How did you survive? Did you have to take a month off and go to the islands, or were you energized? How did you fare? A little battered and bruised?
SL: It was an insane shoot, and Quint was there, and he saw how insane, and that was every day. But, again, you never experience anything like this--to see a functioning robot, you know…To see a bumblebee in person, as a fan, is nuts. To meet Colin [Fickes], you know, to meet him, to watch Mike [Bay, director] go through the editing. I took, I think, a week off and then went into press, went into promotion, then enduring ADR and a bunch of post-production for these three films. So, I really haven’t had time off, yet.

I still haven’t wound down from it. It’s still this insanity. It’s still this crazy…it’s still nuts, but I’ve had a chance to read scripts and take meetings and things like that. But, haven’t wound down off TRANSFORMERS. It’s aneurysm inducing. That’s how nuts it is. We went to get our MPAA rating. They didn’t want to give us an R. They said ‘You want to be PG13? You can’t have an R’.

C: Wait, were you going for R?
SL: No, we were going for PG13. But, they wouldn’t give us the R rating. They said it was too intense to release, and they said Mike had to cut it down. Of course, Mike’s not going to cut it down. And, we have Spielberg go fight the good fight and get our rating down, but it’s just an intense movie. It’s the type of movie where you watch, and you’re holding yourself and your heart’s going crazy to the point where it doesn’t feel right. It’s just nuts.

And, to have ILM say things like, ‘It’s the most ridiculous movie we've ever worked on. It’s the best graphics we’ve ever made.’ And, this is a company that’s been around. So, when you start getting feedback like that, and the excitement from…You read these Talk-backers, and they’re… ‘The flames, [yelling] THE FLAMES. Just the level of…the intricacies and the importance, it just makes it all feel like you worked on something important, really important, to the point where it’s beyond you. You’re part of something magical. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in it or not.

C: Just to be a part of the machine, literally?SL: That’s it. Just to see Optimist Prime Transformer is enough to bring people in theaters. So, we’ll see where it goes. It’s been a fun ride so far, though.

From the Movie Online interview:

Q: So what was it like working on Transformers?
Shia LaBeouf: Transformers was crazy. It’s just a different type of movie, a different form of it.

Q: A lot of green screens and blue screens?
Shia LaBeouf: Not a lot.
Q: Oh really?
Shia LaBeouf: No. We build the robots, we blew stuff up. This all really happened. There’s stuff we could’ve done on green screen but the way that [Michael] Bay works, and the way he works with actors, which is why it’s funny to me he goes to such lengths to put his actors in situations that are safety (??) and dangerous for their reaction and their response. He’s actually an actor’s director. It’s conducive to the performance because then you are responding. And he goes out of his way to do that. If you’re shooting a movie in 80 days, you can easily go to green screen and fake me being on the Orpheum Theatre, blowing the roof up, hanging by one hand while my feet are on fire.

You know that stuff you can do on green screen. But he took us to the Orpheum Theatre, blew the Orpheum Theatre up, lit my feet on fire. You don’t have to go mind F yourself, you know. You show up to set and the works done for you. You just have to respond. And so it’s funny to me that people say he’s not an actor’s director. If I didn’t have Bay, I wouldn’t have gotten through Transformers. There’s only one dude who could’ve made that movie. You couldn’t have DJ make Transformers and Michael Bay couldn’t have made Disturbia. They’re two different textures, two different paints. You know the difference between a Warhol and a Picasso, and I’m not saying that they’re either one of those or that they’re at that level, but they’re just two different textures.

Q: Were you a Transformers fan before you even signed up?
Shia LaBeouf: Huge.
Q: Really?
Shia LaBeouf: Star Wars was a bit early for me so I didn’t fall into the fanatical Star Wars thing. But Transformers was the male Barbie. I mean Transformers was at everyone’s house, not just at yours, but you’d go to a piñata party or something or a Quinceañera, everybody had them.

Q: So it was a dream come true in a way?
Shia LaBeouf: Yeah, but again, it was a cheesy cartoon. It was never what it is now and it’s turning into like… it’s becoming very serious. They’re making a whole storyline. Now they have a prequel book that I just read that just came out and it explains all the stuff that I had never even thought about. There’s the whole lingo that goes along with it. It’s very similar to Star Wars and the fan base and the passion of it. I don’t know about the mass and how big that fan base is, but the people who are into it are into it. They have Decepticon back logos, tattoos all over the place, Transformers, arm pieces.

You don’t see people getting Pirates of the Caribbean Jack Sparrow on their back. They don’t get those back pieces, they get Decepticon logos. They take the Ford symbol off their car and replace it with an Autobot symbol. People are fanatical about it. You go on Ain’t It Cool News or any of these websites and Chud or any of these and it’s all Transformers. Again, now I don’t know what the Internet amounts to, but I know we’re the most downloaded trailer in Yahoo’s history. But again, you can’t count on things like that. Snakes on a Plane had a huge Internet following and then what happened.

Q: It sounds like you have gone on line and read some of the things.
Shia LaBeouf: Oh, non-stop. Of course.

Q: As it gets closer to the release and it’s going to get more and more intense, are you going to be like ‘Okay, I can’t deal with this anymore’?
Shia LaBeouf: No. You have to be aware of it, because when you get questioned about it, especially if you’ve got a guy who’s on those sites and there’s passion behind it, you’ve got to be informed about the discussions and the topics, especially when you’re the head speaker for the Transformers movie and there’s so much behind it, you need to be educated to all of it – the lingo, the robots, the back talk, the combos, the rumors, all of it.

Q: Does that stress you out a little bit?
Shia LaBeouf: No, I’m a Transformers fan. I’d be doing this even if I wasn’t in the movie.

Transformers 2.5 Hours Long, Welker Confirmed In Another Role?

According to an interview with Shia LaBeouf from Collider.com while promoting his movie Disturbia, Transformers might be a 2 and half hour long movie with 20 set pieces or action sequences if the Spider-Man analogy is an indication. Also just as important is this is the first movie insider confirmation that Frank Welker may still voice one of the Transformers in the movie, even if its not Megatron.

From the interview:

On the running time and the amount of action he said:
It's going to be long. He's going to give you a lot. You've got 20 set pieces. You like at Spider-Man and it had five big action sequences — five set pieces. We have 20, and you've got to get storyline in, you've got to get the narrative in — so a lot of explanation. You can’t just have robots fighting for no reason. You've got to explain it. The movies going to run, I think, about two and a half.

And then I asked him why all of Michael Bay’s movies look like all the money was spent on screen and I got an extremely honest response:
Because he’s not putting all the actors in huge trailers, and we’re not staying in four class resorts and craft service isn’t shrimp cocktail. It’s a movie set and all the money is going into the film. You feel it on set. You know none of us got paid millions of dollars to be in that movie. That’s one of the lowest paying jobs I’ve been in, in my career. And that’s the way it goes. You do that movie not because of the paycheck, I know that everybody thinks “oh you’re in Transformers because of the paycheck.” And I’m sure eventually it will lead to a paycheck – when you have a Japanese following and a following you never had – but the initial being in the movie was never a paycheck. None of us got paid above $70,000 dollars. We were all there to blow shit up.

As a fan of Transformers you’re reaction to Hugo Weaving getting cast as the voice of Megatron?
Look as long as you make sure (Frank) Welker is in and you make sure that (Peter) Cullen is Optimus. If anyone else is Optimus the movie is terrible. It has to be Cullen. Now Welker is older, much older than Cullen and his voice has changed. I’ve heard him in sessions. He’d be great as another robot but to play Megatron you need somebody powerful and Hugo Weaving is powerful.

The rumor of Frank Welker remaining involved in the Transformers production started pretty much the same day of the Hugo Weaving announcement but this is the first time I have read someone directly involved with the movie speaking about it. With plenty of roles available and Frank's ability its a toss up on what role he will have but for giggles I am guessing Starscream.

As for the 2.5 hour length, I am thinking that's the rough cut length of the film. Its not that I wouldn't want to see the movie that long, but studio economics 101 is to go for a two hour or shorter film length as that means at least one more play time each day. One more play time mean more tickets sold, so more money made. That use to not matter but no business decisions are often made just on the first weekend take, not even the long haul results so getting huge numbers up front is usually paramount. Of course this is a Bay/Spielberg movie so the usual rules can get tossed at any time.