Mars Attacks The Transformers Preview

IDW has the martians attacking in Mars Attacks the Transformers one shot that is hitting stores tomorrow. This issue is part of their "Mars Attacks" crossover for their various media properties, similar to last year's zombie invasion. Click here to view the first few pages from the issue.

Mars Attacks the Transformers
Shane McCarthy (w) • Matt Frank (a) • Ray Dillon (c)
The weekly invasion continues: AUTOBOTS vs. DECEPTICONS vs... MARTIANS?! The invaders from Mars take advantage of the colossal Cybertronian's conflict and begin their assault on Earth in full force. It's Martian vs. Machine as the audacious Autobots and the devilish Decepticons begrudgingly join forces to repel the inhuman invaders and save the planet!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Raynor Comments on New Transformers 4 Role

While at the London Critics Circle Film Awards last week, new Transformers 4 hire Jack Reynor commented on how he won the role, confirmed that it is a race car driver and that training has begun.

"I'm training very intensely at the moment. I'm going to keep that up until we shoot. I'm going to do some different courses, some different things I need to pick up for the film. My character seems to be a race car driver so I'm going to be doing a couple of driving courses and getting out on the track."

Quizzed about how he landed the role, he added: "It was after a film I was doing, 'The Delivery Man', with Dreamworks. I went through quite a rigorous audition process out in L.A., and after a certain amount of auditions and meetings with different executives, I managed to pull it off."

"I haven't met [Mark Wahlberg] before, but I'm really excited. He's one of my favourite actors. I just think he's brilliant. I have a huge amount of respect for him as an actor so I can't wait to get on set with him."

"I think Michael Bay has his ideas about it and I'm going to go along with him. He seems to know what he's doing."

IDW April 2013 Transformers Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for April 2013. Four comics and four trades are being offered for the month. The month concludes the first major arc in Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye where it seems many will die. If you are interested in the books, just let your local comic book store know. For the full details of IDW's other books including GI Joe, Star Trek, Locke & Key, and more click here.

Wahlberg: Transformers 4 a "Complete Reboot"

Last night while promoting his latest movie on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Mark Wahlberg contradicted Michael Bay by calling Transformers 4 a "complete reboot." Michael Bay had wrote "Transformers 4, is not a reboot. That word has been floating around on the net." In the video he said:

"We’re doing a complete reboot of the Transformers. I did a movie with Michael Bay called Pain and Gain, which comes out in April. And we had an amazing time together and really hit it off, and he said ‘Hey, you want to do this other little movie I’m doing?’ Because that was a little movie, and I said ‘Yeah, I like doing little movies.' And he said Transformers. Whoa! You know what, we had such a great experience, I’m in."

Wahlberg Talks Joining Transformers 4, Filming Start Date

Mark Wahlberg continues to make the rounds to promote Broken City and with it comes Transformers 4 questions. While he doesn't reveal any story specifics he does talk about why he joined the project and that he thinks filming will start "at the end of May.

From Knoxville News:

Q: You're going to be in Michael Bay's "Transformers 4." What can you say about it?
Wahlberg: Just that I had a great experience working with Michael (Bay in the action comedy "Pain & Gain"). We really hit it off and we complimented each other so well on the set. We made something that was really good and special. So he goes, "What do you think about doing this 'Transformers' movie?" I said, "Well, what do you want me to do?" And he told me, and I said, "Absolutely.

Linkfest - Beast Hunters

The new year is now here and that means more new Transformers. The first wave of deluxe toys for Transformers Prime Beast Hunters have hit Toys R Us with links to their reviews below. Their are also links to around a dozen different Beast Hunters toys in various classes. Takara has a few exclusives that are about to come out so get a peak at those while third party vendor have their own slate of toys. Basically if you are a die hard collector, its going to be another expensive year.

Beast Hunter's Galleries - deluxe Wave 1 | deluxe Wave 2 | wave 1 Legion | deluxe Bulkhead | Voyager Optimus Prime | Voyager Predaking | deluxe Smokescreen |
It seems the floodgates have opened as a bunch of new images have popped up for the first few waves of legion, deluxe, and voyager class toys. The toys should be coming out over the next few months as get closer to the premiere of Transformers Prime Season Three which is not Feb. 15 as previously reported, actually date unknown.

Transformers Prime Season 3 Starts... (Updated)

Update: Zap2It reports "Some kind of mistake has been made in which the Zap2It Transformers Prime episode guide has attributed an old episode of Transformers Animated (“Lost and Found”) airing on 2/15 as being a new episode of Transformers Prime. It is incorrect. This is being revised." So back to waiting on the actual premiere date.

Zap2It has posted the premiere date for Transformers Prime season 3 as February 15th, 2013 with first episode titled Lost and Found. Season 3 premiere the Beast Hunters subtitle as Hasbro and Transformers starts to dabble with Beast Wars type ideas. Below is the NYCC teaser from last year and after another teaser featuring Shockwave. (via Unicron)

Jack Reynor Cast in Transformers 4

Michael Bay has announced the other male lead for Transformers 4 is Jack Reynor, joining the already cast Mark Wahlberg. The actor, new to American audiences, was one of the male actors reported to be on the short list of actors testing for the role of Wahlberg's daughter's race car boyfriend. The role of the daughter has not yet been cast.

I just hired a great new actor for Transformers 4 to star against Mark Wahlberg. Jack Reynor, he is an Irish kid that came to America with 30 bucks in his pocket. Pretty ballsy. Seriously who does that? Anyway I spotted him in a great little Irish movie WHAT RICHARD DID. This kid is the real deal.

Transformers 4, is not a reboot. That word has been floating around on the net.

This movie takes place exactly 4 years after the war in Chicago. The story makes a very natural transition, and reason as to why we have a whole new cast. This Transformers will feel very different then the last three. We are embarking on a new trilogy.

Michael

Transformers RID #13, Regeneration One #87 Previews

Tomorrow brings Transformers: Robots in Disguise #13 and Transformers Regeneration One #87 to stores. RID #13 continues with Bumblebee dealing with the fallout from Megatron's return while in Regeneration One Scorponok has perfected his tech that transforms Autobots into Decepticons including Grimlock. The preview of RID #13 is here and Regeneration One #97 is here.

Transformers 4 Filming in Chicago?

It seems that Transformers franchise might be returning to Chicago. This weekend while in the city participating in an advance screening and doing press interviews to promote Broken City. Mark Wahlberg answered questions about Transformers 4. A source reports hearing that Wahlberg said he is house hunting for a rental to use while filming Transformers 4 in the Chicago area during the summer.

The idea really isn't much of a stretch as Michael Bay frequently praised the city when they hosted him while filming his huge scenes for Transformers: Dark of the Moon that often required him to alter and close many major streets. Since the fourth movie takes place 4 years after Dark of the Moon, its possible that the Decepticons are not yet done with the city or possibly fallout from the siege has a part in the film. No other details yet but hopefully learn more as the local press post their interviews closer to the January 18 release date of Broken City.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2013, may it be better then the previous one. To start the year of new movies, including spring start on Transformers 4, below are two excellent montages that look back at the movies of 2012.

R.I.P. Mike Hopkins, Sound Editor on Transformers

New Zealand Stuff reports that Oscar winner Mike Hopkins died at the age of 53 after his inflatable raft slipped on the Waliohine River, NZ around 3pm Saturday December 30th. Hopkins won his Academy Awards for Sound Editing on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2003 and another on King Kong in 2006. He was also received an Oscar nomination for Sound Editing for Transformers in 2008. He was the Supervising Sound Editor on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Kung Fu Panda, and more. Condolences to his family and friends.

Transformers: The Ride Voice Actor Interviews

Below is a "old" video but first time I was aware of it as the various voice actors used in Transformers: The Ride discuss their roles. The video is from the May opening of the attraction at Universal Studios Orlando with Dustin Leighton (Evac) and Frank Welker (Megatron). Thanks to Feris for the link.

Merry Christmas from David Kaye (and TFLive)

Merry Christmas!
Just like he did last year, the voice of Beast War Megatron, David Kaye provides his Christmas wishes to all using not just Megs but Clank, animated Optimus Prime and TF Prime Hardshell.

Linkfest - Merry Christmas

Finally got around to playing catch-up on the latest in Transformers toy news. Upcoming toys include Capbots (transforming plastic ball caps), tease of the Beast Hunters line, look at Kre-O combiners, discount info on TF Prime toys, new 3rd party toy, and TF video game info. Also have video reviews Fall of Cybertron Grimlock & Starscream, MP Sideswipe & Red Alert, and more. This will be the last link fest of 2012 but next year is looking great with lots of great Hasbro toys in the pipeline including Transformers Prime Beast Hunters, more Fall of Cybertron and Generations toys. Third party makers have hinted at around 3 separate combiners (not Aerielbots, Dinobot combiner, and Throttlebot combiner) along with a bunch of more G1 homages. Takara has MP Soundwave coming and who knows what other creative twists they have in store of us. Over all next year is looking very good for Transformers and that is not even counting Transformer 4 that should start filming in late Spring.

Capbots Gallery
Yep plastic baseball caps that turn into Captimus Prime and Capticon. Still annoyed missed out the the Nike Shoeformers (plastic shoes that transformed) so went ahead and ordered without waiting on review like normally do. They are available now for around $26.

Bay Blames Transformers 4 Leak on Hasbro (and IDW)

Michael Bay has added a post script to his message yesterday about the alleged Transformers 4 script leak saying it is probably a planned comic story and so the leak came from Hasbro (and so by extension IDW).

P.S. I bet it is something from Hasbro. This time they are not doing a comic book of the movie because we want to keep our story under wraps. It must be their version of a comic themed Transformers story they are creating.

I really have no clue how he came to this conclusion as there is nothing in the script summaries to suggest any tie in to anything Hasbro or IDW has been doing for the last 10 years on either the comic book, video game or toy front. Everything about it screams fan fiction. The problem with him making guesses like this is his can cause people to lose their jobs and he needs to be more careful voicing them.

To be fair, he doesn't read comics, especially Transformers one. He probably knows they exist and he gets a little money from them but that is about all. My guess (cause mine do not have consequences) is this is residual resentment from when Amazon (not Hasbro or IDW) accidently leaked nearly all of Transformers: Dark of the Moon a month before release via a technical error when trying provide a few pages to preview the collected adaptation of the movie. Bay does not like leaks, he does not forget and so a comic adaptation will not be provided for Transformers 4. I am sure IDW is not happy about this but have no choice but to grin and bear it.

Transformers MTMTE #12 Preview

Just a week to go until Christmas. Until then if happen to be near your local comic book store (or tablet), this Wednesday brings the new Transformer comic. Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #12 continues the often funny (the character quirks are genius) and tragedy of the Lost Light. A seven page preview can be found here.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Ongoing #12
James Roberts (w) • Alex Milne (a) • Milne, Nick Roche (c)
AUTOBOTS VERSUS DECEPTICONS! The crew of the Lost Light confronts a band of rogue DECEPTICONS—with terrible consequences. As an AUTOBOT slips closer to death, a single decision sets in motion a chain of events that might just spell the end for RODIMUS and his band of travelers.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

IDW March 2013 Transformers Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for March 2013. Four comics and maybe two trades are being offered for the month. The maybe two trades depends on if you look at the Rise of the Dinobots comic as a new one-shot or a compilation of the four part digital series that detailed the origin of the Dinobots under Shockwave's evil hands. If you are interested in the books, just let your local comic book store know. For the full details of IDW's other books including GI Joe, Star Trek, Locke & Key, and more click here.

Michael Bay Denies Leak, Provides Script Progress Update

Michael Bay has posted on his website that this morning's script leak of the Transformers 4 script is a fake. Even better he let us know that they are up to page 70 on the script so probably a touch over halfway done. In general most scripts sort of work out to about page a minute so the final script will likely clock in at around 120 pages or so depending on the level of detail it provides.

Some Internet sites this morning reported that some document recovery guy has found a legitimate 120 page script of Transformers 4. I can absolutely 100 percent say this is completely false. The only two people in the world that have our unfinished script are Kruger and myself. Also we are only up to page 70 in our T4 script. Maybe this guy has a cartoon or something else – but definitely not our movie!

Bay

Transformers 4 Script Summary? Unlikely

Unleash the Fan Boy is claiming they have been given a copy of the script for Transformers 4. Nothing about the film reads like "A Michael Bay film". It really reads like a fan fiction wish list (aka re-imagining of Transformers: The Movie) that does nothing to make it seem credible. All previous films had "leaked scripts" that turned out to be false so take the story with a grain of salt and then some. Below is the highlights. A bit more detail on the fake script can be found at Allspark.com. It seems the initial site left out a few details (ends with Autobots putting up a Christmas tree among others) as a means of trying to make the story more credible when even a cursory glance would have screamed fake. AKA this is an effective link bait story so I decided to kill the link to the offending website.