Transformers: Rise of the Beast Filming At Machu Picchu

It seems that filming of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has gone from Montreal to New York and now is at Machu Picchu in Cusco, Peru.  Its possible that second unit might be filming elsewhere but since the film's stars Dominique Fishback and Anthony Ramos are on set, this is likely involves first unit and the film's director Steven Caple, Jr.  

Also interesting is the filming has to work around the tourists at the location as the site was not shut down to allow for filming.  As a result we get some videos to watch. You can use CC button and Setting button to get a text translation of the videos but they are not really telling you anything informative about the filming.

In addition, Optimus Prime truck was spotted arriving in Cusco (3rd video below) indicating that whatever is being filmed here is central to the story.  

The last video is one that popped up online from Montreal that shows various Mirage/Jazz parking and filming a scene. There is often several copies of a car to meet specific purposes. One might be a stunt car configured for the stunts, another is usually the "hero" vehicle that is the primary car whose purpose is to just look great on camera, another might be rigged for attaching camera so film the actors, another might be rigged to flip, and so on.

Paramount Pictures To Replace CEO, Move Away from Theatrical Releases

Transformers production studio, Paramount Pictures, is getting a new CEO. Jim Gianopulos has effectively been forced out of Paramount Pictures as Chairman and CEO and will be replaced with current Nickelodeon President Brian Robbins. Gianopulos took over Paramount in 2017 after the previous year, which included badly performing Transformers: The Last Knight, was a bad year for the company. He shifted the company to focus on tighter budget movies (like Bumblebee) and projects that would have potential low cost, high reward like A Quiet Place.  In addition, he built up Paramount TV's production slate so net result was profitable years for Paramount.

What makes this interesting isn't that some CEO is being replaced. Its why the replacement is occurring. The change is due to ViacomCBS Chairperson Shari Redstone's desire to push all content created by the company to benefit Paramount+ and their related streaming services (soon to launch SkyShowtime in Europe for example). Part of this plan includes no longer releasing films in theaters but instead onto the streaming services and at a reduced production cost. Most direct to streaming films are around $100 million or less while theatrical releases tend to be $150 million or more.  A plan that Gianopulous doesn't agree with but one Robbins is just fine with since his entire career has been in the realm of television.

Transformers 7 Optimus Prime Rolls Out In Brooklyn

 In the brief video below from Tik Tok's @arun09345, we have a good look at the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts version of Optimus Prime.  The truck looks great and clearly G1 inspired.