Box Office: Monday's Take $28.9 Million

Another day, another $28.9 million added to the total for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen from worldwide box office sales on Monday. $14.8 million of the toal is from US sales with the remaining $14.1 million from international sales. Data from Box Office Mojo.

Box Office Totals (in millions)

Date	US	Intl	Worldwide
6/19-6/23	$0.0	$24.1	$24.1
6/24	$200.1	$60.0	$120.7
6/25	$29.1	$20.0	$48.6
6/26	$36.7
6/27	$40.2
6/28	$32.0	$86.2**
6/29	$14.8	$14.1	$28.9
Totals	$214.9	$204.4	$419.3

*estimate of sales, **no day to day breakdown available

Dark Horizon Interviews Transformers 2 Writers

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman continue their online promotion of the movie in an interview with Dark Horizons as they contrast working on Star Trek with Abrams and Transformers with Bay and their writing carrers. Snippet below, full interview here.

Question: How seriously do you take the good with the bad? I mean, Star Trek received over 90 percent rave reviews, while Transformers, not so much. Do you take it seriously? Do you ignore it? Why do you think this is?Orci: We take it seriously, in as much as a real fact of a media blogosphere dialogue. And as its own phenomenon, that’s a fascinating thing to engage in one way or the other. We tend to separate that from what an audience feels. And we tend to go by the audience. You know, you always want to make sure that you don’t overlook a valid opinion that has something constructive to say, merely because it’s negative.
Kurtzman: Nobody can honestly say that they don’t care about reviews. Like, nobody. But we knew the minute we agreed to do Transformers 2 that these were gonna be the reviews, no matter what we came up with. And that’s just a fact of life that you accept going into it.

Question: Let me ask you this. You’re working with two very, very filmmakers, with Abrams and Bay. And I’m just wondering when you’re working on a Bay film, what the different process is in writing a script, for a director who has very different visual sensibilities to somebody like J.J. Abrams?
Kurtzman: I mean, it’s a very different process. They’re very different directors. They look for very different things.
Orci: But part of that difference comes from the fact that they’re different franchises. They require different things.
Kurtzman: Yeah. That’s right.
Orci: You know, it’s not just that we’re writing for Michael Bay. We’re writing for Transformers. And Michael Bay is perfect for Transformers. And J.J. is perfect for Star Trek, because what Star Trek requires is something else. So, we tend to look at it as, the show is the boss. All of our boss. And we’re servicing that more than anything. You know, in terms of differences in the experience. Obviously, Transformers 2 was unique, in that it went down in the middle of the strike. We were writing the movie three months before it was about to be shot, therefore we were handing Michael pages that night. You know, every night, so they could be prepared. Which was different than Star Trek, where we had six leisurely months to go write two drafts.

Question: Right. And Star Trek is very much a character-based film. I mean, you’re dealing with both iconic characters, but also you’re developing relationships in that particular movie. This one, you’re really creating, I guess, a lot of set pieces for Michael to work with. And I’m just wondering, how frustrating is it for you when you do have such limited time? And does that affect the final product, as screenwriters?
Orci: In terms of “frustrating,” we try to think of it as just an interesting challenge. I mean, putting together a movie of this size, coordinating with Michael and production and the military and Hasbro, is a fascinating thing to do. You know, we try to sort of learn and enjoy, and not be paralyzed by the fear of it. On the other hand, it’s not to say – it’s just a different experience, going off to write a script for six months, you know?

Question: What do you do differently as a writer, when you’re doing something like a Transformers 2, that you don’t have to worry about when you’re doing a Star Trek, or any other initial film?
Orci: Well, one is, we’re making more room for the action. Because we know that Michael is going to want to push that, and get every dollar on the screen. You know, you don’t just go to Egypt for a two-minute sequence. If you’re going to be at the Pyramids of Giza and be one of the first people to be allowed to shoot there, you really want to maximize that. And we know that that’s going to be the case with him. So, of course, there’s a different kind of a pacing.

10 Foot Tall Optimus Prime at Smithsonian

From IMAXNews twitter, below are two images related to IMAX showing of Transformers 2. The first is a 10 foot tall Optimus Prime figure for the Smithsonian's IMAX screen. The film shot at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center for its Jetfire scenes. In addition the 18 foot tall Bumblebee prop was set up at the AMC Universal CityWalk IMAX theatre.

The IMAX showings of Transformers Revenge of Fallen has broken a record with largest box office take yet with $14.4 million on 169 screens in the states. An additional $3.2 million came from 60 IMAX screens overseas for a total take of $18.3 million. Hopefully this will translate to a bigger IMAX budget for the third film.

Deluxe Jolt Bio

It’s been over a month since seen anything new about Jolt the GM Volt that barely appeared in Revenge of the Fallen (blink and you would have missed him). From TFW2005, here is an image of Deluxe Jolt's card back that includes his bio.

Deluxe Jolt Bio

Jolt loves to cause trouble, more than one group of Decepticons has watched in confusion as Jolt, all alone, raced around them in circles, taunting them. They're not used to Autobots acting crazy. Little do they know that it really is just an act - part of a plan to lure his enemies in close where he can deliver a crippling blow with his electro-whips.

Worst Reviewed $400 Million Hit?

A new article on Breitbart.com points out that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has the likihood of being "the worst-reviewed movie ever to make the $400 million club (domestically)." I assume they mean domestically since the worldwide total is nearly $400 million. Thanks to Mike for the link.

The movie pulled in $201.2 million since opening Wednesday, the second-best result for a movie in its first five days, just behind "The Dark Knight" with $203.8 million. Even after its whopping $60.6 million opening day, "Revenge of the Fallen" was packing theaters, a sign that unlike critics, who mostly hated the movie, audiences felt they were getting their money's worth and were giving the flick good word of mouth.

Critics "forget what the goal of the movie was. The goal of the movie is to entertain and have fun," said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount, which is distributing "Transformers" for DreamWorks. "What the audience tells us is, `We couldn't be more entertained and having more fun.' They kind of roll their eyes at the critics and say, `You have no idea what you're talking about.'"

According to Paramount's exit polls, 91 percent of the audience thought the sequel was as good as or better than the first "Transformers," which received far better reviews.

Not so for the new "Transformers." On Rottentomatoes.com, a Web site that compiles critics' opinions, the sequel had only 38 positive reviews out of 187, a lowly 20 percent rating usually reserved for box-office duds.

Many critics who liked the movie had reservations, praising the movie's visual effects and relentless action but generally advising audiences to check their brains at the door. On Metacritic.com, a site that assigns ratings of zero to 100 based on movie reviews, "Revenge of the Fallen" received a 36, a lowly score barely above those given to recent box-office duds "Year One" and "Land of the Lost."

Of the eight movies that have grossed more than $400 million domestically, four scored 90 percent or higher on Rottentomatoes: "The Dark Knight," "Spider-Man," "E.T. the Extra-terrestrial" and "Star Wars." Two others, "Shrek 2" and "Titanic," topped 80 percent.

The article doesn't mentioned that while the critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a drubbing, the community's average score is 68%. On Metacritic, the users score is 60 out of 100.

Overall, I think its the usual disconnect between critics and the audience and the different set of requirements each have. To me, any critic should answer a simple question when writing a movie review - "Is the movie entertaining?". When they fail to consider that question as part of their judgement, you get the wide disconnect between the audience and the critic that this movie illustrates. Most of the reviews I read focused on how loud the movie was, how weak the story, how insulting the jokes but few actually addressed that critical question - is it entertaining?

Critics tend to judge movies as a form of art looking for themes, acting tour de forces, scenary chewing and so forth. For the general audience, the goal is often a desire to escape from life for a few hours, to be entertained with anything beyond that is a nice bonus. Cutting off your brain and enjoying two hours of loud escapism isn't a bad thing. That is what Transformers 2 is for most, just two and half hours of great entertainment, something most critics failed to judge the movie on and something they should address if they want to truly reflect the audience they are trying to reach.

More Transformers Talk from Writers

SciFi Scanner has posted an interview with Transformers 2 writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci as they talk about writing scripts and fandom. Snippet below, full interview here.

Q: Do you think you would have ended up with a different screenplay were you not writing under the pressure of the strike?
AK: No. We had a fairly long postproduction time. We literally finished writing the movie two weeks ago. We were writing robot dialogue right up to the last minute, until they locked picture and sound and they took the print out of our hands.

Q: Do you write a screenplay differently for a director like Michael Bay than you would for J.J. Abrams?
AK: Absolutely.
BO: It's half that and half you're writing to what the franchise is. We're not writing big because it's Michael Bay; Michael Bay is right for Transformers.
AK: With a director like Michael, who's extremely specific about what he does and does not like to do, our job is to backstop him to a large degree and keep on him about plot and logic and emotion. We very rarely get resistance on that. He has such an innate understanding of what audiences want to see. Where he'll push back is if he thinks logic is somehow overriding the fun for the audience.
BO: You've gotta have a pretty damn good reason to tell him why he's gotta lose one of his awesome sequences.

Q: Are Transformers fans as ravenous as Trekkies?
BO: Transformers fans taught us how to deal with Star Trek fans. And they're both heavy-duty. But Transformers fans taught us how to interact, how to turn the conversation constructive a little bit, and not just have it be, "You suck. Go jump off of a building, please."

Q: So when a fan says the Autobot twins are the Jar Jar Binks of Transformers...
BO: My favorite was someone called them Car Car Binks.
AK: Look, I can tell you that Michael designed those characters to reflect what he thought would be funny for kids. And we go with the ride. Literally.

Q: Did you learn anything from writing Transformers 2 that's been helpful in formulating Trek 2?
AK: They're so different. You're putting on a different hat. And the choices that you make in Transformers with Michael as the director versus Star Trek with J.J. couldn't be more 180 degrees in the opposite direction. So I don't know that for me there's a natural corollary between them.

Transformers 2 First Five Days: $390.4 Worldwide (Updated)

Update: The final numbers are in and the estimates were close enough that Transformers 2 will fall short of defeating The Dark Knight's five day record. The domestic gross total dipped a touch from $201.2M to $200.1M. The five day international gross for the film is actually $166.1 million but once include the previous weekend gross from early opening in UK and Japan the total international take in the first week is $190.3. It seems to me that as a result the five day total is actually inflated by $24.1M as the $390.4 million is actually the worldwide total of the first full week of release for the movie from 6/19-6/28. I forgot next weekend is a holiday in the states (Independence Day), but Ice Age 2 and Public Enemies will be out so I wouldn't be surprised if Ice Age and Transformers 2 post impressive numbers but it will be a close race for number one.

If your interested in a record tally in a way that only box office statistics (like baseball) can provide, click here for a breakdown of the various ways that Transformers 2 broke some records (depending on how you tweak the numbers).

Previous
The weekend isn't over but the number crunchers of box office statistics have released the total for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen worldwide haul as $387.3 million dollars. In the US alone the movie took in $201.2 million just a few million short of The Dark Knights $203.8 million which is the current record holder for most successful five-day and three-day opening. Internationally the movie raked in a five day total of $186.1 million. IMAX's sales for the five days were $14.4 million. All these values are still estimates with final numbers expected tomorrow.

For Sunday's numbers the US estimate is $34.6, an expected drop-off and enough to prevent it from topping Dark Knight. The three day weekend totals for the movie in the US was $112M and internationally it was $106.1M which places the movie as 7th in the weekend record list, just behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

For comparison to this year's other hits, Up just passed Star Trek as the top movie in the US with a gross of $250.2 (31 days in theatres) to Trek's $246.2 (52 days in theatres). I expect Transformers 2 to pass that total by Wednesday at the latest, in only 6-7 days. Worldwide Up's total is $285.5M and Trek's is $369.2M both already blown away by Transformers 2 in just a few days. Worldwide the top movie is Angels & Demons with a $461.0M total ($330.8 from overseas sales) in 45 days in theaters. Transformers will probably pass that total by Thursday.

If compare to the first Transformers, its worldwide total was $708.3 and already in just 5 days the sequel has earned 54.7% of that total. Suffice it to say May, Paramount and company are probably very happy. A third movie is a definite if there was any doubt before. As for next weekend, I expect around a 65% drop simply because those kinds of numbers are unsustainable nowadays.

Box Office Totals (in millions)

Date	US	Intl	Worldwide
6/19-6/23	$0.0	$24.1	$24.1
6/24	$62.0	$60.0	$120.7
6/25	$29.1	$20.0	$48.6
6/26	$36.7
6/27	$40.2
6/28	$32.0	$86.2**
Totals	$200.1	$190.3	$390.4

*estimate of sales, **no day to day breakdown available

Box Office: Saturday's Take is Estimated $40.6M

Update: Small update, the estimate for Saturday was bumped up to $40.6 million.

Deadline Hollywood reports that the early estimate for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's Saturday box office is $39.5 million which will bump up expectations to a very close $200 million but will fall a touch short of The Dark Knight's $203.8 million 5-day record. To pass the movie the Saturday final number difference plus Sunday's sales would have to surpass $38.3 million which is possible but unlikely. Sadly no international numbers to add to the chart. Thanks again to Scalan15.

Box Office Totals (in millions)

Date	US	Intl	Worldwide
6/24/09	$60.7	$60.0	$120.7
6/25/09	$28.6	$20.0	$48.6
6/26/09	$36.7
6/27/09	$40.6*
Totals	$166.4	$80.0	$246.4

*estimate of sales

SectionTV LaBeouf, Fox Interview

Another stray interview found from the Seoul Premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, here is a video of an interview with Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf that was rather amusing as Megan confesses a crush on Rain, a pop star in the region (and also in Speed Racer last year). Shia gets a birthday cake that he apparently enjoyed.

The video has been removed for public viewing.

Blog Future, Thanks and Changes

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is now out in theatres but that doesn't mean the blog will go on hiatus. There will be a third film, the only questions is will it be in 2011 or 2012. This blog will be here to continue the mandate to be the source of movie information. The immediate future brings box office results, award season, DVD/Blu-ray releases and more.

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone that made this last year so successful with their pictures, links, reports, and help. This blog's 1100+ posts in the last year have "thanks" credit on most due to the help of so many site fans and readers and that is greatly appreciated.

For those that have been on in early mornings for the last week you probably noticed strange things occasionally happening to the blog (including accidently breaking blog posts so couldn't see anything but the title) in an effort to try and improve the blog. This started as an attempt to do something about the Archive section which got really long especially as the stories piled up and things just went from there. List of changes after the break.

Above the Line's Bay Interview

Variety's Above the Line blog (found via MB.com) interviews Transformers 2 director Michael Bay about making blockbusters, piracy and working with studios. Snippets below, full interview here.

BFD: How do you spend opening night?
Bay: I always go to Mr. Chow’s for dinner with my producers, studio and marketing execs, my agents and lawyers. We get our first numbers there and then we hit the theaters. You’ve got to go there. And hope you see happy, smiling faces walking out. Last night, I tried to sneak in the side, but somebody noticed me and then they’re lining up for pictures. At the Arclight, somebody yelled “speech!” and I found myself talking to 900 people.

BFD: So you deferred on “Transformers” and the sequel, and the L. A. Times predicts you might make more than any director on a movie. How do you feel about these deals, which are becoming the new economics of Hollywood moviemaking?
Bay: Okay. I run my sets and my pictures tight and we came in $4 million under budget. There is so much waste in this business, directors who have big shows like this one, who keep a second unit for the entire time. We were able to make this for $194 million, instead of the $230-270 million that the average sequel of this nature seems to cost. I work with one of the best crews in the world, we work efficient 12-hour days. We don’t build $3 million sets and then the director walks in and says, “Fuck it, I’m not going to use that set.” The stories I hear from my crew members, of waste on other pictures, of directors shooting a six- or eight-hour day, it’s just staggering. Some directors will look a studio executive in the eye and say, “Sure I’ll come in at this budget,” and then they behave like terrorists. By then, you’re committed and screwed. The thing that “Pearl Harbor” taught me was you’ve got to become a partner with the studio and deferring makes you more invested in that. I think it’s important and I think you need to be honest with your partner.

BFD: Days before the release of your film, Paramount restructured its film group. How did that impact you and what does it mean going forward on the next film?
Bay: It doesn’t affect anything, really. Paramount has literally said, “Here’s your budget, see you later.” It’s staggering, really, but they trust me to come in on budget. I don’t ask for money when I’m shooting and stay on course. I’ve never even given them dailies. I’d assemble real rough cut scenes, sizzle reels, cut to music, so they can enjoy it and get what the movie is.

BFD: Considering your development on this movie was interrupted by the writer’s strike and you risked being shut down any moment by shooting after the expiration of the SAG contract, what was the hardest thing about making “Transformers: The Fallen?”
Bay: That could have been the hardest thing. With an impending strike, we had 12 pages of a treatment. I worked very closely with the writers, great collaborators, who suddenly went on strike. I said, “We’re going to start prepping this movie at full force, scout places I think are going to be in this movie and try and put this together as best we could.” There might be an actor’s strike, but I told the studio we’re going to shoot this on June 2, come hell or high water. We took a gamble that the writers would come back from the strike in time and we just made it. At one point, we were the only movie shooting in the country. But I had to gamble. I have a loyal crew and my job gives 2,000 to 2,500 people jobs. It was scary because so many people were out of work and you hear your crew say, “Wow, I might have to move out of my house.” You feel responsible.

Profile on Isabel Lucas

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen co-star Isabel Lucas is the focus of a NY Daily Post article about the actress as her career seems to taking off. After Transformers 2, she will begin shooting the HBO miniseries, The Pacific from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks (From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers) that will focus on the Pacific theatre during World War II. Much of the article focuses on relationship between her and Shia (friends) and Megan Fox (sisterly). The full article is here.

Box Office: Friday's Take is $36.7M (Updated)

Update: Variety and Box Office Mojo has posted the Friday numbers and once again the estimate were off by a few million to Transformers 2 advantage with a $36.7 million box office in the US. It doesn't hurt that the movie is playing on 10,000 screens at 4,234 locations. This is the 10th highest Friday gross ever. IMAX showings for accounts $8.9 million of the total. I wasn't able to find the international numbers.

The estimate for Friday's box office results are in, according to Deadline Hollywood with another $35 million added to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's domestic total. With this impressive take, the studio has upped its weekend estimate to $105M from $90M. This bump means the movie could get as high as $195M which puts the movie within reach of The Dark Knight's five total record of $203.8M. Final numbers for US and international will hopefully be in later today. Thanks to Scalan15 for the link.

Box Office Totals (in millions)

Date	US	Intl	Worldwide
6/24/09	$60.7	$60.0	$119.6
6/25/09	$28.6	$20.0	$48.6
6/26/09	$36.7
Totals	$126.0	$80.0	$206.0

*estimate of sales

R2-D2 In Transformers 2 and Other Easter Eggs

MTV provides some Easter Eggs thanks to the folks at ILM that can be found by eagle eyed viewers. It turns out that Star Wars' R2-D2 makes an appearance, a Terminator reference and more. In addition, here is a video of Shia talking about cool things in the movie.

The Force Is With Him
"There's an R2-D2 flying around in there somewhere," revealed Scott Farrar, the film's visual-effects supervisor, who also worked on the "Star Wars" episodes "Return of the Jedi" and "The Phantom Menace." "There's a little bit of space junk thrown in there; see if you can find it. It's a scene in the desert." Interestingly enough, George Lucas' charismatic droid also had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in "Star Trek," which shares the same writing team as "Transformers." Is it a coincidence? "Perhaps," screenwriter Alex Kurtzman grinned mischievously. "Perhaps not."

Playing Footsy
Look carefully and you'll see some continuity errors involving Megan Fox's footwear. "There's a few scenes — if you look for it — my shoes always change," the actress laughed, revealing an error they discovered after shooting the film that has her character's shoes switching during various takes. "I go from wearing high heels to ballet flats. It's crazy!"

Rapper's Delight
It's no secret that Shia LaBeouf is good friends with Chris "Cage" Palko, a New York rapper the actor hopes to someday portray onscreen. Cage hung out on the "Revenge of the Fallen" set with his actor friend, and LaBeouf even talked the "Hell's Winter" rapper into filming a cameo. Look closely during one of the college scenes that has Shia's Sam Witwicky on the quad, and you'll see Cage's acting debut.

A Hair-Raising Moment
"We made history in this movie, doing an action scene that included the biggest amount of practical explosions ever in a [scene] that included actors," beamed a proud Tyrese, telling fans to watch out for the action scene that had him endangering life, limb — and many follicles. "[The scene has] all four of us in the cast — me, Shia, Megan and Josh [Duhamel] — we're all runnin', and it's [behind us] in big, beautiful slow motion. Still, to this day, I went to four different dermatologists — the hair that grew in the back of my neck has not grown back in because of this explosion. I'm a little concerned."

Hasta la Vista, Bumblebee
"I hope Michael doesn't get mad at me, but there's a T-1000 imprint on one of the Decepticons," revealed Farrar, risking the wrath of director Michael Bay while explaining a wink to the "Terminator" franchise — and one of the main summer '09 competitors to Bay's blockbuster. "[You can see] the letters T-1000 [on a robot]. We do it because we like to give a nod to the competition. It's OK; we're all friends."

That Sneaky 'Butt Cam'
Bay has spoken previously about Megan Fox's sexiness in her first "Revenge" scene, but according to the beauty, she didn't even know that the sneaky director was using a camera to shoot her from behind. "I'm bent over the bike, airbrushing the bike, and I'm wearing these really short shorts," Fox said of the scene. "I thought I was performing the scene with the camera on my face! I was playing to a camera [in front of me], but he had a multiple camera going that was on a dolly — sliding in and out from behind me. My dialogue isn't even on camera!" Grinning, she said she forgave her director's sneakiness: "I don't find it sexy. He's trying to get people in the theater. I guess he thinks it's sexy."

Megan Fox on Letterman

Megan Fox turned up on the Late Show with David Letterman on June 25th. She looked stunning as usual. The interview itself actually little to with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as they talked about Megan when she was a kid, early career, and not being ready for marriage. Of note is the explanation of why the scene used in all the TV interviews (Sam and Mikaela jumping off a building in the desert) has the stunt doubles being engulfed by the explosion (gas bomb went off early).

WSJ's "Master of Machines"

Found via MB.com, here is an interview with Transformers 2 director Michael Bay with the Wall Street Journal as he talks about some of the decisions he made while filming the movie and "corrects" Megan Fox on her perception that he don't do a Bay film for acting reasons.

This film features even more talking robots—based on the Hasbro toy line—than the first “Transformers.” Why add in more robots rather than humans?
Mr. Bay: That’s what fans wanted. The first film was really about us setting up the situation, and this movie is about us discovering what we could do better with that situation, how to make this most out of these special effects and these characters.

Did Hasbro force you to conform the aesthetics of the robots to match the style of its toy line? Did you have to make any compromises on characters for the sake of promoting Hasbro’s stable of pre-existing Transformers characters?
Not at all. I told [Hasbro] that I was going to do my own thing, and they really let me go off on the designs. They gave me carte blanche—it was pretty phenomenal. But I still listened to people who were in that world when they asked things like, ‘Can we make Optimus’s ears a little longer so he appears more in character?’ That’s easy to do. And a lot of the artists and people that we hired were fans of Transformers growing up, so having so many fans working on my crew really kept me on point. There are things that I invented—the creaky geriatric robot that is always grumpy, for example, or the little wheelie guy, he’s not in the Hasbro lore. But kids love that stuff—this little guy as a pet on a chain. They gravitate towards it.

Did you add testicles to the robots, too?
No, those are construction balls.

Shia LaBeouf on Today Show and Regis & Kelly

On June 25th, Shia LaBeouf popped up on NBC's The Today Show (a morning show) and later Regis & Kelly to promote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He talks about filming with Bay, nonexistent machines, Fox and more both personal and professional. There is also a cute segment on Today Show with a star-struck fan with a game Shia. Thanks to Hanna for the link.

Turturro, LaBeouf, Fox Talk Transformers

In a new article on Examiner.com, John Turturro, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox talk about Transformers, "trickiness of fame" and more while at the London premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Snippets below, full interview here. Thanks to Hanna for the link.

John, did you actually climb one of the pyramids in Egypt?
Turturro: Yes, that’s why they hired me after the professional stuntmen. I kept climbing and I went a little too high one day, and I heard all this screaming in Arabic. I thought they were worried about me, but they were worried I was going too high and I was going to injure the pyramid. It was interesting.

Shia, your hand injury was written into the "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" script. How did you deal with that injury while filming the movie?
LaBeouf: When you break your hand, it’s hard to button your pants, but you’ve got to do it. You just buck up and get through it. There’s only so much you can fake. We had three cameras going at once. It takes a long time to rig some of these stunts. You’ve got to do it. I also had fantastic stuntmen. Vladmir [Tevlovski] took the brunt of the abuse.

Shia, Megan and John what was it like working with Michael Bay again?
Turturro: [He says jokingly] Dreadful.

LaBeouf: It’s not dreadful at all. Me and [Michael Bay] have a big brother/little brother type of thing. We get into it sometimes, and John [Turturro] becomes the liaison between us. He [Michael Bay] is like a football coach. He just doesn’t coddle you. That takes getting used to. Actors are used to being coddled. You get that in a sense. There’s a real masculine energy on these movies. I enjoy the hell out of it. It’s like skydiving for five months.

Fox: It’s like constant chaos. The crew named it Bay-os [as in chaos] and there’s also the term Bay-hem, which is an everyday thing working with him. It is exciting. He is rough on his actors on purpose. I think he likes the legend of being a tyrant.
Turturro: I just based my character on Michael. The key to making any movie is that you have to key into the sensibility of the guy [the director] who’s going to be there every day and who’s going to be working on the film after you’re long gone. And it took me a while to understand that when I first started out. But you really do have to look at that person and connect with their sensibility.

I had a lot of fun. He [Michael Bay] lets me try things. He has a lot of energy and he works very hard. You know the shots are going to be interesting, so you just have to be open to moments in working with him. I had a good time the first time, and I had a better time this time.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

More. That is the best one word description of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It has more Transformers, more explosions, more minutes, more humor, more characters but all this more comes at the expense of a cohesive story and any attempt at character arcs.

The story is simple even though several obstacles are thrown in to make it seem complicated. The Fallen orders Megatron and the Decepticons to find the Matrix so he can blow up the Sun for power and Sam and the Autobots must stop them. The story has holes the size of Optimus Prime so it is best to not dwell on the details. The dialogue is as flat and uninspired as the first movie but Prime gets a few good lines in here and there. Really though this isn’t a movie you watch for story nor characterization.

Box Office: $28.6M Thursday

Update: Final numbers are in and Thursday domestic total is $28.6M and international sales brought in another $20 million. Below total has been updated to reflect the final numbers.

Day two in theatres for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the domestic box office numbers continue to remain high with the movie taking in an estimated $27 million for Thursday according to Variety. Once you add this to Wednesday's $60.6 million the movie is at $87.6 million. Overseas, the movie is also doing well with a $59 million take in 58 territories for a Wednesday total of $119.6 so the worldwide total sits at $146.6 million.

Paramount probably hopes the movie will break The Dark Knight's five-day gross of $203.8 million, but may have to settle for passing Star Wars Episode III ($172.8M), Spider-Man 3 ($169.4M), or Spider-Man 2 ($152.4M). Thanks to Scalan15 for the heads-up. I was not able to find figures for overseas but there tends to be a lag on them for some reason.

Box Office Totals (in millions)

Date	US	Intl	Worldwide
6/24/09	$60.7	$60.0	$119.6
6/25/09	$28.6	$20.0	$48.6
Totals	$89.3	$80.0	$169.3

*estimate of sales

ROTF Day One Note From Bay

Michael Bay popped up on his forums once again and posted a thank you on the opening day of Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen ticket sales.

The 400 critics around the globe spoke. Then fans around the world spoke.

Transformers made $60.6 million dollars in the United States for a total of around $100 million from the world on opening day! One of the biggest single days in movie history.

Then never seem to understand that I make movies for people to take a ride and escape.

To all the Transformer Fans - Thank You

Michael

Deluxe Scorponok in Package

I thought we were more or less done with the ROTF toy pictures but apparently not. From TFormers, below are images of the re-release of Scorponok in package sporting his new black and white colors. With the images comes a bio, except I couldn't read most of the words.

Interview with ILM Animator Shawn Kelly

The June 24th the Sarah and Vinnie Secret Show podcast for 97.3 KLLC San Francisco has an interview with ILM Animator Shawn Kelly who worked on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He worked on the Star Wars Episodes I to III, the first Transformers film, and more.

In the interview he talks about working on Star Wars (while answering questions diplomatically as to avoid angering ILM founder George Lucas). He discusses how real world research (watching videos, recording themselves, etc) is used give the proper motion and detail to their animation and some of the basics involved in creating a sequence for a movie. Work on Revenge by ILM starting about a year and a half ago, before the film even went before the cameras. Also it turns out that Bay's Digital Domain did the Alice pretender sequences.

The direct link to the interview is here. Thanks to limelitedude for the link.

Behind Scenes of M&Ms ROTF Commercials

It has been a while since revisted the M&M tie with Transformers. It turns out that Michael Bay actually directed the commercial and after the jump are three amusing behind the scenes videos of the shoot.




First use of the "Read More..." option, what do you think?

Michael Bay Career Retrospective

From IGN is a retrospective on the career of Transformers director Michael Bay from his days as a director of commercials for Budweiser, Nike and Coca-Cola followed by break out effort with Bad Boys that launched his and Will Smith's careers to the next level. This was followed with The Rock that started to nail down the classic Bay-hem style and perfected with Armageddon. Bay did experience some duds with Pearl Harbor and The Island but by then he had branched out into producing with Platinum Dunes and a remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Amityville Horror, Hitcher, Friday the 13th and soon A Nightmare on Elm Street. All this accumulates with his most successful film to date - Transformers that may be surpassed by its sequel. The full article is here. Thanks to Brian for the link.

ROTF Malaysian Premiere

A video of fans before and after seeing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for its July 23rd premiere in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It appears a fun time was had by all, beware a few spoilers. Thanks to Kelly for the link.

More Interviews with Transformers 2 Cast

More interviews keep popping up from the main faces of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Below are more from Serieasten.tv and iheartradio.com.

More blue carpet interviews from the Berlin Premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with Michael Bay, Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf. They actually answer Transfans type questions, like Bay is not a fan of the animated series, Megan and Shia are. Unable to embed the videos so click the links below to view.

Michael Bay Megan Fox Shia LaBeouf

Five videos from iheartradio.com with Fox as she talks chemistry with Shia and apparently not so good at grocery shopping. Shia talks about Sam evolving; Josh picks Ironhide as his favorite Transformers and Tyrese Gibson about his impression of the final product.

Click here to view, the segments follow one after the other. Thanks to Dave for the link.

Michael Jackson Dead at age 50

In an interruption of normal Transformers news, it is now been confirmed that the "King of Pop", Michael Jackson, died today at the age of 50 in Los Angeles of cardiac arrest. His contribution to music is nearly without equal.

Transformers 2 $60.6 Million Day in U.S. (Updated)

Update: The final numbers are in and it turns out the estimates were off by quite a bit. Transformers 2 officially made $60.6 million in its first full day of release on Wednesday which places its five day estimates as high as $170 million in first five days.

Despite the bad reviews, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen first day in theatres opened to a massive $55 million take for the best Wednesday opening day release for a movie domestically, as least based on early estimates. The total includes the $16 million from the midnight screenings of the film.

This easily surpasses previous record holder Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ($44.2 million). According to Empire, if that number is any indication, that means that Transformers 2 could surpass Spider-Man 2's $152.4 million 5-day opening.

Bay Defends Transformers Twins

Probably the one universal complaint from critics about the movie is the crude (and some call racist) humor, much of which comes from the Twins Mudflap (Reno Wilson) and Skids (Tom Kenny). I have read some reviews where the humor so offended the writer that they couldn't even attempt to enjoy the movie. From the AP, Michael Bay defends and somewhat dodges the charge of "racist robots". Thanks to Brian for the heads-up.

It's done in fun," he said. "I don't know if it's stereotypes — they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it." Bay said the twins' parts "were kind of written but not really written, so the voice actors is when we started to really kind of come up with their characters."

Actor Reno Wilson, who is black, voices Mudflap. Tom Kenny, the white actor behind SpongeBob SquarePants, voices Skids. Wilson said Wednesday that he never imagined viewers might consider the twins to be racial caricatures. When he took the role, he was told that the alien robots learned about human culture through the Web and that the twins were "wannabe gangster types."

"It's an alien who uploaded information from the Internet and put together the conglomeration and formed this cadence, way of speaking and body language that was accumulated over X amount of years of information and that's what came out," the 40-year-old actor said. "If he had uploaded country music, he would have come out like that. It's not fair to assume the characters are black, he said. "It could easily be a Transformer that uploaded Kevin Federline data," Wilson said. "They were just like posers to me." Kenny did not respond to an interview request Wednesday.

"I purely did it for kids," the director said. "Young kids love these robots, because it makes it more accessible to them."

Transformers: ROTF The Game Reviews

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The Game is now available and reviews are popping up online. Checking out Metacritic, it appears the game is scoring pretty good overall with an average score of 70/100 for the XBox360 and 68/100 for the PS3. Below are samples from the above links.

PGNx Media (83/100)

Like the movie it’s based on, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen isn’t trying to radically change the genre or introduce innovative new features. It’s giving you great-looking robots that go off and fight other great-looking robots as you watch the resulting explosions.

Gamespot (75/100)

Though it isn't immediately accessible, Revenge of the Fallen has a good amount of fun and satisfying gameplay. The initial awkwardness of the controls is a bit vexing, and some issues linger no matter how good you get. The single-player missions and multiplayer game modes aren't very diverse, but the various bonus challenges and strategic nuances add some welcome depth. What Revenge of the Fallen does best is make it fun to be a Transformer by giving you a powerful set of abilities and open maps where you can put them to use. It's enjoyable and engaging, and it's probably the best Transformers product you'll see this summer.

1Up (C+, 58/100)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an apt representation of what you'd expect from a Transformers movie: a disposable, explosion-laden piece of mindless entertainment featuring robots beating the crap out of each other. And judging from the movie reviews, it actually sounds like this solid, if flawed, action game might turn out to be better than the movie.

IGN (60/100)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen comes up short in a number of categories, due in large part to its repetition, odd control layout, poor AI and almost total lack of presentation. Running around and just shooting stuff has its merits, though it does get old after a bit. At least the multiplayer offers up a pretty good time for when you tire of the short single-player game.

Also, Target currently has a promo on Transformers products both in store and online that does seem to work with the video games. When you buy any two Transformers products in the entire store you can save 10%, 15% on any three, and 20% on any four. For online, the promotional code to enter (depending on number bein purchased) is TF2STR02, TF2STR03, and TF2STR04. They all expire on July 11th. Thanks to Inuyasha for the info.

New Media Reviews of ROTF

Previously I posted reviews from mainstream media websites, now here are a few reviews from "new media" sources on the internet. First a quick check-in on Rotten Tomatoes shows that critic hatred of this film continues with the T-Meter for critics at 21% (down from 29%), top critics is at 21% (down from 23%), and RT community holds steady at 68%. Of those three numbers, really the only one that matters (unscientifically) is the last as it is audience word of mouth that will drive ticket sales.

IGN (3/5)

...the battle scenes are comprehensible, but the story isn't. If plot isn't important in films of this type -- as its most ardent defenders will inevitably claim -- then why did director Michael Bay and screenwriters Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman spend two and a half hours telling it? Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is more epic, bombastic and overwhelming than the 2007 original, but it's also charmless, dumber and cruder by comparison. Since the characters, human and otherwise, are seldom engaging, the film only works when things go boom.

Mudflap and Skids, the Amos 'n' Andy of the Autobots and two of the most offensive characters in recent cinematic history. What were the filmmakers thinking? The "it's just a movie" defense doesn't fly on this one, folks; whereas George Lucas had wiggle room to defend himself with Jar Jar Binks, there is none here for Bay and company to fall back on. It's just too blatant to be deemed anything but obvious and in poor taste. Mudflap and Skids will pull anyone with a half a brain right out of the movie, and they taint the overall viewing experience and prove to be an embarrassment for all involved.

Dark Horizons

Often bypassing any logic or reason let alone character or depth, this utter mess of an action opus is only sporadically entertaining thanks to all the visual flair that $200 million worth of computer-generated fighting robots can buy, but holds no real value beyond that. The fanbase and target demographic of pre-teens and grown men with nostalgic mindsets will likely enjoy the initial ride, but most will be let down by an overly long and unruly sequel that effectively demonstrates that bigger and louder doesn't always mean better. 'Fallen' indulges Bay's excesses well past the point of reason to deliver the male teenage cinematic equivalent of snorting cocaine off a hooker's ass. This "all money shots, all the time" approach robs the action of any weight or coherency - leaving behind sensory white noise that hopes to browbeat its audience into either submission or boredom.

The CG also proves oddly mixed. On the one hand the Transformers facial expressions have much more range and appearance now, on the other the integration with the real world is noticeably less smooth and more cartoonish than the first one. The first film also really lent a sense of physics and gravity to these creations, here giant robots get tossed about with no real weight or inertia. Jablonsky's score leaves little impression, mostly drowned out by forgettable metal thrash music.

io9.com

Transformers: ROTF has mostly gotten pretty hideous reviews, but that's because people don't understand that this isn't a movie, in the conventional sense. It's an assault on the senses, a barrage of crazy imagery. ROTF is like twenty summer movies, with unrelated storylines, smushed together into one crazy whole. You try in vain to understand how the pieces fit, you stare into the cracks between the narrative strands, until the cracks become chasms and the chasms become an abyss into which you stare until it looks deep into your own soul, and then you go insane.

Mania

Revenge of the Fallen contains enough reprehensible material to send any rational adult into fits of rage, but if you didn't know that going in, you probably fail to meet the definition of "rational adult" anyway. Too much of the film concerns itself with the human cast--still as boring as ever and still far less developed than the machines on the poster. At times, the dialogue literally becomes incoherent, as when Sam is infected with an ancient Transformer language that points the way to some magical hidden Maguffin or another. while Revenge of the Fallen holds the requisite amount of whiz-bang mayhem, it also contains a number of really cool action-based notions… which it doesn't know what to do with. ...hampered by a ADD-laden editing style that doesn't even give us a reliable look at the robots as they morph into their hidden shapes. (The choppiness also makes it difficult to tell good robot from bad unless you're seriously steeped in the mythology.)

More ROTF Talk From Writers

Transformers 2 writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman spoke with TrekMovie.com (but sadly not me) about Revenge of the Fallen. Topics include how they almost didn't write the sequel, how used sequels for inspiration, working with Ehren Krueger (due to writer's strike), Transformers history, and more. As usual some of the article below, rest here.

TrekMovie.com: Speaking about that mythology, the first film felt like it was about a war amongst alien robots playing out on Earth. This time there are links to ancient Egypt and more. Is there an attempt to make this more about us Earthlings, with the mythology tied to our history?
Roberto Orci: Yes. That was always part of the G1 (Transformers Generation 1) idea, that Transformers had crash-landed here in prehistoric time. We didn’t exactly stick to that, but there is a rich history of they’ve been here a long time and they are somehow wrapped up in our ancient history.

Alex Kurtzman: We are trying to stay true to the spirit of a story that delves into the idea of going beneath the surface of both the history of the Transformers and our own race. The thing Optimus Prime is always talking about is how similar our races are, and the idea is that there is a reason for that.

TrekMovie.com: For these movies, there seems to be a big amount of fan interest in what Transformers make it in and which ones don’t. How do you make that cut?
Alex Kurtzman: It is a mix actually. Our side of it is that we end up putting in Transformers that fit into the story. Certainly there some that we wanted in the first that we couldn’t put in, that we ended up getting in the second. The decision is about how we can do it organically. There is also a mandate from both Hasbro and the car companies to put certain robots in. What we say to them is ‘great, if we can find a way to do that in a way that makes sense, then let’s do it.’ And Michael certainly is very specific about the kind of cars he likes to put on screen and how he wants to use them.

TrekMovie.com: You guys are also creating a lot more of your own new Transformers for this one. Is it more fun for you to branch out and create your own characters instead of just using the original characters?
Roberto Orci: Not particularly.

Alex Kurtzman: I think weirdly we always find a way to love who ever we are writing about. Certainly, it was not hard to find ways to love Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. So we feel a lot of ownership over the direction of those characters already. So we don’t make a huge distinction between them and the new ones, but that said, Optimus has a voice that was distinct and pre-established that we did not want to veer away from.

TrekMovie.com: Looking back at the first film, there was a lot of broad humor, like the robot peeing lubricant. I note this time you guys have Rainn Wilson from The Office playing a part. Does this film have a more high-brow kind of humor in it?
Roberto Orci: It is the most sophisticated low-brow humor there is.

TrekMovie: So in the end, what is the biggest difference between the first and second films?
Roberto Orci: Obviously the theme is different. The first one was about stepping into adulthood by getting your first car and how that leads to sexuality and freedom. This one is more about being away from home, with Sam going away to college, while the Transformers are away from their home, and what are the responsibilities as you leave your nest. Cosmetically, this one is bigger. I think it is more tightly plotted, just as a result of getting better at it and understanding the universe better, and it benefits from the lessons of the first movie, both from fan interactions, and our own interactions of seeing what we thought worked and what different.

TV Guide Talks with ROTF Cast

TV Guide has two videos for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The first video is Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox up selling the movie. The second video is from the Tokyo World Premiere of the movie with parts of the blue carpet walk and press conference. The second video has an amusing story from Shia talking about Bay's humor.

No embed available so click here for the Shia and Megan video and here for the Tokyo video.

Orci, Kurtzman Talk Testicles and Transformers 3

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have stepped out of hiding recovering from their Star Trek marketing to start talking about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In an interview with io9.com they talk about Devastator's testicles (yep he has them) and possibilities of the third movie. Snippets below, the full article here.

Although they couldn't remember the origins of Devastator's testicles. Orci thought that Bay had demanded "a big pair of testicles." But Kurtzman reminded him that it was actually co-writer Ehren Krueger's idea, when the three of them were holed up for a few months writing the script after the writers' strike. "The testicles are in the script," Kurtzman said. "Well, it's a construction machine, so you of course have wrecking balls. And Michael, immediately, of course, loved it."

It's been widely reported that Orci and Kurtzman are definitely not writing the script for Transformers 3, but actually they sounded pretty open to doing it. "We never say never, but since the movie's not even out, it's impossible for us to go, 'Yes, we're in,'" Kurtzman said.

As for the photo above, I am guessing it is Starscream's head but really have no clue what or where from. Just grabbed it from the article because it was cool looking.

Megan Fox Talks ROTF The Game

The other day Shia LaBeouf gave his sales pitch for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and now Megan Fox gives hers.

No embed available so click here to watch. Thanks to Brian for the link.

Transformers Primer

Below are a few links that cover the history of the Transformers franchise over the last 25 years.

Many Looks of Optimus Prime
With the new movie giving a new generation some Optimus Prime love, click the link for a prime on the many versions of Prime through the various toy lines. Thanks to Brian for the link.

Transformers Origins
Started in 1980 with Takara Toys called Diaclone, expanded in 1982, introduced to Hasbro in 1983, who turned over Transformers universe building chores to comics writer Bob Budiansky and then launched the line 1984. More details at the link.

Transformers Lines Through the Years
A nice simple breakdown of the various Transformers toy lines over the last 25 years so now will now what "G1" or Generation One means, Beast Wars, Armada, Energon, and more.

Random Questions
Covers the basics of the where they are from, why are on earth, and why transform.

Transformers 2 Makes $16 Million

Kind of slow on the news today, just basking in the new movie release but don't worry will be cranking out what I have shortly but for now enjoy this good news from day one of the movie.

The first day of release is not even over and already some early box office numbers are in. From the Hollywood Reporter, the midnight showings (and some 3AM ones), the movie raked in $16 million which is more than most movies make after an entire weekend. The Dark Knight still remains top dog with its $18.5 million midnight take but that stat came from a Friday release date before a holiday so Transformers can claim the record for Wednesday night opening. In addition, the IMAX release of the movie made over $1 million topping Knight's $675,000 opening. Suffice it to say the totals by the end of the weekend should be very interesting.

Revenge is Here, What Did You Think?

I just got back from watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on the IMAX. The crowd I was with was great, cheering as the movie started, at the end of the movie and at the great moments in between for seven total crowd cheers. After there was a large crowd waiting for the 3:15am showtime. Don't remember a time been The movie is pretty much a wall to wall action extravaganza of Transformer action fun. Best part is Optimus Prime finally gets moments to shine. I may write a more formal review once had time to formulate something. I had fun and was thoroughly entertained for 2.5 hours.

Oh and FYI, there are two quick cutscenes at the end of the movie, there is nothing at the end of the credits.

So what did you think? Try to keep it spoiler free and PG-13.

Revenge is Almost Here

Update: Added posters and various links that I removed from the left and right colums so people can still find them if want to.

Just a few more hours and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen starts premiering in the United States and other areas (depending on time zone). To pass the time, here in order of oldest to newest are the trailers and TV spots for the movie. Besides it is another excuse to play with YouTube playlists. For those that see the movie, feel free to answer the poll question to the left.

Links
TF 2 Cheat Sheet |
The Real Effing Deal | Giant Effing Robots | GM's Autobots Rollout

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Playlist


Posters

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Selling Out

What do the critics know as MichaelBay.com has provided a mini-update the US debut of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen starting in just hours at 12:01am.

Hundreds of tomorrow night’s midnight show times for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (debuting June 24 at 12:01 a.m.) are already sold out across the country. A few facts from Fandango below:

- Sold-out midnight show times (on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning) can be found all across the U.S.A., in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Albuquerque, Denver, Houston, Nashville, Orlando, Colorado Springs, Tulsa, Fresno and Buford, Georgia (good thing got my tickets weeks ago).
- Exhibitors are continuing to add 3:45 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. show times on Wednesday morning to meet the fan demand (verified my local theatre added show times).
- Currently, the film is selling twice as many tickets on Fandango as the original Transformers sold at the same point in that film’s sales cycle (two days before release date).
- The movie currently represents 87% of today’s ticket sales
- And as we noted yesterday, TF 2 showings at 500+ theaters in China are sold out 1.5 weeks in advanced.