LA Times Bay Interview at Playa Vista

The LA Times has posted a "new" interview with Michael Bay as he discusses Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The reason for the quotes around new is the interview took place at the Los Angeles Playa Vista soundstage when production was doing the moon sequences among others shots. That would place the estimated time frame of the interview sometime in June 2010. Over all nothing specific is revealed, just a general overview of the franchise and Bay's desire to make Moon better than Revenge. Choice segments are below, the full article can be found here. Thanks to AiC Hokie for the link.

"The cast this time is terrific, you can't even compare it really, and that was important to me. We needed to take everything up a few levels and that starts with story and with acting," Bay said...

"I think the guy is great, I loved working with him," says [Patrick] Dempsey, one of the new imports meant to bring some acting chops to a franchise that had become far too fixated on special effects and a barrage of gags. "The scale of the movies he makes and the way his crew works for him and the things that they can accomplish, it's pretty awesome to see in action. And I think he believes this movie is going to be a great one."

This new movie starts in the 1960s with the moon landing — hence that lunar landscape set — and weaves a new mythology of government conspiracy into the Autobot and Decepticon battle. Both of those tribes learn that a Cybertronian spacecraft lies hidden on the moon and may hold secrets that will tilt the balance of power in their ongoing struggle.

"I asked him why he didn't ask sooner and he said he assumed I would be too expensive," Nimoy said with a chuckle in a recent phone interview. "We figured it all out."

Bay says he's a man on a mission and he assumes this will be the last "Transformers" film. After spending so much time with the brand — he began work on the first movie in 2005 — he wants to go out with a bang. He also wants to wipe out the memory of that second film.

Setting up a shot in which Malkovich's shady character tussles with an otherworldly opponent, Bay rattled off the reasons that this will be a new and improved model of his movie machine. "We got rid of the dorky comedy and we brought in some new acting talent. We have a good script. We're shooting in 3-D and there's a mystery in this story. It's smarter. And we still have the robots and the best special effects that you'll see."