Story Tidbits, Video from Transformers 4 Hong Kong Sets

Chinese website M1905 has posted a bunch of video from the various Hong Kong sets of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Sprinkled in the set are interviews with some of the cast. Most of the videos are in Mandarin but you can catch a lot of behind the scenes stuff as Michael Bay, Jack Reynor (Shane Dyson), Mark Wahlberg (Cade Yeager), Nicola Peltz (Tessa Yeager), Stanley Tucci and the crew work. TFW2005 was able to gleam a few story tidbits (below). The full set of videos is here. As for the sword image to the left, that was found by GabrielPrime and seems to an image of the Cybertronian sword that Mark Wahlberg's been carting around on many of the film's sets.

- Reynor: Shane is secret Irish race car driving boyfriend of Tessa's due to dad's no dating rule. Gains trust of Cade by saving Tess and Cade's life early in the movie.
- Tessa's mother is dead, result is Cade being over protective of her.
- Cade and Optimus become friends due to their (similar) code of ethics.
- Prime forced into situation of choose doing the right thing over his own life while Cade must choose between himself or his daughter (guessing translation problem because choice is always obvious for hero characters, Prime especially)
- Li Bingbing's character is owner of a factory in China (guessing something to do with the rumored Chinese Transformers)
- One Cybertronian speaks Mandarin only.
- The movie's third act takes place entirely in Hong Kong.

ET Canada's Transformers: Age of Extinction Set Reports

As teased last week, Entertainment Tonight Canada as aired their report from the set of Transformers: Age of Extinction. The two videos are thanks to YouTuber jedz316. It likes like the ET Canada visit was back around June 16th when the cast and crew were in Taylor, Texas filming. They added some footage from ET USA's Chicago visit but I am just going by the background and the like when the host was talking to Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz. Unlike ET USA nincompoop of a reporter, it seems Canada's host came to the set a bit more informed as she asked relevant questions including try to draw information from Wahlberg about the Dinobots (he refused to answer). (via Seibertron)

Bay: Transformers 4 will Have "No Goofiness", Set Visit Tease

In an interview with Yahoo Movies that seems to have been done when Transformers: Age of Extinction was filming at the Detroit Hong Kong set, Michael Bay discussed how he changed his approach compared to the previous three films. Also Entertainment Tonight Canada teases their own set report from the set that will air sometime next week.

“I wanted the first Transformers to be very suburban and less cool,” Bay told us from the Detroit set of this fourth chapter. “This is a much more cinematic one. I focused on keeping this one slick. There won’t be any goofiness in this one. We went a bit too goofy [on the last one].”

But despite Optimus’s updated design, Bay is quick to point out that this really is the fourth in an ongoing series – “reboot” is a dirty word here. “It feels like a new chapter, this movie,” he says. “But it’s not a reboot. This movie lives in the history of the 'Transformers' movies, and this one starts three years after the last. It feels fresh.”

ET On Transformers: Age of Extinction Hong Kong Set

Tuesday Entertainment Weekly posted a video from the set of Transformers: Age of Extinction in Detroit that was a proxy for Hong Kong. In this second set report, they are reporting from the actual city as production was on its final week of filming. More Bayhem was shown as cast discussed how they killed time on set. Michael Bay also dropped a cryptic (aka useless) hint about the movie saying "The world has progressed/modernized to a point it can almost cannibalize and kill itself."

ET On Transformers: Age of Extinction Set Reveals TF Character Name

Entertainment Tonight has posted a report from the Detroit set of Transformers: Age of Extinction when the crew was filming on the "China set" built in the middle of Detroit, Michigan in first week of August (vids: here, here and here). The video has quick comments from Mark Wahlberg, Jack Reynor, and Nicola Peltz (inexplicably asked her relationship status) with cameo from Michael Bay. The reporter, while sitting in the Pagani Huayra, (SPOILER) referred to it as Stinger which is a name that has popped up as a potential character name. I wouldn't call this official confirmation but darn close as I doubt the host (reporter is too strong a word) knows anything about Transformers except what is fed to her by the producer speaking in her earpiece.

Update: Correction to title, removed the reference to "Autobot". As pointed out in the comments, the faction remains unconfirmed. The toy list references "Stinger" of various classes but saw no faction reference but the vehicle has been mostly hanging with known Autobot vehicles during filming.

The Voice of Prime on Transformers 4 Hong Kong Set (Updated)

A video posted on Youtube from Transformers: Age of Extinction filming on October 25 at Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District provides a look at what might be the final scene of the movie. It shows Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor standing behind Mark Wahlberg as he talks up at a pole that represents Optimus Prime while Peter Cullen's voice booms from nearby speakers.

Below is my best guess of Cullen's lines which hint at some movie events so spoiler warning. After that moment other bits from filming at other locations are shown. This is from the same source, LF3258, that show posted video of other TF vehicles earlier in the week. The image on the left of Peltz, Tucci, and Wahlberg's stunt doubles is from a gallery of images you can find here. Great photos of mostly the vehicles on set but no clue what was being filmed.

Update Few more set images, with Walhberg carrying his sword and the cast running with their large bag can be found here.

Image, Video of New Vehicles on Transformers 4 Hong Kong Set

Despite Triad extortion attempts, filming continues in Hong Kong for Transformers: Age of Extinction. In the video and image, it shows what has identified as an Aston Martin DBS, McLaren MP4-12C, the Pagani Huayra, Argosy Freightliner and a garbage truck rolling together down the street as extras run down a sidewalk looking up. Since rolling with other very expensive cars as Autobots, could the garbage truck be an alt mode? If so my guess would be Bulkhead. As pointed out in the comments, the vehicles could be Decepticons (Stunticons?). While I assume they are Autobots because car makers (especially US ones) tend to dislike having their vehicles be bad guys, the success of previous TF movies may have got most of them to reconsider their thinking on that.

Videos of Filming Transformers 4 in Hong Kong

Transformers: Age of Extinction had a productive weekend as filming continued in Kong Kong as bunch of videos found by TFormers.com show. The first video shows the entire core cast as they filmed a sequence that involved Stanley Tucci and Mark Wahlberg carrying a body bag like shape (maybe filled with those Cybertronian swords/keys?) with Sophia Myles, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor following close behind. The 2nd video is Bay prepping for a vehicle sequence and the actors killing time during steups. The 3rd video is the Freightliner being chased by three different colored SUVs, next is quick video of 'Bee turning a corner. Fifth video is extra's running around a corner as pyrotechnic sounds are heard and a piece of building lands in the street. After that is essentially a smoke bomb going off on top of a bus going over a curved overpass, the 7th is more of Bay prepping a scene and the last video is a slideshow of images from filming. Speaking of images, click here for another gallery images of the actors filming the body bag scene and other things.

Transformers 4 Final Day in Chicago Goes Out With a Boom

As promised, the final day of Transformers: Age of Extinction in Chicago went out with a large boom. Not "the mother of all bombs", but still a big boom that will look great once its slowed down and edited together. The set, not opened to the public, was the South Damen Avenue abandoned silo that was dressed as an unknown Chinese location. As the great images and video thanks to Colin Hinkle show, the site was dressed with China related items, silo itself was rigged with pyrotechnics, and the action was filmed from the air with a helicopter. His video was also used in local news report about the filming.

The second set of pictures near the site are from cmraseye that provides another angle on the explosion. He wrote, "The blast was concentrated at the front of the corrugated out building. Lots of debris blown into the air, bamboo sticks, 55 gal drums ...all kinds of things in the air, will probably look cool on film. ...you can see the pyro/dust bags ignited, blowing out the dust, and several barrels being launched into the air. Contrary to the captions on the Tribune photos online, there were no cameras mounted in the baskets of those lifts. It appears the lifts were cabled to support the frame of the outbuilding to keep it from collapsing on itself when they blew the roof panels off." You can find Chicago Tribune's pics of the boom here. Thanks Jeffrey Marshall for the link.

Transformers 4 Chicago Filming Going Out With Bang, New Vid and Galleries

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Transformers: Age of Extinction's Chicago leg of principle photography is planning to go out with a literal bang. The crew will return to the South Damen Avenue abandoned silo for what their source called the "mother of all bombs". While the site will probably not be open the public, it still might be visible from a distance. Meanwhile, filming this weekend including a car flipping into a bus with other filming at the South Wacker Drive location being used as a China street. The vids below shows some smaller pyrotechnics and cars flipping for a seen further down from the bus's location.

In addition a few new pics of a Chevrolet Suburban chasing the Pagani and Freightliner suggests the return of the Decepticon Dreads from Dark of the Moon. Rather then repeat that sequence I am more inclined to think it is Harold Attinger's soldiers. Last, cmraseye has posted another 50 pics from various Chicago TF4 sets over the last month up on his flickr account. You can find those new images here. Thanks to Wynton R. and Jeffrey Marshall for the links.

New Transformers 4 Robot Images, Silo Set Explosion Video

While in their rush to grab pictures from this site of this weekend's filming at the Damen Avenue abandoned silo without giving proper credit to Colin H, TFormers did manage to find a great video (below) of the explosives going off on top of the silo that destroyed the bridge joining the two sections. The boom was big enough to set off car alarms that were not exactly close to the site. In addition, TFW2005 used my link to cmarseye's TF4 gallery to catch something I didn't (dang it) - two pictures of two unknown Transformer robots from the first day of filming in Chicago on August 24th. The first is probably Bay approving something from ILM on his Macbook while the other was on the clapper (which is held upside down for some reason).

Update: Pictures pulled at the demand of Paramount Pictures

Transformers 4 Roosevelt Road Scene Video

Last weekend the site was able to post fantastic pictures of Transformers 4 production was filming on Chicago's Roosevelt Road. The scene involves Mark Wahlberg and Jack Reynor running out of Bumblebee while a helicopter films it. Below is a video of the same scene before, during and after. (via TFormers)

The tall guy in the red shirt at 00:20 is Chicago Bulls basketball player Jimmy Butler. In the scene, you will see Mark Wahlberg and his co-actor Jack Reynor jumping out of Bumble Bee. It is shot by a helicopter. The white round ball in front of the helicopter is a camera. Later, at 02:13 you will see the same scene being shot close up from the ground. You will see the director Michael Bay at 02:18 [wearing all white]. After the scene, the actors hand out their microphones and leave. It is a great experience to watch how they shoot a scene. The whole movie team was very polite to people, so were the director and the actors. Can't wait to see it in the movie theater!

Images and Video from Transformers 4 LaSalle Shoot

In addition to filming at a church, Sunday also including some scenes in Chicago's LaSalle Street area for Transformers: Age of Extinction. Its not really known what was filmed but as the images and video taken by Rob Reines show, it did seem to involve the Autobot fleet. The first images show the fleet part on the side of the road. While hard to tell, the white Camaro in the 2nd pic is parked in front of the Optimus Prime truck in the 1st pic. The car does seem to be part of production in some form or fashion as Rob noticed the car was getting the same special care as the Autobot vehicles with a wipedown to keep its shine. Since both 'Bees were there, I am wondering if 'Bee scans the white one to update himself from the '67 to 2014 Camaro. After the break is his video from the street with Prime cab taking a quick and doing a careful u-turn.

Transformers 4 Filming Continues at Chicago's Uptown Theatre (Updated)

After last weekend its been a bit quiet on the Transformers 4 news front. My guess is they started filming on private property so that allowed them to circle the wagons more effectively and keep the public away. However, that did change just a touch when production moved to Broadway Avenue on Wednesday and Thursday to film at the old style movie palace called the Uptown Theatre. No clue what was filmed at the landmark but Mark Wahlberg and TJ Miller were spotted at the location so a continuation of the early chase sequences in the film and not part of any China related action. A gallery of images can be found at Seibertron.com. Related is a compilation video from Chicago Tribune's Luis Gomez of last weekends filming. Also added an image of a new TF4 hat with claw marks spotted on a crew member, a likely reference to the Dinobots.

Update: It turns out that TF4 production "weekend" is Monday and Tuesday so that is why no filming on those two days. Also Gomez has posted an article about the filming. He noted that the interior of the theatre had a sign for "SXSW Music Fest Jun 8, 2002", the "Star of Texas Liquor & Wine" fake store front, and "Crew Bar & Grill" decorated with Texas state flag indicates that the settings is for theatre in Austin, Texas where the annual South By Southwest festival is held. Also, as indicated by a previous letter, there is a good chance that filming will return to Lake Shore East area on Saturday and Sunday.

More Images, Videos from Transformers 4 in Chicago (Updated)

Transformers 4 finished its first weekend of filming in Chicago and by all appearances it was an exciting one with most of the core cast showing up, explosives set off, the Autobot vehicles on display, and more. Most of the Saturday and Sunday filming involved filming inside of buildings so not as much for the public to see but there are still some photos. The pics show the first time Kelsey Grammer has been seen on a Transformers 4 set.

They also give us a look at the Autobot vehicles, Stanley Tucci, his character's 3 assistants (Melanie Specht, Abigail Klein, and Victoria Summer), Kelsey Grammar, and Mark Wahlberg. To view the full galleries of images from this weekend, click the links below. Also below is a video found by Feris O. of the Autobot vehicles when they were in Detroit. Its a few weeks old but gives you a nice long look at the cars.

Update: Another gallery link has been added along with videos (via Seibertron) below that include an up close look at "Propaganda Wall" on Columbus Drive.
John Leon-Guerrero | Chicago Tribune | Seibertron | Propaganda Wall

More Videos, Propaganda Posters from Transformers 4 In Chicago

Filming continues this weekend in Chicago for Transformers 4. Friday started off with some big bangs with Saturday shifting to coverage of the Autobot vehicles in action. The Chicago Tribune has posted a nice close-up of the same Friday stunts along with a report from the day. The report confirms that current filming is using McCormick Place as a stand-in for Hong Kong. A segment from the video is below but the rest (mostly showing extras running) can be found here (warning it autoplays).

The next three videos are of five Transformers vehicles (Bumblebee, green C7 Corvette Stingray, red Pagani Huayra, blue Bugatti, black Lamborghini Aventador) on the road and on display for the public from Collecticon. Last is the above image of a wall of propaganda posters from TFW2005 that indicates that humanity may be divided on their trust of the Autobots. Some posters show the Chicago skyline with the phrase "Remember Chicago. Report Alien Contact", others are in the 2008 multiple color Obama poster but with the heads of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee with messages of "Hope" or "Hate" and others show robot-like silhouettes with message "It's watching you". Dark of the Moon had something similiar that turned out to play no part in the movie's story so difficult to know if should read to much into it.

Explosive Videos from Transformers 4's First Day in Chicago

It seems that Michael Bay decided to give Chicago a Transformers 4 welcome by setting off an impressive series of explosives on the first day of filming in the city. Filmed at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Square, the purpose of the impressive pyrotechnics is now known if you are ok with reading significant spoiler information. The first video is a great aerial view of most of quick sequence while the second and third provide a more ground level perspective. Videos below, gallery of set images here.

New Sports Car and Spaceship Riding from Transformers 4 Sets

A yellow Saleen S7 was spotted on one of the Transformers 4 sets in the Detroit area. So far we just have the one image so hard to tell if its part of the movie, a background prop or maybe could even just be a rental for a higher up attached to the film.

In addition, below is a video of maybe Mark Wahlberg piloting what looks look like a Cybertronian vehicle similar to those in Dark of the Moon and photographed earlier this month. Again, no clue what is being filmed but the green screen indicates it will be composited in later by ILM into a bigger scene. Thanks to Kenny.D for the links.

Update: Video pulled due to takedown notice by Paramount. Considering the video was taken from a public location, Paramount has no legal claim (otherwise the paparazzi and showbiz shows and sites would be out of business). Sadly the Google bots do not know this and I guess the video poster chose to not contest it.

Transformers 4 Warehouse Explosion Video and Set Pics from Bazaar (Update 2)

Earlier Brian K. reported that Transformers 4 production was filming at Detroit's Russell Bazaar and across the street. He has now provided more info, pictures of the cast and a video of a big pyrotechnic explosion that was set off in front of a warehouse that looks sweet live so will be amazing once Bay and his editors do their magic. My guess is the scenes being filmed are a continuation of the chase sequence shot in Taylor, Texas.

Update: Thanks to Brian we have more pictures and another video. The pictures are from this afternoon from filming with the Rally Fighter (description below). The video shows Mark Wahlberg, Jack Reynor, Nicola Peltz and TJ Miller running from the smoking Sonic Racer.

Update 2: The warehouse location has been ID'ed as the Fisher Body Plant. To view another video of the explosions set off by "explosives hung on ropes diagonally across the front of the building" then click here.

Transformers 4's New Cast Member, Standalone Movie and Detroit Vids

This is kind of a catch all post of today's Transformers 4 info as didn't seem worth individual posts. The first bit of news is Victoria Summer (Saving Mr. Banks) tweeted she is joining the cast for a three week shoot. Mark Wahlberg continues his 2 Guns promotional tour and briefly discussed Transformers 4 with Digital Spy saying the same things before about his dad role but he also said "...its just very different. Its a standalone movie. Budget wise its the biggest of all of them." Video below. Last is 2 videos from last week with Bumblebee and Hound driving down the street underneath the People Mover and another of Wahlberg filming a scene shooting at something.