Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an upcoming science fictioßn film due for release on June 26, 2009. It is the sequel to 2007’s Transformers, which was the first live action Transformers film. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, the most important of which is Egypt.

The main hurdle in getting the film produced was overcoming the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as well as possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Bay met his shooting date with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting from May to November 2008 predominantly took place in the United States, including the majority of scenes set in outside countries, a minimum of which was conducted in those actual nations.

Premise

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers something about the origins of the Transformers and their history on Earth. The evil Decepticons need to capture him for information. The climactic battle takes place at the Giza pyramid complex, where a temple is located within. Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained the film will show the Transformers who visited Egypt before the pyramids were built, and “all our heroes end up here because of the Decepticons’ masterplan.” Furthermore, Egyptian hieroglyphs resembling helicopters and other present day vehicles in real life will be explained in the film as being depictions of those Ancient Cybertronians who visited Earth.

Production

Development

In September 2007, Paramount announced a June 26, 2009 release date for the sequel to Transformers, and Bay began creating animatics of action sequences featuring characters rejected for the first film. This would allow animators to complete sequences if the Directors Guild of America went on strike in July 2008 (which did not happen as the DGA signed a new deal). The director considered making a small project in between Transformers and its sequel, but knew “you have your baby and you don’t want someone else to take it”. The film was given a larger budget than the first film, which cost $151 million, and some of the action scenes rejected for the original were written into the sequel.

Filming

Filming began in Los Angeles, California in May 2008. From June 2, three days were spent on an action sequence at the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which was used to represent a portion of a fictional Chinese city. Afterwards, they shot at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The crew moved to Philadelphia on June 9, where they shot at the Exelon plants in Delaware; the University of Pennsylvania; the Eastern State Penitentiary; Fairmount Park; Rittenhouse Square (which represents Paris); and Wanamaker’s. They moved to Princeton University on June 22. Filming there angered some students at the University of Pennsylvania, believing Bay had chosen to reshoot scenes at Princeton, the school’s historical rival, and script Princeton’s name in the movie. However, neither the University of Pennsylvania nor Princeton gave Bay permission to be named in the film because of a “funny ‘mom’ scene” that both felt “did not represent the school”. Around $5 million was spent during filming in Philadelphia, Bethlehem, and New Jersey.

Effects

The producers expected that with a bigger budget and the special effects worked out, the Transformers would have a larger role. Peter Cullen recalled, “Don Murphy mentioned to me, ‘Only because of the tremendous expense to animate Optimus Prime, he’ll be in just a certain amount of [the first film].’ But he said, ‘Next time, if the movie is a success, you’re gonna be in it a ton.‘“ The director hoped to include more close-ups of the robots’ faces. Scott Farrar returned as visual effects supervisor, and anticipated moodier use of lighting as well as deeper roles for the Decepticons. He stated that with the bigger deadline, post-production will be a “circus”. Hasbro became more involved in the designs of the robots than in the first film. They insisted on keeping the alternate modes of some of the returning characters similar, so people would not have to buy toys of the same characters.