BUZZ OVERLOAD

In this sequel to 2007’s blockbuster film Transformers, Sam Witwicky learns the truth about the Transformers’ origins and their history on our planet, the Decepticons return to Earth to catch him and pick his brain.

On a mission to protect humankind, Optimus Prime together with other Autobots join forces with armies from nations all over the world for a second epic battle against the Decepticons.

Tagline:
- Revenge is coming.
- The battle for Earth begins in theatres and IMAX 6.24.09

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Rainn Wilson, Peter Cullen (voice), Hugo Weaving (voice), Anthony Anderson (voice), Mark Ryan (voice)

Running Time: 2 hr. 27 min.

Release Date: June 19, 2009 (UK); June 20, 2009 (Japan); June 24, 2009 (USA & Canada); June 25, 2009 (Philippines)

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material.

Distributor: Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks SKG

Trivia:

• Shooting started one day after Transformers (2007) won the MTV Movie Award for Best Movie.

• The first film’s screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were brought back for this film. They had originally turned down writing because they had a busy schedule, but when the studio approached other writers and found their ideas unimpressive, they were convinced to return.

• On July 27, 2008, Shia LaBeouf and Isabel Lucas were involved in a car crash, with LaBeouf having his hand injured and in need of surgery. Thankfully, production was delayed by only two days after the accident: Michael Bay made up for it by filming second unit scenes, and LaBeouf recovered a few weeks earlier than expected, allowing him to return to the set. Bay had suggested the hand injury will be written into the story, but Roberto Orci said rewrites were done to protect his hand for the remainder of the shoot.

• A Pontiac Solstice sportscar was spotted on the set during filming. This car was the alternate mode of the Autobot Jazz, who appeared in the first film.

• Wheelie’s robot mode pays homage to WALL•E (2008), another robot film. Both robots have elongated necks, binocular eyes and ; both are servants that eventually make their own decisions.

• The Autobot Arcee was originally meant to appear in the first film, but was replaced with Ironhide since the writers thought the issue of robot gender a difficult one to explain. Afterwards they thought it could just be ignored and have Arcee in the film to please her fans. However, Arcee’s alternate mode was felt to be too small to do her character justice, so she was given two partners (named Chromia and Moonracer) and the trio were made Combiners.

• The Decepticon Soundwave, who appears in this film, was originally meant to appear in the first film but could not be properly reworked (he was a helicopter but that was rewritten as Blackout, so he became a radio but was rewritten as his minion Frenzy). His alternate mode in this film is a cybertronian jet.

• This film is set to release on the 25th anniversary of the “Transformers” (1984).

• During production, Michael Bay attempted to create a misinformation campaign to increase debate over what Transformers would be appearing in the film, as well as to try to throw fans off from the story of the film. However, Roberto Orci confessed it had generally not been working.

• The rock band Mute Math composed a rock version of the “Transformers” (1984) theme track. There was no place for it in the first film, but feedback from TFans convinced the filmmakers to use it in this film.

• John Turturro was allowed to climb the pyramids during filming in Egypt.

• Three of the film’s action sequences were shot with IMAX cameras. However, because of the increased resolution created from using IMAX it took the ILM animators five days to render one frame of those scenes with the Transformers.

• From the original voice cast of “Transformers” (1984), only Peter Cullen and Charles Adler took part in the first film. However, after listening to feedback from TFans, the filmmakers elected to bring in more of the show’s voice actors. In addition to Cullen and Adler, they brought back Susan Blu, Michael Bell and Rob Paulsen, and especially brought back veteran voice artist Frank Welker to not only reprise his role as the voice of Soundwave, but also double as the voice of Devastator.

• Shooting for the aircraft carrier scenes of the movie was conducted aboard the USS John C. Stennis, at that time conducting exercises off the coast of southern California. Some of the extras for the scenes were actual US Navy sailors. Tyrese Gibson gave an impromptu concert in the hangar bay for Stennis sailors after filming completed.

• The college scenes were shot at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Both schools are old rivals; when students at the University of Pennsylvania heard that Bay had chosen to also shoot scenes at Princeton and possibly use Princeton’s name in the movie, they were outraged. Fortunately, the issue was resolved peacefully.

• Neither the University of Pennsylvania nor the Princeton University are named in the film, because both schools’ bodies felt that the Judy Witwicky scenes were damaging to their image.

• Near the end of filming, Shia LaBeouf hit a prop and injured his eye. His injury required seven stitches and the doctor said he’d come an inch from blindness (he literally held up a thumb and forefinger and said “Blindness.” LaBeouf said it was the most insane experience he’d been through), but he resumed filming two hours later.

• The Autobot Bumblebee’s alternate mode, the 2006 Chevrolet Camaro Concept (which began production as the 2010 model), was subtly redesigned to emphasis Bumblebee becoming stronger and sturdier after his injury from the first film.

• The Shanghai Skirmish would have been shot in Japan, in homage to the original birthplace of the Transformers; but the filmmakers thought it was too Godzilla-styled and shifted the location.

• The Autobot Jolt’s alternate mode in this film is a Chevrolet Volt, a new vehicle designed by General Motors. The car company wanted to promote their new vehicle, but the writers had been dazzled by the Volt and wanted to have it in the film anyway.

• The animators modelled Devastator’s stooped stature and lumbering movements after a gorilla.

• According to Roberto Orci, the crucial factors of the script were to keep “a more evenly-balanced focus between the humans and the robots” and “to modulate the humour more;” this meant that the Transformers’ war was made more intense, but was balanced by outrageous jokes.

• Permission to shoot in Egypt was granted by Egyptian government official and archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who loved Transformers (2007). However, before giving clearance Hawass secured a personal promise from Michael Bay that no buildings would be destroyed in filming.

• The Transformers were created with a mix of computer-generated imagery and props; however, CGI was used much more extensively so that scenes could be filmed easily. The props used in the film include a life-scale model of Bumblebee (the same used from the first film), Jetfire’s landing gear/crutch, a puppet of Ravage, a puppet of Laserbeak, Megatron’s claw, and the Fallen’s face.

• Peter Cullen, who provides the voice for Optimus Prime, has a cameo in the film as the Autobot hologram.

• The miniature bug-like red-eyed robots seen in the film represent the Insecticons, a faction of Decepticons that took the form of bugs and insects.

• While filming Star Trek (2009), Leonard Nimoy was approached to voice the Fallen by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Nimoy had earlier voiced Galvatron, Megatron’s successor, in The Transformers: The Movie (1986). Michael Bay was nervous though, about approaching a relative (Nimoy is married to Bay’s cousin), particularly a famous one: “I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like ‘I can’t pay you that much, but would you do this voice?’”

• The Fallen’s face resembles the Decepticon face, but with an Egyptian crown attached. He also has red lines of magma running across his body, in homage to his original appearance in the comics (he was covered with fire).

• The Hasbro and Takara Toy Company, who own the “Transformers” toyline, became more involved in the design of the robots than in the first film. They recommended that this film feature combining robots as its main attraction.

• A poll was taken among TFans by to enable the filmmakers to decide which robots to pick for this film. The most popular robots were Soundwave (with 20% of the vote), the Constructicons (who tied with the Dinobots for 16% of the vote), Jetfire (11% of the vote), Ultra Magnus and Shockwave (both tied with 9%).

• Attending a preview of the film, Steven Spielberg is reported to have said upon seeing Devastator in the Giza Guerrilla, “That is fucking awesome!” Michael Bay was proud of the fact that he could make the normally well-mannered Spielberg swear.

• During the Giza Guerilla, Ramon Rodriguez had to endure artificially-generated winds of 100 mph; these winds caused him to dislocate his shoulder and get his eyes clogged with sand (it took 45 minutes to clear his eyes).

• Unlike her motorcycle-riding character Mikaela, Megan Fox is unable to ride a motorcycle, and so when she was shooting her riding scenes she needed to have someone push her so that she could get a good . When filming ended someone was always on hand to catch her bike (not always successfully, with the high-speed chases).

• Steve Jablonsky brought in his mentor Hans Zimmer and the rock band Linkin Park to assist in composing the musical score. The trio collaborated on making a musical score set to the band’s song “New Divide.”

• Special effects supervisor John Frazier spent seven months setting up a 1000-gallon gasoline bomb, which would be used for an explosion in the Giza Guerilla. It took longer to set up the bomb than it took to shoot the whole film. Shia LaBeouf called it “the biggest bomb ever filmed with actors in the history of cinema.”

• In an interview with Shia LaBeouf’, he claimed the college scenes were part of his personal dream: “I wanted to go to college and I was going to go. I had my backpack picked out, all my cool little pump-up pencils and stuff; I was ready. And at the last minute a guy named Steven Spielberg called up and had a plan for other things. I decided to listen to Spielberg as opposed to listening to myself. But still, even though I’ve done these movies and I’m very fortunate and blessed to have done them, I always feel lesser, intellectually – I always feel like anytime I’m around anybody who’s gone to school they have a superiority you know about them. It’s just one of those insecurities I’ll deal with for the rest of my life unless I go to school.”

• When shooting on the battleship USS John C. Stennis, Megan Fox had to remain in the captain’s quarters to avoid looks from crew, who hadn’t seen a woman for months.

• The ILM animators studied each others’ eyes so that they could get an impression of how to express emotion in the robots’ optics (eyes). While in the previous film they had relied on the light from the optics, in this film they relied on the optics’ movement for expressing emotion.

• Prior to shooting, Megan Fox had lost weight, so to improve her figure Michael Bay prescribed a “cake diet” for Fox to follow. Through eating mostly cake, Fox gained 10 pounds of weight within three weeks.

Watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Official Movie Trailer & Clips