Ben Proctor ROTF Concept Art

Ben Proctor, lead robot illustrator for the Transformers films, has released his art for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He released his work from the first film on his website but hasn't done that for the second so instead to to ConceptArtWorld's gallery for his work. Images include Demolisher, Wheelie, Power-Up Prime, Devastator, and more. The most interesting to me are the images below that show some of the unused possibilities for robot designs.

Fox Responds To Crew Letter

The saga of Megan Fox's "like Hitler" comment will hopefully reach its conclusion with a very brief statement from Fox about the Transformers crewmembers letter that Michael Bay didn't support. Hopefully nothing bad happened to the authors of the letter but I have my doubts they will be seen on the set of the third film.

"I have spoken with the parties involved privately," she said in a statement through her publicist. "I am very fortunate to be involved in this amazing franchise and look forward to Transformers 3."

Transformers This And That

More images of the Device Labels toys, pics of the Concept Corvette that Sideswipe was modeled after and also include galleries of various Transformer repaints (Bludgeon, Bumblebee, and Devastator).

Bludgeon - Based on the G1 comic book character, alt mode a tank.

NEST Bumblebee - Link to small gallery and auction for the repaint.

Supreme Devastator repaint - Currently Japan only repaint of the Supreme class figure. As far as I can tell, the most significant change is the red colored head instead of gray to make it more movie accurate.

Device Label - These seem to be better images of the line that is based off of computer devices. Also very expensive as each is around $50USD.

Concept Corvette - Gallery of images of the car from the National Corvette Museum. Still a pretty car, still not sure if will ever be released for public purchase.

Battleship The Movie - Hasbro is continuing its march in movie theatres with announcement that Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Hancock) will direct Battleship. It will be a live action adaption of the board game. Berg was calling the film "a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle." If things go boom in entertaining fashion, I will be interested.

Frank Welker Profile

Newsarama has written a profile on legendary "voice acting god" Frank Welker as part of the release of the cartoons on home video. Welker will also soon be seen on the big screen in flesh and blood playing the father of Matt Damon's character in the Informant. The actor has more than 600 credits to his name, often providing voices to some of the most famous icons in cartoons besides Megatron and Soundwave. He is also less known as pretty much "voicing" a substantial number of animal noises used in films. His roles include Scooby Doo, Fred Jones, Barney Rubble, Garfield, Curious George, and so many more. Below is sections of the profile, with the full article here.

“There’s many a time you have to audition hundreds of actors,” the former director [Eric Radomski] of “Batman: The Animated Series", "Spawn", "Xioalin Showdown” and “Scooby Doo: Get A Clue!” once quipped, “only to prove the only actor for the role is Frank Welker.”

“That is incredibly flattering and I love hearing it,” Welker said. “In a way it is a bit scary too. I hate missing opportunities to work with different directors. One thing that seems to surprise the studios is finding out later my willingness to audition. Under the right circumstances I actually enjoy it very much. If I can audition to picture on a sound stage it works so well for everybody. I can see what is needed and audition under fire in real time, meet the director and see if we both connect, and the studio can see and hear what they need to make their decision. But [that quote] makes me feel great.”

“[Megatron] would have to be at the top,” Welker admits. “Number one, is he is different than any of the other voices I have had the privilege of providing. Also, the fact that he has remained a fan favorite and caused a bit of controversy along the way qualifies him for my personal hall of fame. I think he and Soundwave have set themselves apart from the other robots in terms of sound identification and that makes me a proud papa.”

Transformers : Continuum Interview

In a rare event, a Transformers comic related article appeared in USA Today online. The article is an interview with Andy Schmidt, editor and author of Transformers: Continuum, essentially a zero issue for the new ongoing Transformers comic book series that hits shelves in November. Continuum will provide a history of key events in the Transformers comics so that readers will be up to date for the new series.

I am not clear on is if this is limited to IDW stuff or if it will include the previous Dreamwave work that IDW didn't really build on but didn't retcon out either. Considering the massive amount of story decompression used by IDW in telling Transformer stories, I doubt they had enough material to fill a 32 page "clip-show" issue so I expect some DW events to be used such as The War Within and The Fallen story arcs. The full interview is here, snippets below.

Q. Can you briefly outline what Continuum will cover?
A. It comes from a timeline perspective, from a time before the Autobots-Decepticon war on (home planet) Cybertron, to the time that they came to Earth, to the time that Decepticons took over Earth. It's written in a way that really follows a story arc, though. We tried to put everything in context so it all lines up for readers. It also allows us to give a proper introduction to the uninitiated.

Q. What would you say fans of the two Transformers movies are missing if they choose not to read the comic books?
A. They're missing out on versions of these characters that have more personality — a much richer, deeper portrait of these robots as actual characters. I think in comparison to the movies, we're able to develop more of a theme in the comic books. They're still very much Transformers stories, it's just that you have more time to get to know the characters than you might get in a two-hour action movie. I think readers will be surprised at the depth of these characters.

Q. Now, speaking more to the hardcore Transformers fans out there, are there features in Continuum and the new series that are aimed at the diehards?
A. Yeah, definitely. There are lines of dialogue that hearken back to older Transformers appearances, like the animated movie, for example. We definitely plant some Easter eggs there for the hardcore fans. I mean, we don't want to make these new series so uncomplicated that they hold no interest from the diehard fans. In speaking directly to the diehards, this whole thing probably leads to a much larger question among them, which is why create a new series now? At the end of the last series (All Hail Megatron), the Decepticons had apparently won the war in a very definitive way. I didn't want to erase that. I wanted to continue from there and move forward with a new theme. That theme is change. You learn more about these characters when you put them in new situations.

Q. For readers who have never gone to a comic book shop before in their lives, what are some graphic novels and comic books that you would recommend they purchase in order to make their visit a success?
A. Clearly, Transformers. I'd also recommend, for mature readers, V for Vendetta , Lock & Key, Wednesday Comics , the first Sandman trade paperback and The Killing Joke . For those a bit younger, I'd recommend Hellboy for its sense of humor and cool art. And for really young readers, I'd say pick up Marvel Adventures or Transformers Animated.
(I second the Locke and Key recommendation. First two trades are available, third volume is expected to start soon.)

ROTF Home Video Commercial - The Optimus Experience

A new commercial has been released for the DVD & Blu-ray release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to home video. The emphasis is on the Augmented Reality capabilities of the two-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions that will allow users to interact with a somewhat holographic image of Optimus Prime and the Matrix of Leadership with the assistance of their webcam, probably a special section on the discs, and images on the cases. ROTF is coming out on October 20th in the States; feel free to use the links above to pre-order.

New Concept Art From Paul Ozzimo

PaulOzzimo.com has finally been updated with new concept drawing from the conceptual illustrator for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. A month ago a few preview drawings were release but now the full lot is available on the website. Images include Transformer designs for The Fallen, Wheelie, CappucinoBot, abunch of military hardware designs and more. It is a flash website so to reach the art click here, then click "Portfolio", and then click the Transformers 2 poster.

Bay's Future Plan

MichaelBay.com has updated with a post that maps possible projects for Michael Bay including Transformers 3. Of significance is apparently he is open to discussing a 2011 release and Ehren Kruger is apparently being tapped to potentially write the third movie (not so good news for those that didn't like the humor or the Twins in TF2). Keep in mind that there are a lot of variables in play so none of the below or any of the below could happen in the next year or two.

Nelson here...

I spoke to Michael today and he had a little update on his future projects:* He will be meeting later this week with Steven Spielberg, and Ehren Kruger to discuss ideas for Transformers 3. By the end of the week he should have an idea if Transformers 3 will hit your local cineplex in the summer of 2011 or 2012.* In the meantime "Pain & Gain" is looking very possible as is...* ...Bad Boys 3. Either film coming to a theater near you before or after Transformers 3.

Bay Responds To Crewmembers, Fox Comments

Transformers director Michael Bay has responded on MB.com to the recent letter from two crewmembers (which the site has removed) and Megan Fox's like Hitler statement. In short he doesn't approve of either and wants to continue to work with Fox on Transformers 3.

I don’t condone the crew letter to Megan. And I don’t condone Megan’s outlandish quotes. But her crazy quips are part of her crazy charm. The fact of the matter I still love working with her, and I know we still get along. I even expect more crazy quotes from her on Transformers 3.

Michael

I do find her crazy statements amusing but she is treading on dangerous ground. Getting a diva label sells magazines but rarely equates to a solid and long lasting acting career. Don't forget on September 26th she is supposed to host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, a perfect way to make fun of herself, Bay, and the fans that love to lust after her and condemn her at the same time. No telling what new outrageous things will come from that.

Tales Of The Fallen Arcee Cover

IDW's Chris Ryall has released the final cover for the Tales of the Fallen mini-series featuring Arcee, Chromia and Flare-up. The artwork is by Alex Milne. The rest of the covers can be seen here. Thanks to Chris for the link. (via TFormers)

Crewmembers Respond To Fox "Hilter" Comment

Two crewmembers from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen have had enough with Megan Fox's constant bashing of Michael Bay, the final straw being her recent "like Hitler" comment to Wonderland Magazine. As a result they wrote a letter to Nelson, the admin of MichaelBay.com expressing their disgust with her prima donna behavior both on and off the set. They chose to remain anonymous as the simple reality is that stars have a huge degree of power in Hollywood and could get them blacklisted from future work. I wish I could read their message and think "this is BS" but sadly their description of her seems consistent with reports from the web and in interviews.

My advice to her is to be mindful that stories of diva behavior leads to potentially long careers being cut dramatically short. The public finds it amusing only for a short while and then it’s over. Once that happens, your career is over. Cut the ego, cut the attention getting theatrics and simply do your job as well as you can without causing unnecessary grief for those you work with. It’s something billions do every day as part of their jobs and functioning in society. To put it more simply "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Nelson,

This is an open letter to all Michael Bay fans. We are three crew members that have worked with Michael for the past ten years. Last week we read the terrible article with inflammatory, truly trashing quotes by the Ms. Fox about Michael Bay. This letter is to set a few things straight.

Yes, Megan has great eyes, a tight stomach we spray with glycerin, and an awful silly Marilyn Monroe tattoo plastered on her arm that we cover up to keep the moms happy.

Michael found this shy, inexperienced girl, plucked her out of total obscurity thus giving her the biggest shot of any young actresses' life. He told everyone around to just trust him on his choice. He granted her the starring role in Transformers, a franchise that forever changed her life; she became one of the most googled and oogled women on earth. She was famous! She was the next Angelina Jolie, hooray! Wait a minute, two of us worked with Angelina – second thought – she’s no Angelina. You see, Angelina is a professional.

We know this quite intimately because we’ve had the tedious experience of working with the dumb-as-a-rock Megan Fox on both Transformers movies. We've spent a total of 12 months on set making these two movies.

We are in different departments; we can’t give our names because sadly doing so in Hollywood could lead to being banished from future Paramount work. One of us touches Megan’s panties, the other has the often shitty job of pulling Ms. Sour pants out of her trailer, while another is near the Panaflex camera that helps to memorialize the valley girl on film.

Megan has the press fooled. When we read those magazines we wish we worked with that woman. Megan knows how to work her smile for the press. Those writers should try being on set for two movies, sadly she never smiles. The cast, crew and director make Transformers a really fun and energetic set. We’ve traveled around the world together, so we have never understood why Megan was always such – the grump of the set?

When facing the press, Megan is the queen of talking trailer trash and posing like a porn star. And yes we’ve had the unbearable time of watching her try to act on set, and yes, it's very cringe-able. So maybe, being a porn star in the future might be a good career option. But make-up beware, she has a paragraph tattooed to her backside (probably due her rotten childhood) easily another 45 minutes in the chair!

So when the three of us caught wind of Ms Fox, pontificating yet again in some publication (like she actually has something interesting to say) blabbing her trash mouth about a director whom we three have grown to really like. She compared working with Michael, to “working with Hitler”. We actually don’t think she knows who Hitler is by the way. But we wondered how she doesn’t realize what a disgusting, fully uneducated comment this was? Well, here let’s get some facts straight.

Say what you want about Michael – yes at times he can be hard, but he's also fun, and he challenges everyone for a reason – he simply wants people to bring their ‘A’ game. He comes very prepared, knows exactly what he wants, involves the crew and expects everyone to follow through with his or her best, and that includes the actors. He’s one of the hardest working directors out there.

He gets the best from his crews, many of whom have worked with him for 15 years. And yes, he’s loyal, one of the few directors we’ve encountered who lowered his fee by millions to keep Transformers in the United States and California, so he could work with his own crew.

Megan says that Transformers was an unsafe set? Come on Megan, we know it is a bit more strenuous then the playground at the trailer park, but you don’t insult one of the very best stunt and physical effects teams in the business! Not one person got hurt!

And who is the real Megan Fox? She is very different than the academy nominee and winning actors we’ve all worked around. She’s as about ungracious a person as you can ever fathom. She shows little interest in the crew members around her. We work to make her look good in every way, but she's absolutely never appreciative of anyone’s hard work. Never a thank you. All the crewmembers have stopped saying hi to Ms. Princess because she never says hello back. It gets tiring. Many think she just really hates the process of being an actress.

Megan has been late to the sets many times. She goes through the motions that make her exude this sense of misery. We’ve heard the A.D’s piped over the radio that Megan won’t walk from her trailer until John Turturro walks first! John’s done seventy-five movies and she’s made two!

Never expect Megan to attend any of the 15 or so crew parties like all the other actors have. And then there's the classless night she blew off The Royal Prince of Jordan who made a special dinner for all the actors. She doesn’t know that one of the grips daughters wanted to visit their daddy’s work to meet Megan, but he wouldn’t let them come because he told them “she is not nice."

The press certainly doesn’t know her most famous line. On our first day in Egypt, the Egyptian government wouldn’t let us shoot because of a permit problem as the actors got ready in make up at the Four Seasons Hotel. Michael tried to make the best of it; he wanted to take the cast and crew on a private tour of the famous Giza pyramids. God hold us witness, Megan said, "I can’t believe Michael is fucking forcing us to go to the fucking pyramids!" I guess this is the “Hitler guy” she is referring to.

So this is the Megan Fox you don’t get to see. Maybe she will learn, but we figure if she can sling insults, then she can take them too. Megan really is a thankless, classless, graceless, and shall we say unfriendly bitch. It's sad how fame can twist people, and even sadder that young girls look up to her. If only they knew who they're really looking up to.

But ‘Fame’ is fleeting. We, being behind the scenes, seen em’ come and go. Hopefully Michael will have Megatron squish her character in the first ten minutes of Transformers 3. We can tell you that will make the crew happy!

-Loyal Transformers Crew

Editing Transformers ROTF

MichaelBay.com has posted a new behind the scenes video that shows some of the editing process for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I am not sure if this is related to the DVD/Blu-ray special features or separate from it. It shows how complicated it is to put together the film for editors (about nine of them)without the benefit of the CGI robots, reams of footage and a tight deadlines because ILM needs as much time as they can get to do their magic.

Transformers Gift Set Cover Art

For those that don't have the first Transformers movie or know someone that doesn't, you might be interested in getting the Transformers Gift set. The cover art is to the left (via TFormers). The set will include both Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The DVD set will be the regular edition with one disc for each movie while the Blu-ray edition will have four discs total (two for each movie).

I am assuming that the extras are the same as if you bought the movies separately (1-disc DVD or 2-disc Blu-ray), this is just packaged together to make a convenient gift to yourself or others. Going by Amazon's listing, the DVD and Blu-ray sets are expected to be released on October 20th along with Revenge of the Fallen’s release. If ordering from Amazon feel free to use the links above for a little credit to the site.

Custom ROTF Galvatron

For your enjoyment, here is a video of a custom paintjob of Leader class Megatron into ROTF Galvatron as part of an eBay auction (click the link for the full gallery). The paint job is pretty slick and since Hasbro is big on the repaints something they might want to consider.

Paramount Nearly Tops Summer Box Office

Paramount pictures nearly took the domestic box office top spot from Warner Brothers this summer thanks to the strength of its tent pole movies of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Star Trek according to Variety. Paramount earned $884 million in the US, much of that from Transformers 2 $400 million and Star Trek's $257.2 million domestic take. Warner Bros took the top spot with $1 billion due to Harry Potter 6 ($297.6M) and The Hangover ($272.2). 20th Century Fox is third ($610M), Disney ($620M) was fourth and Sony ($550M) was fifth.

Revenge Of The Repaints Continue

It seems that Hasbro's love of repaints will continue with the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen toy line, at least based on possible toy leaks to various websites. Click the links below to view the galleries for each.

Voyager Optimus Prime
A possible repaint for Voyager class Optimus Prime with metallic blue paint, longer flames and gray front cab. Personally I don't see how it’s much of an improvement and worth a release of any kind.

Voyager Megatron
From an EBay auction it appears that Voyager Megatron got repainted in his Generation Two colors. This one strikes me as a likely custom job and not a potential Hasbro release but just in case posting about it.

NEST Deluxe Bumblebee
From TF08.net, below is a single image of Deluxe Bumblebee with NEST logo on the side door.

Robot Chicken - Wizard Of OZ With Prime

A new episode of Robot Chicken once again brings another Transformers reference, this time with Optimus Prime as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. The basic story is a nerd adds his version of "cool" to the characters and goes to kick some Wicked Witch butt. (via Tformers)


Optimus Prime as the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz @ Yahoo! Video

Tales Of The Fallen Covers, #2 Preview

IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall has released the various covers (minus usual cover tags) by Alex Milne for the Tales of the Fallen mini-series via his blog Ryall Time.

Each cover and issue focuses on a character from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The first issue was Bumblebee, second is Sideswipe, the third is Jetfire, four is The Fallen and I am guessing the last issue is Ravage and Arcee (that cover not posted).

In addition, click here for a five page preview of the second issue that will be released to comic stores this Thursday.

Transformers 2 Crosses $400 Million In US

It has been awhile since reported the box office results in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but with Labor Day in the United States marking unofficial end of the Summer movie season it seemed like a good time to revisit the topic.

At this point the movie has left most theatres worldwide, moving to the discount theatres before the movie is released on DVD and Blu-ray in October but that didn't stop it from crossing a new threshold after this weekend. In its 75th day of release, the movie is now only the 9th movie to pass the $400 movie mark in the United States with a $400.4 million total. With an international total of $428.6M this brings the movies worldwide take to $829.0 million, an impressive amount for any movie but exceptional for the first sequel of a franchise.

With these totals, the movie is officially a lock as the top movie of the year in the United States followed by Harry Potter 6 ($294.3M), Up ($289.6M), The Hangover ($270.2M), and Star Trek ($256.7M) to round out the top five. The order shuffles a bit once you include worldwide totals with Harry Potter 6 ($898.6M) taking the top spot followed by Transformers 2 ($829.0M), Ice Age 3 ($807.8M), Angels and Demons ($484.4M) and The Hangover ($421.1M). What this proves to me is that how a movie is received by international audiences is key to a movie's financial success, something that wasn't the case even a few years ago.

Box Office Totals (in millions)

Date US Intl Worldwide

6/19-6/23 $0.0 $24.1 $24.1
6/24-6/28 $200.2 $166.2 $366.4
6/29-7/02 $50.9 $52.7 $103.6
7/03-7/05 $42.3 $55.0 $97.3
7/06-7/09 $21.6 $35.1 $56.7
7/10-7/12 $24.2 $31.4 $55.6
7/13-7/16 $10.9 $18.6 $29.5
7/17-7/19 $13.7 $13.5 $27.2
7/20-7/23 $7.3 $7.7 $15.0
7/24-7/26 $8.1 $6.3 $14.4
7/27-7/30 $4.3 $5.6 $9.9
7/31-8/02 $4.7 $3.8 $8.5
8/03-8/06 $2.5 $1.5 $4.0
8/07-8/09 $3.0 $1.9 $4.9
8/10-8/13 $1.5 $1.3 $2.8
8/14-8/16 $1.5 $0.8 $2.3
8/17-8/20 $0.8 $0.5 $1.3
8/21-8/23 $0.9 $0.3 $1.2
8/24-8/27 $0.4 $0.3 $0.7
8/28-8/30 $0.6 $0.0 $0.6
8/31-9/03 $0.2 $0.2 $0.4
9/04-9/07 $0.8* $0.8
Totals $400.4 $428.6 $829.0
*estimate of sales

Fox: Bay "...Like Hitler"

When Megan Fox opens her mouth, often interesting things come pouring out. The latest is her talking about Transformers director Michael Bay's personality when he is working on a movie and comparing it how he is off the set in an interview with Wonderland Magazine. The interview, part of Fox's promotion of Jennifer's Body, is available in print but the Big Picture has Bay specific part.

...as Fox puts it: "[Michael] wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. It's endearing to watch him. He's so vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set, he's a tyrant."

Feeling the love here.