Following the demise of HD DVD, it was only a matter of time before Paramount caved in and announced plans to bring Transformers to the Blu-Ray format. When it was announced Paramount was going the HD DVD route, director Michael Bay was pretty upset about the announcement, only to change his tune a few short days later. Perhaps it had something to do with the HD DVD camp throwing a lot of money Paramount’s way.

My guess is the studio got to keep all the money even after Toshiba and others admitted defeat, so now it is full steam ahead with Blu-Ray as the preferred format.

The Blu-ray edition of “Transformers” that Par is preparing will include extensive extras and special features, including a commentary from Bay and two docus about the film’s human and robotic stars. Segments include exec producer Steven Spielberg discussing his love for the franchise and a detailed look at the casting process and real-world weapons provided by the military.

Principal photography for the Transformers 2 movie (with the return of Jazz?) is set to begin this week.

via THR

Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are reported to be the writing team for Transformers 2: Electric Boogaloo.  Returning to the flick are, as expected, Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, producers Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Don Murphy, as well as executive producer Steven spielberg.

The teaming of A-listers to write such a huge project might be an industry first and could have been necessary because Kurtzman and Orci — who wrote the $315 million-grossing first “Transformers” movie — also are busy writing J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” movie for Paramount and producing “Eagle Eye” for DreamWorks.

So how much does it cost to hire a writing team who turned Transformers into a $315 million grossing flick?  Somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million to $7 million.  Wow, and who says writers need to strike?  With a paycheck that big, the three better write fast if they are indeed expected to strike with the rest of the Writer’s Guild of America.

via Hollywood Reporter

While Box Office Mojo isn’t the official source for all things related to movie releases, it does have a listing for Transformers 2. It also lists the release date as June 26, 2009. Other than saying it is a Sci-Fi Action flick no other info is provided.

via Box Office Mojo

In the six and a half days the Transformers have been on the screen, the film has raked in an estimated domestic take of $152.5 million, plus another $93.6 million from international screens, which is an impressive $246.1 million worldwide.

“Transformers,” which Bay recently said cost $150 million to make, is expected to easily climb well above the $200 million mark domestically. Penned by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtz-man, pic was produced by Tom DeSanto and Don Murphy.

I saw the movie last week. It was okay. It was a total Michael Bay film, complete with (human) characters I could give a rats ass about, rambling side plots that have very very very little to do with the overall story, some pretty kick ass effects, and of course giant robots. Now if someone could convince Bay to use a damn tripod and mix up his editing with a wide shot or two so we can take in the massiveness of a fight, the sequel would rock. I gave the film 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

Looks like fans are flocking into theatres this week, with most lining up to see Transformers taking in 79% or all box office dollars.  Monday’s haul was an impressive $8.8 million.

I’ll be checking out the movie this weekend, and even though Josh had issues with the film, most of the comments posted here have been very positive.

The movie has only been on screens for a few short hours and already Transformers has been greenlit for a sequel by Dreamworks and Paramount pictures. I gotta tell you, I’ve been pretty excited about seeing the Transformers movie, even though Michael Bay is the director. Typically I go into movies expecting the worst, and then am pleasantly surprised when it doesn’t suck.

Unfortunately my worst fear about this movie seem to be confirmed in the early review Josh Howard posted on his site.

You know that guy you work with or that relative of yours that likes to take your action figures and put them all in sexually suggestive poses while you’re not looking? That’s what this movie felt like.

When one of the “funny” moments includes one of the most loved and revered Autobots, Bumblebee, taking a piss on someone, you know you’ve fallen face down into the filthy, waste-encrusted gutter that is Hollywood.

Holy crap! I can’t wait to see the action figure based on that. “Bubblebee - Now with Pee Action!” No wonder those parents groups are all up in arms.

You can read the rest of the rant at Josh’s site, and if you’ve seen the movie already, post your comments and share your thoughts on The Transformers. If everything Josh says is true,this could mean even worse news for the next Star Trek movie being penned by Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the duo credited for writing Transformers.

via Josh Howard

You’ve probably already seen these, but I’m posting if for you anyway. Michael Bay has posted high resolution images of some of your favorite Transformers over at his blog site in an attempt to get you to forget about the Spider-Man movie and get fired up about this big budget production with robots. Robots!

I still don’t like Megatron, but Optimus Prime is looking pretty sharp, and unlike Spider-Man 3 (which I still haven’t seen), I’ll be there on opening day to see if Bay succeeds or fails with this pic.

Take the jump for the large Megatron image and the link to Bay’s site with all the rest of the ginormous images.

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We’ve kind of seen these before, but now Hasbro has officially unveiled the Transformers Protoform transforming toy. Looks really ugly to me, but hey, I’m not a 7 year old kid (in spite of what my wife says). It’s another look at what we can expect from Michael Bay this summer.

What do you think?

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Someone embedded in Michael Bay’s production company has been leaking photos of the transforming cast of the Transformers Movie.  Jalopnik has posted CGI images of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and (sadly) Megatron.  Here’s just a snippet of the OP goodness.

Gotta say, I like what I’m seeing both for Prime and Bumblebee.  While Jalopnik claims these are from the inside, today with the piracy of 3D software, any kid could be making these and posting.  Still, with what we have seen before, I’m going to believe it.  Now if only the movie would be as good as the leaks, everything would be right with the universe.
via Jalopnik (link)

Transformers World has a new picture of what may be Ratchet in robot mode from the upcoming Transformers movie.  If you want to see the whole thing, head over to the site.  I’m not too impressed with the artist rendering as it looks a lot like the other renderings we’ve seen floating around the Net.  Still if you are obsessed with the Transformers movie like we appear to be (Scott Johnson, we’re looking your way), then you’ll want to drool over the pictures post haste.

We’ll see how long this shot stays up before I get a C&D Letter.   Just to be on the safe side, if you want to see the big image, you’ll have to follow the link.
Here is a shot from the Transformers movie, that actually shows a Transformer.

original image (link)

Michael Bay has posted a QuickTime movie hyping the heck out of this summer’s Transformers flick.  Lots of explosions, but not a transforming robot in sight.  Still pretty cool to watch.

Check out the trailer here (link)!

The other day Access Hollywood ran a piece on the new Transformers movie that included quick shots of animatics (animated storyboards) to aid Michael Bay and crew when shooting the movie. Ain’t It Cool News has a short clip of the video, and if you look closely you can see a very blurry Transformer running around the screen. The QuickTime movie isn’t as large as other sites have lead you to believe (1.65Mb), but the clip is very short. Your best bet is to foward one frame at a time. Click the link for the goodness.

Via Ain’t It Cool News (link)