Moviefone Editorial

Tag: michael-bay

  • First ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Trailer Promises Explosive Robot War

    Transformers Last Knight“Two species at war: One flesh, one metal.”

    The first teaser trailer for “Transformers: The Last Knight” feels like a somber war movie, at first. But this is a Michael Bay movie, and “Bayhem” is just a few seconds away. Soon enough, there are plenty of car chases, car crashes, explosions, and giant robots battling humans and each other to remind you that this is, yes, a “Transformers” movie.

    The King Arthur stuff that is part of this movie is teased early on, with shots of knights charging, archers aiming fiery arrows, and a robot dinosaur flying past a horseman. Very little plot is revealed, other than what Anthony Hopkins intones about two worlds colliding and Optimus Prime’s absence.The latter fits with this being a sequel to “Age of Extinction,” which ended with Optimus Prime heading into space with the Seed to confront the Creators. “Last Knight” will further explore the mythology of the Transformers and how they came to be.

    The movie brings back stars Mark Wahlberg, Josh Duhamel, and Tyrese Gibson, and opens in theaters June 23.

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  • IMAX Celebrates ‘Bayhem’ in ‘Transformers: The Last Night’ Featurette

    TransformersWhat would a Michael Bay movie be without fireballs, explosions, wrecked cars, and people sprinting away from all of the above? Not a Michael Bay movie, that’s for damn sure.

    The first trailer for Bay’s “Transformers: The Last Knight” is due any day now, but before it’s released, Paramount gives fans a sneak peek at the movie in a featurette about the director’s collaboration with IMAX. Bay’s love of big, noisy action set-pieces has helped push IMAX camera technology. The director’s style (aka “Bayhem”) might be derided by some, but it’s hard to argue with the impact that he’s made on action movies.A bit of footage from “Last Knight” is included in the featurette. There’s Bumblee in a high-speed chase, Anthony Hopkins at Stonehenge, and a glimpse of the flashback involving King Arthur.

    “Transformers: The Last Knight” is set to open in theaters June 23, 2017.

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  • 21 Things You Never Knew About ‘Transformers: The Movie’

    The best “Transformers” movie is still the first one.

    No, not Michael Bay‘s excessive ode to explosions and plot holes. We’re talking “Transformers: The Movie,” released this week 30 years ago (time to feel old, everyone!).

    Optimus Prime took his fight against the Decepticons to the big screen for the first time in the summer of ’86, resulting in new toys kids forced their parents to buy. It also spawned legions of fans worshipping this animated favorite that introduced us to the sweet, sweet stadium rock that is Stan Bush’s “The Touch.”

    In honor of this nostalgia-soaked, feature-length toy commercial celebrating its 30th anniversary, here are some facts straight from Autobot City (reference!) that you need to know.1. For an animated movie aimed at kids, “Transformers” has a crazy-high body count. This is because Hasbro wanted to clean house and introduce a new toy line to coincide with the launch of Season Three. (The movie served as a bridge between the second and third seasons.)

    2. Early drafts of the script featured even more deaths. The biggest on-screen RIP that still rocks kids’ souls? Optimus Prime. The Autobot leader was killed battling his nemesis, Megatron, and that sparked a backlash among fans — one so loud that it influenced changes in Hasbro’s other big animated movie being made, “G.I. Joe: The Movie.” The Joes’ first big-screen outing featured the death of their leader, Duke, but Hasbro forced the filmmakers to change Duke’s fate, instead having him enter a coma after getting a snake spear to the heart. Because the ’80s.
    3. The debate over whether or not to kill Prime caused “steaming arguments” among the filmmakers, according to screenwriter Ron Friedman — who was violently against killing this “father figure” and “icon.”

    “To remove Optimus Prime, to physically remove Daddy from the family, that wasn’t going to work,” Friedman said. “I told Hasbro and their lieutenants they would have to bring him back but they said ‘no’ and had ‘great things planned.’ In other words they were going to create new more expensive toys.” Those lieutenants belonged to Hasbro’s ad agency, who graduated to having great power overseeing the production of various projects. So blame the suits for your childhood trauma!

    4. There was an alternate script at one point for the movie, entitled “The Secret of Cybertron,” written by “Transformers” story editor and writer Flint Dille, that very few people have seen. 5. Two things that writer Friedman had to fight to get into the movie: Arcee (above), the first female Autobot, and having the Transformers interact with humans Spike and his son, Daniel.

    6. The only rewrite that Friedman object to was including the word “sh**.” But the powers-at-be insisted it be added so the movie could secure a PG rating instead of a G, as films rated with the latter didn’t play as often in theaters.
    7. The Autobots’ Matrix of leadership, the shiny thing Prime passes on to rookie Hot Rod (pictured), was inspired (naturally) by the Petrean Touch in Catholicism.

    8. “Transformers: The Movie” was Orson Welles‘ last film. He voiced the transforming, planet-sized threat, Unicron. How did the production secure the Hollywood legend? “He was available,” said Friedman. “He was looking for work all the time. He would’ve opened a supermarket. He was eminently available.”9. Welles’ is rumored to have died five days after completing his final voice session for the film. Due to the actor’s breathing difficulties, his voice heavily synthesized.

    10. An early version of the story featured the Decepticons taking over Autobot City on Earth, with Blaster leading a group of guerilla-like fighters to retake the city. According to Friedman, it was cut simply because the suits wanted to cut it in an attempt to exert some creative control.
    11. Leonard Nimoy provided the voice for new villain Galvatron (above). The late actor would return to the world of Transformers, this time voicing Sentinel Prime in 2011’s “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.”

    12. Friedman’s favorite characters to write for? Autobot veteran Kup, Starscream and, of course, Optimus Prime.
    13. Friedman’s least favorite? “Wheelie was a pain in the ass.”

    14. Marvel published an adaptation of the movie. The three-part comic was based on an early version of the script, and as a result the comics featured an different design of the Matrix and a different death for Autobot Ultra Magnus. 15. The movie’s most iconic song is Stan Bush’s “The Touch,” which — you might wanna sit down — was originally created by Bush and ‘co-writer Lenny Macaluso for Sylvester Stallone‘s “Cobra” in 1986.

    16. Like the soundtrack’s other memorable songs, like “Nothing’s Gonna Stand In Our Way” and “Hunger?” They’re from the band, Kick Axe, who appeared listed on the soundtrack as Spectre General because the powers-at-be thought the band’s real name sounded, um, too threatening. Worse? The band wasn’t even notified about the change.
    17. For the film’s 20th anniversary in 2006, IDW published its own adaptation. It includes extra scenes, such as a battle between the missing combiners and Omega Supreme at the Ark, as well as Shockwave and Reflector being destroyed by Unicron.

    18. Whenever Megatron would transform into gun mode during the first two seasons of the animated series, his first shot would always miss the target. Because reasons. In the movie, when Starscream uses his leader to execute Brawn, this marks the first time the Decepticon leader’s first shot hit the target.
    19. The movie takes place 20 years after the events of the series’ Season 2.

    20. Unicron’s original name? Ingestor. He would have been a mysterious being in control of Unicron’s planet form. The filmmakers combined the two into a single character, with the planet still transforming into a human-like figure.
    21. Unicorn in robot form originally featured more organic features. He would have rocked some serious ’80s long hair in addition to a goatee and mustache. (Please let it have been a mullet!)

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  • Kate Beckinsale: Michael Bay Cast Me in ‘Pearl Harbor’ ‘Cause I’m Not That Hot

    “The Graham Norton Show” recalling all the times that sad blind fool has told the story of why he cast her in the 2001 movie “Pearl Harbor.”

    “I don’t think I fitted the type of actress Michael Bay the director had met before,” Beckinsale said. “I think he was baffled by me because my boobs weren’t bigger than my head and I wasn’t blonde.” (She probably wasn’t even joking with that.) “I’d just had my daughter and had lost weight, but was told that if I got the part, I’d have to work out,” she added. “And I just didn’t understand why a 1940s nurse would do that.” Fair point. Here’s more:

    “And then, when we were promoting the film. Michael was asked why he had chosen Ben [Affleck] and Josh [Hartnett], and he said, ‘I have worked with Ben before and I love him, and Josh is so manly and a wonderful actor’. Then when he was asked about me, he’d say, ‘Kate wasn’t so attractive that she would alienate the female audience’. He kept saying it everywhere we went, and we went to a lot of places.”

    UGH. That she remembers what he said so many years later just shows how much it must’ve affected her. She’s right, though, he said it all: E! News dug up a 2001 article from Movieline, where Bay mansplained that women are just too threatened by attractive women to want to watch them on screen.


    Here’s that part of the Movieline Q&A:

    Q: What made you choose Kate Beckinsale?

    A: I didn’t want someone who was too beautiful. Women feel disturbed when they see someone’s too pretty. I’m not saying Kate’s not pretty. When you look at Titanic, Kate Winslet is pretty, but not overwhelmingly beautiful. That makes it work better for women. Our Kate is very funny, could hang with the guys. She’s not so neurotic about everything, like some actresses. She was solid, and I think the three of them had some really nice chemistry.

    Yes, please tell us more about what disturbs women. The script was the most disturbing thing about “Pearl Harbor” and it would’ve gone a long way with both women and men if he had just focused more on that. Bay went on to cast actresses like Megan Fox and Scarlett Johansson, who probably even passed his test for “overwhelmingly beautiful,” and Scarlett at least went on to be an incredibly successful actress with both genders. (And are there any women who didn’t think Kate Winslet was incredibly beautiful in “Titanic”?)

    But whatever. It’s not breaking news that Michael Bay is obsessed with how women look, and cares little for any talent they may possess. He’s basically one of the frat guys from “The Bachelorette.” At least the fan response to Beckinsale’s new “Graham Norton” story is positive and on her side — reminiscent of the recent fan defense of Keira Knightley after her “Begin Again” director decided to insult the “supermodel” out of nowhere.

    Kate Beckinsale is drop-dead gorgeous, but it’s more impressive that she’s witty and has a great sense of humor. For example, watch her explain her genius chocolate buttocks prank in this clip from the show:

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  • ‘Transformers’ 5, 6, and 7 Get Release Dates

    There will be at least three more movies in the money-printing “Transformers” series, with studio Paramount announcing on Friday release dates for the fifth, sixth, and seventh installments in the franchise.

    Fans of the series should be pleased, since they’re guaranteed a new film in the franchise every year for at least three years, beginning in 2017. “Transformers 5” is slated for release on June 23, 2017, followed by “Transformers 6” on June 8, 2018, and then “Transformers 7” on June 28, 2019.

    Like Marvel and DC before them, it seems that Paramount is rolling out an ambitious “Transformers” schedule in an effort to establish itself as an anticipated annual presence at the summer box office. The series will face some big competition from the DC camp and Warner Bros. when “Transformers 5” opens against “Wonder Woman” next summer. It will then go head-to-head with “Godzilla 2” (another Warner Bros. property) when “Transformers 6” hits in 2018.

    The first four “Transformers” flicks have earned a combined $3.8 billion at the worldwide box office, and Paramount no doubt hopes that there’s plenty more where that came from. Director Michael Bay will be back at the helm for his fifth outing with the franchise, though he’s said it will be his last “Transformers” flick. “Transformers: Age of Extinction” star Mark Wahlberg is also set to return.

    [via: The Hollywood Reporter]

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  • What Happened to ’13 Hours’ at the Box Office?

    Michael Bay, emperor of the action blockbuster, king of the fireball, may demand that everything in his life be awesome. So why were the opening weekend grosses of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” anything but awesome?

    Here was Bay’s biggest stab at seriousness since “Pearl Harbor” 15 years ago: a based-in-fact war drama about recent events, staged with the kind of movie mayhem that no one does better (or at least bigger and louder), with the bonus of being tied to a hot-button issue that has much of red-state America up in arms. Plus, it follows on the heels of other patriotic, pro-military hits released during January, like “Lone Survivor” and “American Sniper.”

    Yet, it came in fourth with an estimated $16.0 million, ranked behind “Ride Along 2.” “13 Hours” came in behind modest projections of $18 to $20 million. It’s the lowest opening for the “Transformers” franchise director since his sci-fi flop “The Island” 11 years ago (which debuted with $12.4 million) and a big come-down for a filmmaker accustomed to premieres of $70 million or more.

    What went wrong? Here are 8 reasons why “13 Hours” struck out at the box office.

    1. Less-Than-Great Marketing
    Paramount, Bay, and the film’s cast have been promoting “13 Hours” with two opposing messages. To the mainstream media and the mass audience of moviegoers, the message was: Forget the controversy surrounding Benghazi. This film is just an apolitical salute to the heroism of the American military-trained mercenaries who fought and died there. But to audiences of conservative media outlets, the message was: Here’s a true story that will once again cast a negative light on the Obama administration and on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s State department for their security failures in Benghazi that left four Americans dead.

    So, which is it? Paramount seemed to think that kind of ambiguity worked for last year’s smash “American Sniper” and apparently tried to emulate it. The studio even held the premiere in the stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play — which was also the site of “Sniper” subject Chris Kyle’s funeral. But “Sniper” had a lot going for it that “13 Hours” doesn’t, as you’ll see below. One asset was that the controversy actually made people more interested in seeing it, rather than confusing them, as the “13 Hours” campaign seems to have done.
    2. Michael Bay
    Another thing “Sniper” had in its favor was Clint Eastwood, a director known for his thoughtful and nuanced filmmaking. There’s nothing thoughtful or nuanced about Bay or his directing. Some moviegoers love his bombast; some think he’s Uwe Boll with more money to spend on explosions. But no one thinks of him as a master of subtlety or documentary-style realism. Even the film’s producer, according to an interview with Rolling Stone, thought Bay lacked the tone necessary to deliver what the subject matter deserved. The lesson here is: If you want serious war drama success, get someone else. If you want racist alien robots or exploding everything, get Bay.

    3. Weak Reviews
    Critics have never liked Bay’s style, but since he presented the real-life siege at Benghazi with the same sonic and visual flourishes he uses in films about marauding giant robots from space, “13 Hours” wasn’t going to change critics’ minds about him. (See Rotten Tomatoes’ 59 percent rating.)

    The moviegoers who ignored the reviews seem to have really enjoyed the film, giving the film an A grade at CinemaScore and providing strong word-of-mouth recommendations. But to reach viewers who weren’t Bay fans or already inclined to see it, “13 Hours” needed more positive reviews than it earned.4. Lack of Star Power
    The star of a Michael Bay film is usually Michael Bay (or Optimus Prime), but he’s had a lot of help over the years from an impressive list of A-Listers. But “13 Hours” stars… John Krasinski. Nothing against the “Office” alumnus, who buffed up admirably to star in the movie, but he’s not the first guy (or 51st) you’d think of to play the lead in a combat film, and he’s never played the male lead in a movie that opened higher than $14 million or grossed more than $43 million over its theatrical run in North America.

    5. “Star Wars“
    Even a month into the run of “The Force Awakens,” there’s really no shame in failing to beat the highest-grossing movie in American history. “Star Wars” continues to smash records at the box office and remains, well, a force of nature.
    6. Tough Competition
    But it wasn’t just “Star Wars.” “Ride Along 2” earned $10,721 per screen and “The Revenant” earned $8,289 per screen, and both were playing in at least 800 more theaters than “13 Hours” (which earned $6,697 per screen). In fact, “Revenant” added IMAX screens to its theater count this weekend, raking in the enhanced-format surcharges. It also benefited from Oscar noms this week, attracting crowds curious to see what all the buzz was about. Having huge box office draw DiCaprio headlining doesn’t hurt, either.

    7. Bay’s Bloated Running Time
    Bay hasn’t made a movie under two hours in decades. At 144 minutes, “13 Hours” may have lost sales by screening fewer times per day than a shorter movie would. Then again, a running time of more than two hours hasn’t hurt “Star Wars” or “Revenant.” Which only shows that ticket buyers won’t be put off by a movie’s length if they’re already inclined to see it.
    8. Benghazi Fatigue
    Bottom line: Maybe audiences just weren’t very interested in revisiting the subject matter. Maybe they were back when Paramount greenlit the movie, but, in recent months, we’ve seen Benghazi hashed over by eight Congressional investigations, and we’ve seen Hillary Clinton withstand an 11-hour grilling over the event.

    At this stage, when liberals consider Benghazi a settled issue and conservatives consider it yet another Obama scandal for which no one will ever be held accountable, many Americans may no longer be interested. Certainly no one is likely to change their minds, or learn anything that doesn’t confirm their pre-existing opinions, from watching a Michael Bay movie.

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  • Michael Bay’s 7 Best Guilty Pleasure Movies, Ranked by Explosions

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    Have a favorite city or landmark? Then chances are good that Michael Bay has blown it up.

    From “The Rock” to “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” Bay has never met a densely-populated area that he couldn’t pyrotechnic into oblivion. Hell, the guy killed Chicago twice in two consecutive “Transformers” movies. Because reasons.

    In honor of “13 Hours,” which, ironically, is also the amount of time Bay wishes he could go without blowing something up, we’re ranking his seven best guilty pleasures based on their explosion-y goodness. So strap on your TAC gear and turn up the Aerosmith — S is about to get R.

  • ‘Pearl Harbor’ Honest Trailer Fears When Michael Bay ‘Gets His Hands on 9/11’

    Poor Michael Bay. Rich Michael Bay, of course, but the director is such an easy target it sometimes seems unfair. It doesn’t really seem unfair when it comes to “Pearl Harbor,” though, and the 2001 Ben Affleck cheese-fest got itself roasted as the latest victim of Screen Junkies’s Honest Trailers.

    The “Pearl Harbor” honest trailer begins with a swipe at Bay’s new movie, “13 Hours”:

    “Before he cashes in on the tragic loss of American lives in his Benghazi movie, revisit Michael Bay’s attempt to cash in on the loss of even more American lives in ‘Pearl Harbor.’”

    This three-hour super-‘merican “fan fiction version of history” is mocked for its “stupid campy made-up love triangle,” “wacky slapstick comedy,” terrible Southern accents, and blatant attempt to rip-off the superior “Titanic.”

    The trailer acknowledges the film’s cool battle scenes, and its Oscar for sound design, and actually hits a serious note to show photos of real heroes of Pearl Harbor. However, the end quote is rather chilling: “You guys know it’s only a matter of time before Michael Bay gets his hands on 9/11, right?” Yikes.

    Here goes:

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  • Michael Bay’s ’13 Hours’ Brings Benghazi Attack to Big Screen

    Explosions, gunfire and not a single Transformer is in sight in the trailer for director Michael Bay’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” which debuted Tuesday.

    The forthcoming action-drama is based on the real-life attack on a U.S. compound on Sept. 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya that killed American Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and other Americans and plunged Hillary Clinton into a political crisis that has spilled into her presidential campaign.

    In a series of raids by gunmen believed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda, four people were killed and 10 injured as a U.S. security team of six struggled to make sense of the chaos.

    Pablo Schreiber, John Krasinski and Toby Stephens star in the movie, due in theaters Jan. 15, 2016.

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  • Will the Next ‘Transformers’ Movie Be a Prequel?

    TransformersThanks to the massive success of the Marvel movies, every franchise now wants their own “Marvel-style universe” — including “Transformers,” which is assembling a “writers room” to plot their next steps.

    Deadline reports that “Ant-Man” writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari have joined a team headed by Akiva Goldsman and including “Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirman” and “Lost” writer Jeff Pinkner. And it seems the first idea to come out of the brain trust is for a prequel set on Cybertron.

    The goal of the writers room is to prep a movie to be ready when Michael Bay finishes filming the Benghazi drama “13 Hours.” It’s an interesting idea to assemble a TV-style team like this, to brainstorm future sequels, prequels, spinoffs, or even reboots.

    “Transformers One” would be an origin story about the robots, good and evil. It could be an animated film or live-action. A prequel could be a merchandising bonanza for Hasbro, with even more robot toys they could sell off the movie. It’ll a never-ending circle of movies and toys, until the end of time.

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