Transformers2RevengeOfTheFallen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I spoke too soon. We all did. After the heartening news that Shia LaBeouf wasn't interested in being the last man on earth (to which every other guy on the planet yelled "Fool!!"), he's hastily amended his brush-off to Collider.

While he still feels the part of Yorick is too "Sam Witwicky" and stresses that he wants to do something that's "foreign," he's still very interested in Y: The Last Man. He just wants to wait a few years, and he'll have the time to get the Witwicky out of his system.

"I love Y! Y is my favorite comic book ... Brian K. Vaughn, Neil Gaiman, the guys who write the Criminal series, these are all my favorite, this is my favorite stuff to read. It's the stuff that I love. Y: The Last Man is my favorite comic book. It's also DJ Caruso's favorite comic book. We DO want to make it ... Absolutely, man! In fact, that's what's going on right now. Vaughn and Ellsworth and DJ are writing the script now. The script is not ready to be shot. DJ is making a different movie right now. He's making Jack and the Beanstalk. There's just other things going on with DJ and I wouldn't want to make the movie with anybody else because he loves it like I do. But I don't think Vaughn is trying to give it to anybody else. I think that it is something that's very realistic, it's just not in the pipe for the next year."

Well, I'm pleased that he's a fan of the series and who knows? Maybe a few years will see me warm up to him, and be delighted that he was the first pick for the last man.

Is there anything more amusing than the bickering of film directors? Not on a slow news day such as this! Our friends over at Slashfilm have dug up a charming feud between Transformers' Michael Bay and Terminator: Salvation's McG. Naturally, it occurs over who has the biggest ... robot. Or rather, who came up with the concept of giant robots first.

Bay fired the first volley on his official website after the Transformers 2 teaser poster was unveiled. "Okay it's time to turn up the heat on Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen. We've waited low in the weeds letting all the summer movies get their stuff out. We've seen the great year end movies, and watched the upcoming clips of the upcoming summer fare. We've seen certain movies coming out even try to duplicate Transformer size robots in their ads. Please, come on. Well, I promise you we will rock your world with Transformers 2. The fans wanted ROBOTS KICKING ASS - well we got it. Today we are releasing the teaser poster and soon the onslaught will continue with a steady drum beat until June 26th."

What other giant robot movie could he mean? Why, Terminator: Salvation of course, and McG wasn't going to take that lying down. He fired back via Comcast's Movie Blog. "It bothers me to tell you the truth. Ultimately, our large robots have nothing to do with the Transformers robots. I say with respect, giant robots have been the theme of film for a real long time . So we want to do everything we can to create separation. Our film's about T-800s and the Marcus character and the Connor character, and this, that, and the other. So, to have people have a problem with that wouldn't be working for us so we want to make sure there's separation."

2009 has begun on a rather tense note for geekdom as Watchmen became further embroiled in legal soup. As Fox pushes for a delay, we must contemplate a rather thin year of geeky offerings .... which just shows how spoiled we've become. Watchmen and Wolverine alone would have made our year before the wonder that was 2008, when we had Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and the Punisher. But hey, this is going to be the Year of Announcements -- we're going to find out who Captain America and Thor are, who or what Iron Man must face in his sequel, and hey, we might even find out whether Edward Norton will reprise his role as the Hulk. We're going to have fun, no matter what happens with Watchmen.

January
Nothing. Watch The Dark Knight ten more times, I guess (especially when it returns to conventional and IMAX theaters on January 23). Or read a graphic novel; you must have gotten some for Christmas? Anyway, take a breather. You're still recovering from 2008.

February
Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and a limited release of the long-delayed Fanboys both come out on February 6th. Gaiman for the win, no question.

March
Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen.The film is still scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 6th, however Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox are still fighting in court over who actually owns the rights to the property. If a judge rules in favor of Fox on January 20th or before, we may not get Watchmen on time ... but we will get a whole bunch of angry fans. Read more about it on our Watchmen page.



April
Dragonball Evolution hits theaters on the 8th. The excitement is palatable.

May
This is the month of geekdom, kicking off with the film my year centers around, X-Men Origins: Wolverine on May 1. If this isn't good, the Geek Beat will burn with the fury of a thousand suns the following Tuesday. May that be your warning, Fox.



A little independent film you might have heard of also comes out this month: Star Trek hits theaters on May 8th.

I'm not one of those waiting for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen with a whole lot of anticipation. I feel bad about saying that, but let's face it, Transformers passed me right by as I was playing with Strawberry Shortcake. Many have tried to re-educate me on the awesomeness of Optimus Prime, and failed.

Nevertheless, even I have to admit it's pretty cool when a screenwriter drops in among their fans for a good sequel chat. That's what Robert Orci, one of the scriptwriters for Transformers 1 and 2, has done over at Transformer World 2005. The dedicated can sift through what is currently 82(!) pages of script Q&A, by the time you read this, it will probably be 182. Much of it is hints as to which robots might factor into the sequel -- including a tease that Arcee, the girl Transformer, might appear. On the other hand, he's careful to remind fans that anything you hear about the film is probably careful disinformation, but well meant. "It is fun to 'play' with fandom, not to toy with fandom -- I do not hand out disinformation."

But there's a few reliable sounding bits in here. According to Orci, the sequel will be more "global" in scale, and that there won't a lot of re-introductions. "The first movie is all about the mystery and reveal of the Transformers as a concept and a species, which means we had to hide them a lot in the first hour. In the second movie, now that everyone believes in the universe, we can jump right into the world of the Transformers." The movie will be firmly rooted in Transformers mythology, but will also maintain the "liberties" taken with it in the first film.

He insists they're listening to fan input, so anything you want to see, now's the time to demand it. I'm going to go ahead and demand Arcee, if only to ponder how Transformers can have gender, and whether she will be pink.

She's been voted the number one sexiest girl in the history of the universe times twelve by every single magazine that ever existed ... but what people really want to know is: How do you direct someone that hot? Well, thank heavens for dudes like Michael Bay, who's just made the difficult task a whole lot easier for future directors (aspiring or working). While speaking to MTV about Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Megan Fox said this of Bay's slick directorial skillz: "His main note to me is just to look hot; so I try my best." Nice. What would we do without directors like Bay who really cherish the female character and what she means to the overall finished product? Bravo! Give this man an award.

In other Transformers 2 news, Fox also told MTV that they're "on locations in some really exotic places" and "it's just going to be a badass movie." Perhaps her most interesting quotes, however, had to do with the on set re-writes of the script. She says, "You know, we've been having script meetings, and we've been reworking the script, because they wrote it fast because of the writer's strike. And, we've just been going through and trying to do some character stuff for Shia and myself in the middle of this crazy world that they're in."

Fear not, a lot of filmmakers work on the script while they're shooting, so I'm sure everything will turn out just fine in the end. And hey, as long as Megan Fox looks hot, right?

I'm just burning doin' the neutron dance ...

Iron Man 2: Though they're still ironing out all the deals and what have you, Terrence Howard told Military.com that Iron Man 2 is set to begin production in March of 2009. This gives everyone involved a little less than a year to get in shape, finish a script and ... do all those things that Hollywood people do prior to shooting a film. The current release date for Iron Man 2 is April 30, 2010, which will be followed by a live-action Thor movie a month or so later on June 4, 2010. According to an earlier report, Marvel Entertainment will not release a film in 2009.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen: Ever since the full, official title was announced for Transformers 2, fan sites across the globe have jumped at the chance to decipher some sort of hidden agenda. Does the title reference the return of those robots destroyed in the first film? Is it a reference to an actual Transformer named Fallen, a Generation 1 Transformer who looks to be on fire based on images from the Transformers Wiki. The character is referred to as Fallen and The Fallen, which makes it seem as if the title would read Revenge of The Fallen or Revenge of Fallen if it were indeed talking about this particular character. Or (and this is my theory), the entire title is made up of different robots. 'Revenge' could be the nastiest one, followed by its assistants 'of' and 'the', and then 'Fallen'. Whaddya think?

Additionally, TransformersLive has images of the Smithsonian set and what appears to be a photo of the Transformer Jetfire. Slashfilm also has an extensive report on future shooting and new robots. So much for Michael Bay keeping this one top secret, huh?

Update: Devin from Chud pointed out to me that his sources are saying the title does, in fact, reference the character The Fallen.

After the jump: Axel Foley? Whatchu doin' in a family-friendly sequel?