Michael Bay's Transformers hits DVD today (check out our review), and Paramount is celebrating by turning one of the film's stars loose in Los Angeles. No, unfortunately it's not Megan Fox. Standing at the West Hollywood Gateway shopping center (at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea), surrounded by shops like Target and Jamba Juice, stands Bumblebee. It's an actual prop from the film, it stands 18 feet tall, and it weighs 8,200 pounds. The robot had to be assembled and set up by a forklift and a ten-ton crane. Bumblebee will be standing guard there through this Sunday, October 21st.

I went over this morning to snap some pictures. As I rounded the corner, I was expecting a madhouse -- people pointing to the skies and screaming, running in terror, etc. Or at least, y'know, looking in its general direction! But then I remembered I was in West Hollywood. You need more than an 18 foot-tall robot to stand out in West Hollywood. I could have strolled through the shopping center buck naked and juggling infants, and still wouldn't have been given a second look. Transvestites, Transsexuals, Transformers, it's just another day in Hollywood. Still, I thought the display was pretty sweet, and snapped some photographs for those of you who can't make it to L.A. Check 'em out, won't you?

Side note -- while picking up the new Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers DVD at the Best Buy there, I bumped into none other than actor Peter Weller! Was he just picking up some headphones...or was he there to pitch a Robocop Vs. Transformers flick to Bumblebee? I report, you decide.

You know how sometimes, when you just go along to a movie because you're bored, you accidentally stumble upon something awesome, because your expectations are so low? Well, 10 years ago, I was dragged along to see The Ghost and the Darkness, and I freaking LOVED it. I had no idea what it was going to be about, but there were Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, running around trying to kill lions in the middle of Africa. It was silly, sure, but also effectively tense, and just totally engaging, somehow. Clearly I don't see enough good movies, because I still remember how much fun that one was to watch.

And, because of my affection for that one lions-with-a-taste-for-human-flesh movie, I'm irrationally excited about the news that The Weinstein Company has picked up distribution rights to Prey, a thriller about ... lions! Woo hoo! The movie, currently in post-production, stars Bridget Moynahan and Peter Weller as the biggest names on a family vacation in Africa. Ooooh, but the fun ends when they "become lost in a game reserve and stalked by lions." Can I get an "Amen" here, people? Lord am I excited about this movie. Plus, it was co-written and directed by Darrell James Roodt who, based on Cry, the Beloved Country, might not be a complete hack. (Yes, I'm ignoring Father Hood. So should you.) Rest assured that the moment a release date is revealed, I'll let you know.

One of the more underrated and overlooked sci-fi/horror flicks in semi-recent memory is Christian Duguay's Screamers, which debuted in 1995, featured Peter Weller in the lead role, and pretty much vanished without a trace. But you know what fate awaits any half-decent sci-fi flick after it dies a valiant box-office death: Cult Status! Entirely true: Screamers, which (like most good science fiction films) is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, is about a planet jam-packed with homicidal robot creatures -- and the gang of unfortunate soldiers who happen to be stuck there.

So, and I'm sure you can see the punch-line coming: Someone's about to mount a sequel to Screamers, only we're not yet sure who or when or ... why. From the wonderful geeks at Twitch we get this rather vague promise: "The original writer and producers of the 90's sci-fi horror flick "Screamers" (and strangely one of my favorite sci-fi movies of the era, right behind "Hardware") are coming back for a sequel. That's an exxxxxxxxxxxxxclusive scoop."

Wow, some love for Screamers AND Hardware! Someone out there really digs their sci-fi semi-obscura.