Not so very long ago, actor Shia LaBeouf, whom I affectionately refer to as "the Even Stevens kid," described the process of filming the Transformers flick as "war." Apparently, the film was very physically exhausting for him, and he really felt beat up by the end. In a recent interview, LaBeouf expounded on his tale of woe, explaining just how tough filming was. According to LaBeouf, "To go from Emilio Estevez to Michael Bay is like walking out of, you know, like in a hammock in the sky, hanging out drinking Pina Coladas with Jesus and then getting smacked in the face and thrown in the devil's s**pile and having to make a movie." LaBeouf later described his Transformers director by saying "He's so hard on his actors ... Mike is just f**king a hard a**." I encourage you to read the entire interview to hear his full thoughts on Bay, because he also talks about appreciating how hard Bay pushed -- I don't want to give the impression the kid hated his director or anything. He just thought he was mean, tough, and punishing.

Now swing by Playbill News, and read the thoughts of actress Julie White, who plays LaBeouf's mom in the film. White say Bay was a joy to work with: "I thought he would be like some kind of crazed, you know, megalomaniacal control freak and he is exactly the opposite." Granted, there is probably a great deal of difference between how a director treats a "mom" figure in his movie and how he treats his central human star, but there is still quite a lot of disparity in these two descriptions of Michael Bay. Which do you suppose is closer to the truth?

If I asked you to describe what you'd think it would be like being an actor for a largely CGI flick based around an old 80's cartoon, I bet your first thoughts would not be "it would be like war." As it turns out, however, you would be entirely incorrect. Shia LaBeouf (who falls only one short of having every single vowel in his last name, thus making it impossible for me to spell correctly without failing on at least three tries first) recently finished filming for Michael Bay's modern adaptation of Transformers, and described the process to Rotten Tomatoes with those very words, saying "It was like war, I've never been in that much pain in my life, emotionally, physically. It was just a hard movie to make." While I imagine those of you who have actually been in real war would probably strongly refute this statement, I think we all get the general idea of what LaBeouf meant -- this was one tough bugger to shoot. I hope all the effort pays off, because I want a good Transformers flick. Swing on over to Rotten Tomatoes for the rest of their brief chat with Labeouf.

I may poke fun at Ain't It Cool news from time to time for their overwhelming enthusiasm and use of exclamation points, but like most geeks, I respect Harry Knowles and the crazy, crazy job he does. The same apparently cannot be said for Transformers producer Don Murphy, who in a recent flame post on his message board referred to Harry's site as "Ain't it S**t news." A profoundly witty man, that Murphy ... he can really zing those insults off, and with such clever turns of phrase. At any rate, Murphy was responding to images of Optimus Prime seen on Ain't it Cool News, and the money part of his quote was: "You know -- no one from the production ever confirmed anything that was leaked to Ain't It S**t News. So it may have been actual photos or it may not have been. The bad poet Diabetes has reported on here that Megatron's head will be changed. From what? Did we ever release an official pic of Megs? No sir we didn't. I CAN tell you that Megs' head will not look like he did in the leaked pics."

So there you have it, folks. Your friendly neighborhood producer Don Murphy reminds you "don't trust the internets." Thanks, Don!

It seemed like everywhere I clicked today, I was learning another bit of news regarding Michael Bay's Transformers. Eventually I got the hint, and here I am to give you a Transformers round-up from across the web to fulfill the wishes of the internet gods. Perhaps if I please them, I'll be able to go a few years without having to buy another new computer (unlikely, but a guy can dream).

Stan Bush*, who performed the song "The Touch" for the original Transformers movie is back in the recording studio putting together another winner for the new film. He hopes to submit it to Bay and company within the month. (Thanks to Seibertron for the story.)

The busy little folks over at TFW2005 have turned up a "first look" at Optimus Prime's head. It is nothing more than a blue model, but it does look awesome. Despite my profound misgivings, I can't help but geek out over things like this. Optimus Prime, you are my hero.

And of course, the ever-present and always-giddy Ain't It Cool News has turned up another new photo from the set. They do this every few days or so, because Harry Knowles is everywhere. I strongly suspect he learned the secrets of doppleganging at some point from mystic foreign monks or dark, evil creatures of the netherworld. Either way, it was a sweet deal.

*Stan would like you to check out his website at www.stanbush.com. He said so at the aforementioned Seibertron. Cinematical's resident geek digs Stan, so we throw him some link love.

If you are into Transformers news, it might be worth your time to check out these stories previously on Cine:

The Many Faces of Megatron
Transformers Wrap Primary Filming
Peter Cullen on Being Prime

If I lived in Detroit, Michigan, I imagine I'd be getting rather tired of Michael Bay. Okay, I imagine I'd be getting rather tired of him for reasons other than continuing to make bad movies. For the second time in recent years, director Bay has closed down streets in the greater Detroit area -- Fort Wayne between Washington and Griswold, and Shelby between Lafayette and Congress, to be specific -- for filming purposes. However, as I do not live in Detroit, I find this to be rather cool. Bay has used the same streets previously while filming for The Island, and likewise the abandoned Michigan Central Depot, according to Detroit Free Press.

In other Transformers news, you can check out a few new site photos from filming, including what looks to be a distance shot of Optimus Prime in his non-robot form and a few helicopters flying about. And don't forget the new "Make Optimus Speak" contest -- details here courtesy of Matt B.

There is a wonderful little interview with long time voice actor Peter Cullen over at USA Today's Pop Candy. In it, Cullen discusses his introduction to voice acting, his early roles, and his years of work with the Transformers series which ultimately resulted in a voice role in the new Transformers film. Cullen said he was never really aware of the show's popularity back when he first worked on it, and apparently never saw a single piece of fan mail. He isn't suggesting fans didn't send them, of course, he just doesn't know who at the studio took them in and dealt with them. Ergo, he was shocked and extremely pleased when the geek cry went out across the nation for his casting in the new film. He'd heard of the film happening, and the next thing he knew, his name was being championed all over the internet. This lead to a meeting with director Michael Bay, and once he convinced Bay he could in fact act, Cullen landed the role of Optimus Prime for one more time. I personally feel as though we geeks on the web have done a very good thing here, so give yourselves a big round of applause -- you brought the real Optimus Prime back.

Let's play a little yes/no:

1. Are you at least 16 years old?
2. Will you be free for a couple of days around the second of October?
3. Would you like to work for Michael Bay on the set of Transfomers?

If you answered "yes" to all these questions, have I got a deal for you. (Well ... I don't really have the deal, Wendy Washbrook has the deal and I'm just here to tell you about it.) The Transformers team is hunting for a collection of spare bodies to be extras in the new flick. It should also be noted that at least a few of the extras will be paid some sort of fee for their time. Here's the address for you to send your info and picture to, in case you are interested:

Mail To: Wendy Washbrook/Extra Casting
"Transformers"
5600 Campus Center Drive
Bungalow 1
Playa Vista, CA 90094

Or you can email the photo and info to: Wendy Washbrook/Extra Casting: wwashbrook@verizon.net. Good luck, and do let us know if you land the gig.

Well folks, like it or not, the new Transformers flick is fastly heading towards us. Producer Don Murphy just dropped by the message boards on his homepage to announce the end of primary filming, as of Sunday the 24th. This week, according to Murphy, some much smaller cast groups will continue with pick up and establishing shots in various parks. Beyond that, some filming remains to be done in the "frozen north," and all will be finished. There is, of course, tons of work yet to be done, as we all know a movie doesn't go straight from filming into the theaters. Regarding the remaining work, Murphy said: "If ever there was a film that was really going to be made in post production, this is it. Much editing and many effects to go."

Director Michael Bay films traditionally do rely heavily on effects work -- it is his strong suit, after all -- and one can only imagine how much effects work will be poured into a film as ambitious as a live action Transformers flick. The countdown until the first official test screening has now begun ...

You've got to hand it to Ain't It Cool News -- they've been all over the Transformers photo action these past few weeks. Among the most popular (photograph-wise, anyway) of the robots in disguise has been Bumblebee, and the good folks over at AICN have turned up yet another picture of the big bot. This one comes courtesy of some folks over at the SuperheroHype boards, and shows a reclined Bumblebee (the physical model, not a CGI version) waiting to be carted around set. You can dig the picture here, and while you're at it, you can scope a cute little cardboard street "mock-up" designed to give some idea of the size scale between the various Transformers.

As I began to write this post -- I kid you not, that very moment, I received an IM from my buddy John who said the following: "feeling like I want to gouge out my eyes. I just saw concept art for The Transformers movie." Now John is openly "old-school," and his opinions are thus influenced, but the man accurately summed up the opinions of a large portion of the geek community. As one AICN talkbacker wisely put it, "I know Bumblebee, and you, sir, are no Bumblebee."

Before I start this post, I'm going to note the following: AICN had a tremendous interview with Shia LaBeouf on the set of Michael Bay's Transformers. They pack a lot of great stuff in there and it's well worth the read. (The interview itself lasted forty plus minutes and covered a lot of ground.) For the purposes of this article, I'm just going to be dealing with one or two specific questions discussed by LaBeouf, as they pertain directly to an issue I've been touching on frequently. The issue? What else other than Bay's "updating" of the classic Transformers. He's been making some major changes, and geeks everywhere have been arguing about them. When I read LaBeouf weighing in, I thought it was quite interesting. His basic statements are summed up as follows:

• Regarding the music from the original Transformers: The Movie: "You know, I asked him (Bay) if was going to use that synthesized '80s s*** and he's like, 'What're you crazy? Never.' "
• Regarding changes to Soundwave: There's a lot of stuff... you know, there's new robots that he'll create. Or he'll take something like Soundwave and turn it into Soundbyte and it'll become something else. That's understandable, but in no way is he tainting this at all. If anything he's turning it up and modernizing it.
• And the biggie -- regarding changes made to Megatron: "You can't have a toy gun. You've got 9-year-olds watching this movie and, yes, we're creating mythology, but you can't make a toy gun your antihero and then have Hasbro go out and sell toy guns with the little yellow cap on it, you know? It'll look f*ing ridiculous to have Megatron with a yellow nose, you know what I mean? It'd look retarded."

There you have it , a take on the character changes being made by someone directly involved with the film. LeBeouf is like that throughout the whole interview -- open, honest, and frank. And for the record, I'd buy Megatron with a yellow nose.