Jul

Happy 4th of July

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Jul

"Four"

DreamWorks is firming up a deal to preemptively acquire screen rights to “I Am Number Four,” the first of a six-book science fiction deal that has “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” director Michael Bay aboard to produce and possibly direct. DreamWorks is working on a high six-figure deal, sources said.

The real surprise in the deal, though, is the identity of one of the two authors. Though WME began shopping the book Thursday under a pseudonym, sources said one of the writers is James Frey, best known for writing “A Million Little Pieces.” Neither the agency nor the studio would confirm.

The deal puts Bay right back in business with DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. It is expected that Spielberg will be active in a behind-the-scenes capacity, similar to the godfather role he has played in the “Transformers” franchise. The sale comes as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” takes a run at the record books this weekend, after setting records on its first two days in theaters.

Source: Variety

Jun

Shooting at the Pyramids of Giza

By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Throughout history, great leaders have stood in marvel at the foot of the pyramids of Giza —Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte. Now it’s Optimus Prime’s turn.

Moviegoers who helped Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earn $200.1 million in its opening five days, just short of record-holder The Dark Knight, know the computer-effects-heavy film plays a lot of tricks on the eye. One thing they’re seeing for real are the pyramids, because director Michael Bay was determined to shoot the shapeshifting-robot finale on the surface of the ancient structures.

“The studio was saying: ‘You can’t do that, you can’t go there. It’s dangerous. A-lah-lah-lah-lah,’ ” Bay said recently as sound editors tweaked the roar and grind of robot carnage as the battle in question played out on a giant theater screen before them.

“They always try to discourage an American crew from going to a Muslim country. “But that’s kind of flawed, because when I went on a scout, it’s very different than people perceive in the news. It’s a great place, and people are very friendly there.

“I almost put it in my contract that I’m not doing this movie if I don’t shoot in Egypt. I finally got their word: ‘OK, you can shoot there.’ “

That wasn’t the last piece of red tape to be cut through. Though the producers had contracted with Henry Kissinger’s consulting firm to negotiate access more than a year in advance, the permit they had been promised wasn’t ready when Bay and Co. finally arrived.

“My producer was panicking because they said ‘Yes, you’re approved,’ and we had went through their state department, prime minister, the major generals … everything. They kept saying ‘It’s OK, it’s OK.’ But then you get there, and it’s not OK when the police surround your trucks,” Bay says. “No one wants to take responsibility for anything. No one wants to say, ‘Yeah.’ “

Some voted to go home, even with millions of dollars on the line, Bay says. “But I said, ‘We are going to shoot on those (expletive) pyramids!’ Somehow, by the grace of God, there was a loophole.” They reached out to the head of the nation’s ancient cultural heritage, who gave them the green light.

“Dr. (Zahi) Hawass, who controls all the antiquities in Egypt, he can say whatever goes,” Bay says. “So we were finally invited in to shoot, literally, on the pyramids.”

In the final cut, much of that scene is dominated by CG-animated alien robots, including Devastator — the new villain made out of seven individual robots who hide in the form of construction equipment. But the flesh-and-blood actors also got to romp on the pyramids.

Bay himself stood on a high ledge filming scenes with actor John Turturro (reprising his role as the blowhard former government agent who’s a Transformers expert). “We’re 30 rows up, and it’s just neat. Pictures don’t do justice to it, but on this movie, you get the scale of what the pyramid really is because John’s right there,” Bay says.

The filmmaker says it was overwhelming for both of them, a feeling that struck a few days later when they were in Jordan shooting atop a mountainside-carved temple in the ancient city of Petra. “(Turturro) was looking at Petra, and it was the morning of, just setting up, and he had a tear in his eye. I was like ‘What’s going on?’ ” Bay recalls. “He said, ‘You never get to do this. I was at the pyramids just the other day, and now I’m here. You just never get to do this.’ “

That was the final problem: an awestruck crew.

“I actually had to yell once: ‘Anyone pulls out a (expletive) video camera again, you’re going home!’ We were shooting on top of this palace right next to the pyramids. The sun has just dropped, and you’ve got literally 15 minutes of light — one chance, and you’ve got to get the scene. You have to be ready to knock it out. But the crew is there with the video cameras, posing and taking photos, because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime place. I was like, ‘Guys! This is my time now!’ ” he says, laughing.

“It was the end of the show, and it was funny,” he says, shrugging. “We barely made it.”

Source: USAToday

Jun

TF2: More that meets the critic's eyes

Pic takes $200.1 million from domestic box office

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

The ‘Transformers’ sequel pulled in $390.4 million worldwide over 5 days.

Aside from its whopping five-day domestic tally — the second highest of all time — Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” broke records in several countries overseas, leading to a massive $390.4 million worldwide opening through Sunday, one of the best global launches ever.

Official weekend numbers released Monday morning showed “Transformers 2″ grossing $200.1 million domestically-slightly less than the $201.2 million estimated on Sunday-over the course of its five-day opening. That easily eclipsed the $152.4 million earned by “Spider-Man 2,” which previously held the five-day record for a Wednesday launch.

And “Transformers 2″ came within shouting distance of the best five-day gross of all time: $203.8 million for WB’s “The Dark Knight.”

Overseas, the action tentpole grossed $166.1 million as it opened day and date in virtually every territory (pic opened the weekend before in the U.K. and Japan). Official tally was ahead of the Sunday estimate of $162 million.

Either way, “Transformers 2″ scored the second best international opening of all time, after “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ($216.3 million), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” ($193 million) and “Spider-Man 3″ ($164.9 million).

The sequel’s foreign cume was $190.3 million when factoring in the $24.1 million earned the previous weekend in the U.K. and Japan.

Source: Variety

Jun

Above The Line: An interview with Michael Bay

By: Mike Fleming

As Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” chases box office records after grossing $60.6 million on opening day, the filmmaker took time out to talk with BFD about the business of blockbusters, the impact of piracy, and the virtues of sharing risk with studios.

BFD: How do you spend opening night?

Bay: I always go to Mr. Chow’s for dinner with my producers, studio and marketing execs, my agents and lawyers. We get our first numbers there and then we hit the theaters. You’ve got to go there. And hope you see happy, smiling faces walking out. Last night, I tried to sneak in the side, but somebody noticed me and then they’re lining up for pictures. At the Arclight, somebody yelled “speech!” and I found myself talking to 900 people.

BFD: Salary deferrals have become commonplace, but not when you made “Pearl Harbor.” You made more money, but said, “Never again.”

Bay: Well, that was because of the way it came about. You work on the movie for nine months and then right before you shoot Joe Roth says, “Mike, I’m going to take away your fee.” It didn’t feel good.

BFD: So you deferred on “Transformers” and the sequel, and the L. A. Times predicts you might make more than any director on a movie. How do you feel about these deals, which are becoming the new economics of Hollywood moviemaking?

Bay: Okay. I run my sets and my pictures tight and we came in $4 million under budget. There is so much waste in this business, directors who have big shows like this one, who keep a second unit for the entire time. We were able to make this for $194 million, instead of the $230-270 million that the average sequel of this nature seems to cost. I work with one of the best crews in the world, we work efficient 12-hour days. We don’t build $3 million sets and then the director walks in and says, “Fuck it, I’m not going to use that set.” The stories I hear from my crew members, of waste on other pictures, of directors shooting a six- or eight-hour day, it’s just staggering. Some directors will look a studio executive in the eye and say, “Sure I’ll come in at this budget,” and then they behave like terrorists. By then, you’re committed and screwed. The thing that “Pearl Harbor” taught me was you’ve got to become a partner with the studio and deferring makes you more invested in that. I think it’s important and I think you need to be honest with your partner.

BFD: You have final cut as director and producer, but that’s also going by the wayside. What leverage does it give you?

Bay: It’s a club you hide behind your back but you hope you never have to use. Final cut for some can be a defense mechanism and for others an extortion mechanism. I am not one of those people who hold out my final cut; I think that’s ridiculous. I can think of examples where it allowed me to put some comic moments in these films. The studios have always been very good with me and never demand I take anything out. They suggest, sometimes I say no and then we see if the whole audience laughs and I was right. You need more laughter in the summertime. Literally, I was told we shouldn’t have talking robots in the first film. But you’ve got to be able to listen to your audience and to producers who look at your movie and bounce things around with you. That’s the Don Simpson-Jerry Bruckheimer dynamic and any director needs those people because you are just too close to it. I still feel if I could have had two more weeks on “Transformers,” I could fix a lot of stuff. But I ran out of time. My philosophy on final cut is you protect the movie at all costs. At studios, you deal with people who have their own agendas and you have to keep this agenda-free and all about the movie and the experience.

BFD: Days before the release of your film, Paramount restructured its film group. How did that impact you and what does it mean going forward on the next film?

Bay: It doesn’t affect anything, really. Paramount has literally said, “Here’s your budget, see you later.” It’s staggering, really, but they trust me to come in on budget. I don’t ask for money when I’m shooting and stay on course. I’ve never even given them dailies. I’d assemble real rough cut scenes, sizzle reels, cut to music, so they can enjoy it and get what the movie is.

BFD: Three days before shooting, Sony scrapped “Moneyball” after Steven Soderbergh threw a curveball to Amy Pascal and turned in a rewrite that veered from the movie she was willing to finance. On “Transformers,” do you feel an unspoken agreement to the studio to deliver the film exactly as they expect since they aren’t watching dailies?

Bay: I can only compare it to the first movie. The hardest thing for a director trying to set up a franchise is establishing tone. I wanted it to be edgy enough to be cool for older kids but accessible to kids and moms and I wanted it to be funny. We did a lot of improv and I hired funny actors who could do that. Steven [Spielberg] called me up and said, “Mike, you’re shooting a lot of stuff that’s not in the script.” I said, “Steven, some of it is going to suck, but some of it will be gems in the movie.” That’s how I work. I will say it made them nervous until they saw the final result, how much the audience liked it and the tone that it set for the franchise.

BFD: What’s one of those gems?

Bay: A perfect example came in the first movie, the masturbation thing. There was one line of dialogue that hinted about it in a roundabout way. But Julie White is a wonderful theater actress and Kevin Dunn and Shia, we were able to make that scene into something. I shoot fast enough that I was able to devote several hours to having fun with that scene and make more than what was on the page. I try to shoot at efficient clip so I can allow myself time to work with the actors and experiment.

BFD: Much was made of a memo you sent to Paramount fearing that “Transformers” wasn’t registering as an event film because of the marketing. How do you feel now?

Bay: Thankful, because they did a great job. At the time, they were so focused on “Star Trek” and I was like, “Hey, we’re the four-quadrant movie just sitting out here. I need a little attention here.” It’s good to put people on notice. They have a talented group at Paramount, they did a fantastic job. They took the email very seriously, and we had a big meeting, not only domestic but foreign. A lot of people were brought in and it all really came together in a huge way.

BFD: You gambled on both “Transformers” films and “Pearl Harbor.” If you found another franchise, could you see yourself going a step further and bypassing the studio as financier?

Bay: I will always do these films with a studio, because it’s good for you when the studio has skin in the game when they’re releasing a big picture for you. But maybe it’s going to be half of the skin in the game next time, and the rest will be independent financing. I’m absolutely thinking along those lines right now, because studios don’t have as much money and they’re spreading it around to take as many swings at the plate as they can. Absolutely, I want to get into that.

Download (Photo by Jaimie Trueblood)

BFD: Considering your development on this movie was interrupted by the writer’s strike and you risked being shut down any moment by shooting after the expiration of the SAG contract, what was the hardest thing about making “Transformers: The Fallen?”

Bay: That could have been the hardest thing. With an impending strike, we had 12 pages of a treatment. I worked very closely with the writers, great collaborators, who suddenly went on strike. I said, “We’re going to start prepping this movie at full force, scout places I think are going to be in this movie and try and put this together as best we could.” There might be an actor’s strike, but I told the studio we’re going to shoot this on June 2, come hell or high water. We took a gamble that the writers would come back from the strike in time and we just made it. At one point, we were the only movie shooting in the country. But I had to gamble. I have a loyal crew and my job gives 2,000 to 2,500 people jobs. It was scary because so many people were out of work and you hear your crew say, “Wow, I might have to move out of my house.” You feel responsible.

BFD: Considering that all guild contracts will expire in 2011 and Paramount and DreamWorks want the third film in 2011 or 2012, how does the likelihood of more labor trouble influence the next film?

Bay: I’ll be honest, I need to take a break. I need to do something different and get away from robots for a bit. I think it will be better for the franchise to give some space. But I don’t think you can play for the strike. That was the problem last time. There was fear and all the studios were playing for a strike that never happened. I felt in my heart that the strike would never happen because I saw where the country was going and felt, how can you strike in a time like this? Look, the next one’s going to get made when it gets made, no matter what. If we have to shut down, we shut down.

BFD: You make the kind of pictures that studios want. How long will this serve your own creative ambitions as a filmmaker?

Bay: That’s the issue. I fear for the business, the way it’s contracting. I like all kinds of movies and dramas seem to be hurting right now, along with small independents. I have projects in those areas and it’s frightening. There should be a place for my type of movies and a place for the ones Steven Soderbergh makes. I’m worried the economy is going to make it only one type and that’s going to be really boring.

BFD: Dramas are being put in turnaround after films like “State of Play” were pricey failures. What’s the answer?

Bay: I always start with a question. How do you get someone to commit to leaving their house and going to the theater, when they’ve got all this stuff on the internet, and social networks. That’s why these event movies are working in this climate. I don’t know the answer, but sometimes I hear about movies they’re making and say, “How is that going to get someone out of the house?” I’ve got some small projects and several big stars are talking about working with me. But I have to focus on one thing and move on. I cannot have nine balls in the air, which Steven does so well.

BFD: What has been the biggest benefit of being in Spielberg’s orbit?

Bay: The benefit of being in both Steven and Jerry Bruckheimer’s orbit is they are such sage advisors. They’ve taught me so much about the business and been supportive as they allowed me to do my thing. It’s fascinating for me to remember being a kid and seeing “Top Gun” and saying, “I’ve got to do this,” and seeing “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and saying, “I’ve got to do this.” Now, those two guys are like my big brothers. You could see on that email how I invoked Jerry.

BFD: Dramas are hurting. What else do you fear about this business?

Bay: Piracy. It’s going to be the death. I look in the eyes of these interviewers. There was one of them, maybe in Norway, and this guy looks me in the eye and says, “Don’t you think piracy is about sharing?” I say, no, it’s about stealing. They really believe they are sharing, and it is like really lightning fire. Somehow, the studios are going to have to get dirty and fight back.

BFD: How?

Bay: If you wanted to get dirty, you can get dirty. You can implant things in their systems. You can get nasty. This stealing is growing on a worldwide level, very quickly. It’s exploding. This is my biggest concern and it’s something we’re not really addressing effectively. In several years, it’s really going to hurt us. Not the theater experience, but the ancillaries.

BFD: Is it creating the DVD shortfalls that have studios changing the way they make deals?

Bay: Some of that is just posturing, trying to fake everyone out and make better deals for the studios. “Transformers” is going to sell plenty of DVDs. But the idea that these pirates can somehow get a print that’s a good copy, that’s where payola starts and where the crime world can get into it.

Source: Variety

Jun

WSJ interviews Michael Bay

This coming weekend could make Hollywood history for Michael Bay, the movie director behind the big-budget epics “Armageddon” and “Pearl Harbor.” His latest release, the $200 million action-adventure movie “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” is poised to possibly become the biggest opening in Hollywood history, with estimates that it could gross more than $200 million by Sunday’s end—rivaling the record-shattering totals for last summer’s “The Dark Knight.” But the 44-year-old director, who has a predilection for massive budgets and pyrotechnic explosions, has already set his sights on a radically new goal: making an art film.

The Wall Street Journal: This film features even more talking robots—based on the Hasbro toy line—than the first “Transformers.” Why add in more robots rather than humans?

Mr. Bay: That’s what fans wanted. The first film was really about us setting up the situation, and this movie is about us discovering what we could do better with that situation, how to make this most out of these special effects and these characters.

Did Hasbro force you to conform the aesthetics of the robots to match the style of its toy line? Did you have to make any compromises on characters for the sake of promoting Hasbro’s stable of pre-existing Transformers characters?

Not at all. I told [Hasbro] that I was going to do my own thing, and they really let me go off on the designs. They gave me carte blanche—it was pretty phenomenal. But I still listened to people who were in that world when they asked things like, ‘Can we make Optimus’s ears a little longer so he appears more in character?’ That’s easy to do. And a lot of the artists and people that we hired were fans of Transformers growing up, so having so many fans working on my crew really kept me on point. There are things that I invented—the creaky geriatric robot that is always grumpy, for example, or the little wheelie guy, he’s not in the Hasbro lore. But kids love that stuff—this little guy as a pet on a chain. They gravitate towards it.

Did you add testicles to the robots, too?

No, those are construction balls.

Uh-huh. So, now that you’ve finished the sequel of “Transformers,” are you ready to direct the third installment of the franchise?

I just want to take some time off. It’s been almost three years that I’ve devoted myself entirely to this world of robots. At some point, enough is enough—and I literally carried this movie on my back. I only finished it in the last week. It was a tough movie for me to finish—especially with the writers strike, the possible SAG strike. At one point, we were the only union movie in America shooting—Hollywood was so messed up from those two events.

So you don’t want to do another sequel?

I don’t know who [would] want to take on my shoes with this franchise. We might just take a year down.

What’s next for you, then?

I’ve been talking to some big actors right now about something that is totally different. A small dark comedy, a true story, with actors just acting, no effects. I’m done with effects movies for now. When you do a movie like “Transformers,” it can feel like you’re doing three movies at once—which is tiring.

It’s interesting that you want to focus on acting. Megan Fox, one of the leads in “Transformers” has criticized your films for being special-effects-driven and not offering so many acting opportunities. Do you agree?

Well, that’s Megan Fox for you. She says some very ridiculous things because she’s 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do. You roll your eyes when you see statements like that and think, “Okay Megan, you can do whatever you want. I got it.” But I 100% disagree with her. Nick Cage wasn’t a big actor when I cast him, nor was Ben Affleck before I put him in “Armageddon.” Shia LaBeouf wasn’t a big movie star before he did “Transformers”—and then he exploded. Not to mention Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, from “Bad Boys.” Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in “Transformers.” I like to think that I’ve had some luck in building actors’ careers with my films.

With all the recent emphasis on 3D and technology in movies, do you think we’ll see some directors emerge out of the special effects houses?

Mr. Bay: People have come before from the special effects houses and have not done well. People can come from anywhere—but its really about telling stories. Either you’re born to do this or you’re not.

Speaking of effects, What about 3-D? Are you a fan? Will we watch the third “Transformers” movie in three dimensions?

I prefer the flat screen. I’m not jumping to do 3-D at all—it’s a pain in the neck to shoot it and I actually like the flat image. I’ve heard that some people can’t even see 3-D and, moreover, that a major side effect of watching it is feeling exhausted. Can you imagine how you’d feel watching one of my movies in 3-D?

You really shot all those scenes [in ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”] at the real pyramids?

One of the things that I pride myself on is that in situations where people say, “You can’t do that,” somehow I am always able to pull it off. I did it with “Pearl Harbor” and I did it with “Armageddon,” with the space shuttle, and luckily [Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities] Dr. Zahi Hawass, who runs the pyramids, was a fan of the first “Transformers”—so he let us film there, even though we’re the first film to do so in 30 years.

Those pyramids get pretty beat up in the film. Did they crumble during the filming?

The destruction is all effects. We were very, very careful. We didn’t break anything.

Source: WSJ