It's big, it's loud and now the bonafide monster film of the year is rolling out on store shelves. Michael Bay's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" made gobs of money at the box office and now it almost singled-handedly owns the release calendar this week. But a few other titles do manage to break through the shape-shifting pack, and we'll cover them all in this DVD Report for Tuesday, October 20, 2009.
There's not much purpose in rehashing the plot to "Revenge of the Fallen," the follow-up to the bombastic intergalactic war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Anyone interested in the DVD and Blu-ray has already seen the film, so the only thing really worth discussing are whether the presentation and special features make it a must-own. Well, if you count yourself a fan of the robot-friendly franchise, then it's a definite yes. Like the first film's home video release, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is one of the best looking and best sounding discs around, especially on Blu-ray. Bay's films have frequently been reference-quality material for home theater systems and this one is no different. Action pops off the screen in amazing clarity and the 5.1 DTD-HD audio track could probably knock halls in your walls. Read more...
Whatever you may have thought of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" after the fact, it did really well this summer. "Really well" in this case means more than $800 million in worldwide box office grosses. It's one of those summer blockbusters where you pretty much know for a fact after opening weekend receipts have been counted that a sequel will be coming at some point.
Today, thanks to Michael Bay's web-based mouthpiece shoot for the edit, we have confirmation. The director confirmed: "We have a great 'Transformers 3' story. The release date is now July 1, 2011. Not 2012." Oh, but there's more. Bay also confirmed that Ms. Megan Fox will return as well. Read more...
Are you familiar with Bay-hem? It's a condition afflicting many people -- myself included -- which drives them to seek out the films of Michael Bay, even the ones with "Pearl Harbor" in the title. It's a sorry, if action-packed, existence, and MTV's Josh Horowitz tries to break "Transformers" star Megan Fox of her own addiction in the clip below. Not going to happen, she says. Can't say I blame her.
The clip comes from Josh's interview with the "Jennifer's Body" star, which will be featured this Friday in the latest episode of "Behind the Screen," which airs at 7pm on MTV. You'll also be able to check out exclusive clips and interviews relating to "Clash of the Titans," "Ninja Assassin" and "2012," so be sure to tune in!
I've got a hypothetical, one of those "tree falling in the woods"-type scenarios, to run by you. Can there really be a "Bad Boys 3" if Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Bay, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence aren't involved? I say no.
That might just be a possibility however, as Peter Craig is busy putting together a script for Columbia Pictures while the franchise's key players wait to see the results, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This isn't unusual of course, though newer series' get around this problem by locking the most important names into contracts spanning multiple movies. "Bad Boys," which first snapped to action back in 1995, was conceived before it became common practice in Hollywood to write out franchise plans before the first movie hits theaters. Read more...
James Frey, the golden boy author of Oprah's book club who later became a star on The Smoking Gun for his pseudo-memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," will get his new young adult sci-fi novel, "I Am Number Four," adapted for film at the hands of "Smallville" creators Al Gough and Miles Millar. That's the same movie that Michael Bay scooped up to produce and possibly direct as he wrapped work on "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
Gough and Millar will script the movie, based on Frey's as-yet unpublished book from HarperCollins, according to Variety. Bay is still committed to produce, but director duties remain unassigned. Read more...
It smashed its way through the summer box office, and now Michael Bay's ode to planet-wrecking robots is rolling its way to store shelves. Paramount has announced that "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" will arrive on DVD and Blu-ray October 20, 2009.
The release will feature more than three hours of extras, highlighted by a multi-part documentary that chronicles the making of the film from start to finish, and includes cast and crew interviews. The studio says the doc will cover everything from the project's initial development to working with the military and filming in locations across the globe. Read more...
It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that this would happen, and long before Michael Bay's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" closed out the weekend with a gross domestic box office take of slightly more than $299 million. Now it's officially official: "Fallen" has breached the $300 million mark, making it the first movie to do so in 2009.
In spite of it continuing to fare poorly with critics -- RottenTomatoes has "Fallen" at a 19% Tomatometer reading -- the ticket-buying crowds have come out in huge numbers in the two weeks since this summer's obligatory dose of Bay-hem hit theaters. The Hollywood Reporter also brings word that the movie has performed similarly overseas, bringing the rough worldwide box office right now to more than $600 million. Read more...
Hollywood has a peculiar way of getting ahead of itself. It's all about that hype train; you want to load in as many passengers as possible while it's at top speed and then sort out the destinations later. Take last week's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and its seemingly inevitable sequel. Director Michael Bay's robot warzone weathered buzz-killing so-so reviews and finished out with a record-breaking $200+ million opening weekend.
So it's no surprise to hear that Bay hopes to expand on breakout "Revenge of the Fallen" star (and last week's Hump Day Hottie) Ramon Rodriguez's role in the next "Transformers" movie. The newcomer certainly turned in a solid performance -- as solid as a one-dimensional blockbuster sidekick can be -- and he continues to align himself with powerful Hollywood players. Read more...
You would think that Michael Bay, director of this week's hot summer blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," would be taking advantage of some well-earned downtime as audiences flock to see giant fighting robots and s--t blowing up. Maybe he is. But that's not all he's doing.
Variety reports that Bay is in place to produce and possibly direct a book-to-movie adaptation of "I Am Number Four," the first in a six-book sci-fi series. The deal is with Dreamworks; studio stakeholder Steven Spielberg is expected to be active "in a behind-the-scenes capacity, similar to the godfather role he has played in the 'Transformers' franchise." Read more...
So! Michael Bay's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" swooped into theaters last night. The stats from Fandango tell some pretty crazy stories. For example, the current rate of ticket sales for the movie is averaging out to eight every second. This led to more than 2,000 sold out midnight screenings last night, which means that a staggering 94% of the ticket outlet's sales are for the giant robot blockbuster.
Who cares about numbers though? Wouldn't you rather hear a report straight from the war zone? Sandra Segura, one of our intrepid interns, braved the crowds last night to join in on the "Transformers" party. Check out her thoughts along with some pictures of the crazy after the jump. Read more...
