The cabbie who drove me to the hotel kept making fun of Ashton Kutcher. My room at Planet Hollywood is themed around Dolph Lundgren’s 1987 clunker “Masters of the Universe.” This afternoon, I browsed concession booths pitching Dipping Dots, White Castle Jalapeno Cheeseburgers, and more variations on nachos and popcorn than I thought humanly possible.

I might be in Nevada, but it sure feels like I’m still in LA.

Welcome to ShoWest, the annual convention in Las Vegas where theater owners, studios and journalists come to meet up and talk about all the big films of the next few months. I’ve already taken some pictures of all the various posters, from the best (“Terminator Salvation” has a really badass standee) to the worst (Nia Vardalos in a quasi-sequel to “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” a half-decade too late?) to the uneventful (the “New Moon” poster is so plain that I found it over in a corner of the hallway, leaning against the wall virtually unnoticed). Read more...

By Mel Caylo

Looks like the 2011 release date for “Transformers 3” is more than meets the eye! Director Michael Bay posted on his own forums early this morning (up late doing some editing on “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” perhaps?) that he agreed to an Independence Day opening in 2012, NOT 2011!

Bay indicated he “needs a break from fighting robots,” and to meet a 2011 release date for the second sequel in this toy movie franchise, he’d have to start prep work this September. “No way,” he wrote. “I said I was taking a year off from Transformers.” He also added, “Paramount made a mistake.”

Paramount execs are most likely scrambling after waking up to this news and perhaps a very terse voice mail from Bay, but we’re sure this will be resolved very soon. However, what if Paramount is dead-set on a 2011 release date? Read more...

Without a director, any actors, a screenplay or even a title, do you actually have a movie? Paramount certainly thinks so, as it’s already announced the release date for “Transformers 3,” even though deals with the franchise’s director (Michael Bay), stars (Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox), nor any writer have been made.

But waiting for such trifling details is asking a little too much of Hollywood execs when it comes to staking out a coveted spot on the summer movie calendar. That’s why the studio has announced that “Transformers 3” will be coming to a theater near you on July 1, 2011. Read more...

FROM SPLASH PAGE: What do "Batman," "Superman," "Akira," "Hellboy," "The Hulk," "Iron Man," "The Punisher," "Spider-Man," "The Spirit," "Dragonball," "Wanted," "X-Men" and "Watchmen" all have in common? Easy!

It's no secret that the comic-to-movie translation can be hit or miss. On one hand, you have someone like the Punisher — one of the most intense, complex and dark characters ever created in the comic book universe — so you would have thought his story and swagger alone would be enough to make a great action movie with maybe even a good sequel. Apparently not! The movie studios messed up that franchise not once ... not twice ... but three times (once with Dolph Lundgren, then Thomas Jane and most recently with some guy called Ray Stevenson).

(Read more about the roller-coaster world of Sam Jackson's upcoming comic book roles on our Splash Page blog.)

Additional reporting by Elena Torres

You might remember “Prison Break” star Amaury Nolasco from “Transformers” as one of the military men who run into a bloody desert skirmish with the Skorponok, alongside Josh Duhamel and Tyrese. But did he die? And, could he come back for future “Transformers” films?

According to the star of next week’s “Max Payne,” the answer is no. And yes. Read more...

by Gil Kaufman

More than two months after the accident in Hollywood that landed him in the hospital with a crushed hand, Shia LaBeouf has finally broken his silence on the incident. In his first interview since the crash, the "Transformers" star told "Entertainment Tonight" on Monday that it was "eye-opening and terrifying." He also talked about how he's adjusted to his rapid rise to fame in recent years, saying he's "trying to figure out how to be edible to a lot of people." Hmm. Ketchup?

Read more of what Shia LaBeouf said about his accident here.

Don't worry, say "Transformers" scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman -- everything you loved about the movie and more will be in the sequel, which they claim has an even better story.

"You want to make a different movie, not just a repeat," Orci said. "It's a different kind of film that the last one. It's not a disaster [movie] paradigm."

What he means is that "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" won't have multiple storylines told from different points of view all converging in one place for the climax. Instead, expect a different kind of narrative with a different emotional centerpiece. Read more...

"Transformers" was Rachel Taylor's first U.S. film, but she won't be in the sequel -- because she wants to be more than meets the eye.

As Maggie Madsen, the Aussie actress played a computer analyst who was just as much eye candy as she was tech-smart. And while that was a "great experience," Taylor said, it's "not quite what I want to do" and it would defeat the purpose of becoming a better actor "if I was just going to become a 'Transformers' girl." (Is that like being a Bond girl, with less prestige?) Read more...

Expect to see more Transformers doing battle in 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' next summer, say writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (they also penned the script for original mega-hit last summer). Just don't go in expecting a T-Rex. Yes, fans of all the various incarnations of Transformers have wondered what new robots in disguise they might see in the next go round currently filming. Well Orci and Kurtzman confirmed to MTV one you won't be seeing: Dinobots. "We couldn’t quite figure out how to justify a robot that would pretend to be a dinosaur," Orci said.

Alright no dinosaurs. I guess that would be hard to make work even in a movie about talking robots disguised as cars. But surely Megatron will be back? Orci and Kurtzman playfully danced around the question. "Didn’t he get thrown into the bottom of the ocean?" Kurtzman laughed, with his partner adding, "That would be silly" in regards to a return for the arch-nemesis of the Autobots. Read more...

MTV was the first to bring you news about Rainn Wilson's casting in "Transformers: Rise of the Fallen" so of course we chatted up "The Rocker" star when he swung by the offices the other day about the part that he has since filmed.

Wilson admitted that he hadn't read the entire script and called his role a "small cameo." "I played a college professor," he continued, calling the scene "strangely comedic." Asked what the notorious Michael Bay is like to work with and Wilson playfully called him "a sweetheart." "If you see him just go up to him and give him a big hug. He's a BIG hugger."

All that plus Rainn revealed the true title of the film! Well, sort of. Watch below.