Despite the bumped-up release date we're sticking with the original plan of going on the 4th because we have jobs and everything. Also, we already have tickets for the 4th. Lining up schedules for the outing went fairly easy, which never happens. Probably it being a holiday helped.
This dispatch in the inbox from a fellow backgrounder was a hoot: How are you going to hold your composure in the theater?? You know they'll kick your ass out for being noisy at the Arclight! hahaha
In the pic I'm walking around Optimus singing Holy, Holy, Holy/ Optimus all mighty/bringing the Autobots to to blow shit up! There were more verses but I can't remember them 'cause I made it up on the spot. A couple of crew guys you can't see are laughing their asses off. There was also a production assistant assigned to guard Optimus. When she first started working on the shoot she thought it was the coolest thing to be guarding Optimus. But as time went on she admitted to finding the thought of guarding a semi-truck for hours on end boring. Clearly she is not a fan. But since I am, she let me polish a little bit of Optimus' fender with the soft cloth and spritzer bottle sitting there on his step, which I don't think you can see clearly in this picture. I'm telling you, they kept that truck CLEAN. I've never seen a truck that shiny in my life.
Anywho, linkage!
Talk smack about Megatron, fanboy? MEGATRON WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND SET YOU STRAIGHT. Oh, all right. This exchange with Frank Welker is more sedate than I'm making it out to be, but it's still interesting.
The internet(s) say this is the theme song for the movie. You know, I'm liking it. It's got a retro light industrial feel that pushes the nostalgia buttons.
Clip from the film that aired on the Tonight Show.
Funnier clip with guys, guns and Scorponok from who knows where this guy got it. Scroll down, and there's another clip with Barricade.
Pretty Rainbow Optimus has flames because Bay wanted him to have flames. Because flames are COOL. So THERE.
All the voices (including two blackitudes). But I think there's an error in this story. Cullen wasn't the voice of Kong for the remake, Andy Serkis was. Unless they're talking about the remake from the 70s? I don't know who did the giant monkey in that one. Also, I thought Keith David, another blackitude, was voicing Barricade, not Harnell but maybe things changed. (I highlight the black people, but from what I saw TF has a nice mix of ethnicities throughout in main characters, middle characters and background. There were a bunch of non-whites behind the camera, too, a couple of them in what seemed to be positions of authority, which was unusual to see and pleased me greatly. There was a black guy in the art department who kept going on and on about Black Panther while I was stuffing my face between takes.) Still, I had no idea the voice of Optimus is also the voice of Eyeore! This makes me giggle.
Report and picts from the press junket in Korea.
A page of pictures, including one of Optimus standing in front of the Griffith Observatory! (To hedge, my consultants and I are 98% sure that's the Griffith. It looks like it. I bet Optimus didn't have to deal with the god awful shuttle system, though.)
Fabulously geeky detailed review of the Arcee doll. (Arcee is one of the female Transformers.) This is interesting because I didn't know there was an Arcee doll, what with her not being in the movie. Maybe they're getting a jump on dolls for the next movies?
Somewhere I read a story from the visual effects guy talking about how Optimus alone has 10,000+ moving parts. But I forget where, so no linky.
And here's another poster I found on the internet(s). Not sure if it's a legit one, though...the people and Optimus look a little photo-shoppy to me. It's possible it's a fan-created poster. Still, it's kinda nifty.