An anonymous source has sent in pictures from the latest film shoot at the Long Beach docks in California to Seibertron. Once again, the set and deco match those seen in the Bethlehem shoot - implying that these scenes will all be merged together somehow.

The images show us Optimus Prime in action, the new Audi R8 and what looks like the rumored Chevy Stingray. Military trucks and the ice cream truck are also on-hand and it all ends with a tasty explosion amongst some barrels - cue CG.

In an interview with MTV concerning the Transformers 2 prequel comic, publisher IDW confirmed that they would be providing a wealth of background information on the new main villain, The Fallen.

“[We're going to] explore the background of The Fallen — the main villain of the movie — as well as expand on the ‘Reign of Starscream’ story that we’re doing and tie everything in to what this next movie is going to be,” explained writer Chris Mowry, who partners on the book with artist Alex Milne. “The next movie starts out with just tons of action and there’s obviously going to be a lot of questions, so we’re hoping to answer some of those beforehand.”

[...]

“Destiny” will establish much of the second before fans are introduced to an increasingly complex storyline with multiple new robots. “We’re definitely taking every character that we can from the sequel,” said Mowry. “So you’ll see some Sector 7 involvement and how they developed into a new group that will be introduced. The same thing with some of the new characters, we’ll explain how they get to Earth. Because like I said, [the sequel] starts out with this giant battle so people will be wondering ‘Hey, where did that guy come from?’”

This is reiterated in an interview with Simon Furman at CBR,

“I’ve never really had the chance to lay down the definitive story around [the 13] and what role they played in what came after them. Over the years for various publishers in various publications, I’ve laid seeds of this group called The 13 and hinted about who some of them might be and how they play into the bigger mythos. I think this is where we’re finding answers to all the big questions. We’re working very closely with Hasbro in this series so that whatever we do in ‘The 13′ is very much tied in to the whole Transformers Universe. They want to get all of their irons in the fire ready and in the right order for 2009, which is the 25th anniversary. We’re all working hopefully to get a definitive, cohesive Transformers Universe in terms of the back story.”

The writer added that the threads introduced in “The 13″ will eventually payoff in current series and plots and possibly elsewhere within the Transformers family of media. “It’s interesting that the second movie is using this character called the Fallen, which is a character that we created back in the Dreamwave days for this big series called ‘The Dark Ages’ which tapped into what had gone before. So these names and institutions like The 13 are rolling on into different incarnations.”

For those not in the know, from Wikipedia:

Although the Fallen’s origins are only suggested in his comic book appearance, they would be fully explained in Dorling Kindersley’s Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. One of the original thirteen Transformers created by Primus, the robot who would become the Fallen betrayed his creator by siding with Primus’s dark twin, the malevolent planet-eater, Unicron. In the final battle between Primus and Unicron, the Fallen fell victim to the same fate as his master, sucked through a black hole into another dimension. However, while Unicron emerged into another universe, the Fallen was not so fortunate, finding himself trapped in the “underspace” between dimensions.

The Fallen made his only appearance in the second volume of Transformers: The War Within - the Dark Ages. Around 6.5 million years ago, a test of the experimental “space bridge” matter-transport system on Cybertron liberated the Fallen from his prison, and he materialised on Cybertron, where he quickly recruited the Chaos Trinity, three mystically-inclined Decepticons - Bludgeon, Mindwipe and Bugly - into his employ. Abducting Transformers that he identified as possessing “genetic potential” within their sparks - Grimlock, Blitzwing, Jetfire and Hot Spot - the Fallen planned to use their energies to awaken Primus from his self-imposed slumber, thereby alerting Unicron to his location, allowing the world-eater to renew hostilities with his old enemy. An attack from combined Autobot and Decepticon forces led by Shockwave and Prowl disrupted his plans, and Primus himself reached out and promptly destroyed the Fallen.

Optimus Prime, Ironhide, the NEST vehicles and the Ice Cream truck have been spotted filming in San Pedro CA. The set very much resembles the Bethlehem Steel locale whilst Chinese symbols can also been seen dotted about the place - strongly suggesting that these scenes will link up somehow with the Bethlehem Steel shoot.

Source: TLAMB

Shia LaBoeuf is an idiot. Anyone that drives drunk deserves to be called an idiot and made a public mockery of. Below is the best television report I can find on YouTube that covers the incident - well, the least sensationalist and the most informative. It concludes that Shia expects to return to work within the month. Shia managed to flip his green Ford when he made a left-turn too fast, crushing his left hand in the process and requiring extensive surgery. CelebrityFix reports that the female passenger involved in the accident was none other than Isabel Lucas, uninjured she has returned to the set for filming.

The official Transformers website has updated to include a new Revenge of the Fallen logo.

AICN’s Quint has had a chance to speak with Rainn Wilson, and in the conversation the topic of Transformers 2 appropriately popped up alongside working with Michael Bay:

Quint: So what are you working on now? You have some stuff coming up?
Rainn Wilson: Well, I just did a very small cameo in TRANSFORMERS 2.

Quint: Cool.
Rainn Wilson: That was kind of a blast. I got to work with Michael Bay and I was a big fan of TRANSFORMERS.

Quint: I spent a few days on the set of the first movie and something I noticed was that Michael Bay, I think he has an AD, but he doesn’t need one.
Rainn Wilson: He does everything himself.

Quint: He does everything and he’s not afraid to be the task master on a set.
Rainn Wilson: I saw him and he was literally giving the focus puller notes. The focus puller was like “No, you have to do it like this…” and Michael Bay is like “No no no, do it like this and hook this here and you can turn this here and you can get the focus this way…” Somehow I believed Michael Bay knew more than the focus puller. He even ran camera a couple of times. He did his own camera work.

Quint: That must have been fun. I don’t imagine that you are in any scenes with any robots, but it would still be fun.
Rainn Wilson: No, I wish I would have had scenes with explosions, but yeah the only other thing is I have a bunch of film irons in the fire out there.

Whilst Megan Fox recently spoke to IGN about TF2, I’ve extracted the interesting bits:

Q: How is Transformers 2 going?
Megan Fox: It’s going good. It’s gigantic!

Q: Compared to the first, you’d say it’s way bigger?
Fox: It’s twice the budget, so yeah.

Q: Can you say where this movie picks up for your characters?
Fox: It’s two years later, so when it comes out it will be present day. Shia [LaBeouf, who reprises his role as Sam Witwicky] and I have been dating for two years, so it’s kind of like old news. There’s no big love scenes or anything like that – you kind of get into the couple bickering now. That stage, like the old married couple. That’s all I can say!

There’s also another interview with Megan Fox by Scifi.com

The fellow at the Don Murphy forums have provided some new shots of the Transformers fleet in preparation for transport - the Chevy Beat, Chevy Trax, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Ironhide and most importantly capturing our first clear shots of the slick silver car we saw at Fairmount, thought to be a Chevy Corvette ZR1 or C7, though the rear panels on both of those do not fit with this model. The latest rumor puts it as a reintroduction of the popular Chevy Stingray, with the styles and aura of previous incarnations. Whatever it is, it’s very sexy.

Contributing Source: TLAMB

In a post on Don Murphy’s message board, writer Roberto Orci stated that Transformers 2 shooting has been taking place “all week and last week”. It was previously thought that TF2 had ceased filming in anticipation of the SAG strikes.

Michael Bay has confirmed this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, where they spoke to Michael Bay at a remote air force base.

Matthew Marsden plays a lead role in Revenge of the Fallen as SAS Graham, this is his first interview since that announcement. The interview is all rather generic - giving away no secrets or even little teasers, very little probing done by the interviewer.

“I’m part of a multi-national force. What’s going on right now is I’m a British Special Forces officer that’s attached to Lennox’s team. Well, there’s two of us initially. And we’re battling the bad guys.”

[...]

I just try to be real. My character is not an amusing character. He’s a soldier, so all the stuff that I did is very much rooted in reality and what I know from the experiences of my friends [who are in the military]. So, it’s just very real and nothing über-spectacular.

We went to Pennsylvania and shot at the Bethlehem Steel Plant, which was really amazing. We had this scene where it’s, like, ‘That’s where he is!’ and you have to shoot at him. ‘He’s going that way!’ It’s quite a far distance away, so we had to use a laser pointer [to stand in for the robot]. It’s all fun; I love that stuff.

There are bad guys there and we have to go and get them. That’s basically it.”

[On Shia and Megan Fox]

“They’re working with the Autobots, [so] they’re definitely going to know some of the strengths and weaknesses of different robots. So, if they’re working together with an alien life-form, which they didn’t initially, then obviously they’re going to know more. In the first one, they were actually finding out what they were because they didn’t know. … Now they’re aware of what they are, and we’re part of the task force specifically to go and deal with them. … I just know that I’ve got a big chunk to come, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of action in it.”

After the recent filming at the Eastern State Pen, the site’s official blog has updated with some details and images of the shoot.

We were thrilled to welcome the cast and crew of Transformers 2 to Eastern State Penitentiary!

The sequel to last summer’s blockbuster recently filmed scenes in Eastern State’s Cellblock 7 as well as outside in the Industrial Building Courtyard. You can see in the top photo the massive helium-filled balloon light that was used to simulate moonlight. The next photo shows the cast and crew on the set created at Eastern State. The final photo shows the car cast as “Bumblebee” exiting Eastern State during filming.

While on site, Shia LaBoeuf, Megan Fox and Michael Bay enjoyed a tour of Eastern State including some areas used during Terror Behind the Walls, including Cellblock 12, the home of Lock Down.