Set: Egypt, in front of Kheops Pyramid, stands an ancient 30’s palace built for King Faruk’s guests.

At “Action”, Shia runs through the yard, stops at the doorstep and hits the door with his shoulder. Megan Fox, John Turturro and Ramon Rodriguez come next and hurry inside the building.

Shia heads up, shout a few words at an imaginary Bumblebee, and gets in. Three cars, the Camaro, the red TRAX and the green BEAT, start quickly and stop a bit further away to look out. The three vehicles are driven by black-suited (and thereby “invisible”) stuntmen behind the smoked glass.

At the end of the day, the crew moves to the third and smallest pyramid, Mykerinos. John Turturro, back as always angry agent Simmons, has to climb up a few stones. This hasn’t been done for 30 years: Too many accident occurred and Egyptians had forbidden it. Turturro will try to run from an imaginary Decepticon.

Michael Bay says: “I had the idea of these two stupid Transformers, Skids and Mudflap. They’re twins who can’t stop bickering, but they do heroic things at the beginning of the movie.

Bumblebee, on his side, has become more serious. He doesn’t want to leave Sam’s parents’ garage. There is also an old Transformer, who loses screws and bolts at every move. And it’s John Turturro voicing him.”

The movie will start at Gyzeh, Egypt, long before pyramids were built, and will end at the same place nowadays, with a huge fight between Autobots and Decepticons.

It’s said that we’ll learn in the movie how pyramids were built. Does it involve any Transformer?

USA Today

Article 1: LaBoeuf, Fox Really under fire in Transformers 2

Juicy spoilers and plot synopsis…

This time, the story finds Sam and Mikaela under attack by the evil Decepticons because of something Sam has learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history on Earth.

To acquire this knowledge, the invading Decepticons need to capture Sam instead of kill him. Meanwhile, the U.S. military and an international coalition has united with the good-guy Autobots to fight back the villains’ attack.

Some of the most important newcomers are in the robot cast: Decepticons Soundwave, a fearsome communications expert, and Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers. And on the Autobots’ side is Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots [see scratched out decepticon logo on Jetfire].

Article 2: ‘Transformers’ breaks out the big guns for sequel

The U.S. Department of Defense gave its official stamp of approval to the Michael Bay-directed film, not only allowing production amid the pristine dunes of the Army’s New Mexico missile range, but also letting filmmakers follow jets and fighter planes through the sky from nearby Holloman Air Force Base. More scenes were shot on the Navy’s aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and Marines fill the ranks of the strike team battling the invading Transformers.

Among the equipment the movie is using in this desert sequence alone: two A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” tank-killing jets; six F-16 Fighting Falcons; 10 armored Humvees; the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team; two Abrams tanks; two Bradley tanks; two missile-launcher vehicles; two armored personnel carriers; and a quarter-mile of the missile testing range, cleared of unexploded ordnance and built into an Egyptian town and temple. (Signs warn not to cross a perimeter just over the gypsum dunes, because live bombs could be hidden in the sand.)

The final battle the military is helping Bay create is supposed to be an enormous firefight in Egypt, but much of it is being shot in the White Sands dunes in a town built over the roughly quarter-mile cleared span.

Empire

Spoilers from the Empire article provided courtesy of Alienbot:

- Bay and LaBeouf confirm the Fallen is a separate character.
- Egyptian hieroglyphics …turn out to be depictions of Transformers who visited Earth.
- Bay claims Megatron is not coming back and the tank is just a new toy.
- Around 40 robots.
- Budget is $200 million.
- Ramon Rodriguez is the one holding on for dear life to a pole while cars are flung.
- Devastator appears at the pyramid, he’s probably 50 feet tall because that’s the height of the camera crane they used on location.

Note the hand injury in this image – proving it has been worked into the movie.

Possible Fallen images

With Fallen now cited as a separate character in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’, it’s a good time to point out some mysterious shots found on Lining up TV, which claims to have on set images of The Fallen. Behind an old picture? Doesn’t seem to fit inline with the Egyptian plot arc we are seeing, I’ll classify as fake for now.

Pictures from the set

These images show Shia LaBoeuf with ‘battle damage’, Michael Bay filming shooting a catapult launch, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese.

Set Report

Skalor’s Postcard
Greetings from San Diego! Just got back today from deployment at sea on board the U.S. Navy carrier Stennis and thought I’d fill everyone in on what I experienced this past week with the ROTF cast and crew. It’s true, filming did take place this past week, all shooting was completed in a two day span, Saturday the 1st with the IMAX folks filming flight operations, and Sunday the 2nd with Michael Bay in action around the ship. Rumors flew around for weeks about what exactly was going to happen with the movie so it was really cool to see it all go down.

Saturday afternoon two transport planes arrived, the first carrying Shia Labeouf on the first and on the second were Michael Bay, Tyrese Gibson, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel. They arrived in costume (at least Tyrese and Josh did) and began working almost immediately. From what I saw, all of the filming with the cast was done in “closed” sets. The rest of the filming on the flight deck seemed to be flight operations, of which I was there and will hopefully make the final cut. We were told to just act natural and continue our jobs as normal, which is easy to do when you’ve actually got work to do. I did however try really hard to get into one shot in which I just walked back and forth for about 20 minutes.

The whole experience was a lot of fun and everyone in the cast and crew were really cool. Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox were really hard to find on the ship, I think they were working just about their whole time there. I’m not sure which part of the movie was filmed there but it is probably somewhere toward the end, (Shia had “beat-up” make up on, and Duhamel and Tyrese were in dress uniforms). Overall it was an awesome time.

Sorry if I didn’t give you any good spoilers or anything like that, but I think the suspense is more fun anyway. By the way, the crew working on this movie have been busting their asses to make a good film, that much I can attest to.

This should put to rest any of the rumors that they’ve completed filming for now, although this may have been the last of the filming (I didn’t ask). [...]

Set report from WaxWord:

A major milestone quietly passed last weekend: the first major Hollywood film in decades filmed in the heart of the Middle East. “Transformers II” turned its cameras at the Pyramids in Egypt, and again in the upper Egyptian town of Luxor, near the famed Valley of the Kings. This is significant for many reasons but mainly because it represents a rare move by two Hollywood studios, Paramount and DreamWorks, to connect to a country and culture that is perceived to be hostile the United States.

I say ‘perceived’ because my guess is you’d probably find no more avid fans elsewhere in the world than those clustered around Shia LeBeouf, the star of the film, in this part of the world. But after years of anti-American images in the Middle East, and years of entrenched mistrust, this is the kind of interaction – and publicity – that makes a difference. I hear from sources within the studio that DreamWorks was “petrified” when producers got clearance to shoot at the pyramids and in Luxor, and that LeBeouf was hesitant but decided to take the leap. (I agreed to hold this news until production had been safely completed.)

In the end, “Transformers II” shot for several days, bringing together a crew of 150 Americans and several dozen local Egyptians for an effort that producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who called from a cellphone while standing beside the pyramids, told me was “remarkably smooth.”

Dan’s report:

Hi there, I’m not a fan of Transformers but I can confirm after visiting the Pyramids section in Cairo last Friday (17th oct) that there was indeed a film crew filming on the third pyramid in the Giza area (can’t remember the name, but for those of you that know, its the Pyramid with half of one side that looks like it’s been dug out. They were filming some scene late in the afternoon before sunset (when the heat was less intense) and it was quite amazing because my girlfriend and I sat on some rocks 20 metres away from it all and managed not to get sussed out by the security crew (who were all wearing T2 badges…one of the crew was tying up his shoelace behind me and confirmed to me it was T2)about 40 people on site, the locals were trying to get their camels and donkeys in the scenes, which involved one of the cast climbing part of the pyramid…..

Dear Seibertron.com,

Me again – I have some follow-up information concerning the “Bumblebee Sighted” article that you previously posted. I visited the 309th AMARG again today for their last day of filming; and let me tell you, it was busy. Lots of new photos, including a bumper shot of ‘Sideswipe’ and a little snippet of a picture of what I believe to be the blue Chevy Volt (however, during the time I was present this vehicle was never actually taken off the trailer; neither was Sideswipe to my knowledge). No pictures of Shia or Megan; but, as I was informed by plenty of soldiers (concerning Fox, anyways); the two were definitely on set. I apologize for some of the pictures that came out somewhat small and rounded; I actually had to snap those certain shots through a pair of binoculars. Ironically enough, the pictures I took of Bumblebee (yellow 2009 concept Camaro) and the red and green Chevy Trax & Beat (the ‘Twins’, I think?) were actually on my way off the set. Lucky me!

Something else I don’t know if you would be interested in or not – but I’ll add it on here anyways, just in case. The scene that I witnessed them filming consisted of a long, large sheet of metal (maybe a cover up for something of some sort?) being stood up by the side of one of the planes in The Boneyard, and lots of loud gibberish shouting coming from what I believe to be one of the transformers. Keep in mind this scene was watched from about 200 meters away – but why I think its important is because of the loud, booming voice we heard from over 200 meters away. We couldn’t make out what he was saying; but what we could identify was that it was male, and very Decepticon sounding – meaning a very deep, baritone sort of sound to it but with a sharp, manifestly evil edge. In my own opinion (and those of all of the soldiers that accompanied me on the “tour”) this was the voice of Megatron – definitely evil, definitely loud. Then again, it could have been that ‘Jetfire’ character that I’ve heard a little bit about – the plane where the sound originated from wasn’t the exact aircraft he’s been described as, but then again I wasn’t up close and personal with it so it’s a tough one to call. Alas, I wouldn’t be surprised if this mysterious voice did belong to Megatron – had a sort of, feel to it, you know?
Something like, “Damn, that guy is pissed.”
Megatron or not, whoever’s voice that belonged to definitely wanted some sort of Revenge

Well, that’s all the news I have so far. If I hear or (hopefully) see anything else concerning Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen; I’ll be sure to update you guys!

Anonymous

The set report:
- The core cast is at the location, Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson
- Today they shot a fight scene at a desert set similar to one from the first movie.
- Extras on set comprised of various needs including a “Strike Force” and Jordanian soldiers.
- Heard rumor that Julie White and Kevin Dunn (Sam’s parents) where also on the White Sands set.
- Additionally heard that TF2 may film in Ruidoso which is about 30 minutes from Alamogordo. Ruidoso is in the mountains surrounded by a dense forest.

Don’t know if you are concerned, but they are in fact filming here in Alamogordo, NM. They’ve been here for sometime now.

September 12th – They were filming on base from 12:00pm – 10:30pm. They used a large military plane, like a C17. It was parked and they had many of the military extras walking to and from the plane. Sometimes loading onto the back of the plane and then deplaning afterwards.

Josh and Tyrese were there as well. I saw them standing at the end of the stairwell, the landing of the C-17. The military extras were walking and in some takes they were running.

Tyrese was trying to keep the mood light as I witnessed him doing some kind of “chicken dance”. I hear through the grapevine that he was pretty silly that day. I honestly think it’s to prevent himself from going crazy from boredom. As you probably know, there are many, many, many takes just for one shot! And then they want to do the same shot from another angle. So you’re talking, 10 takes each at least! Needless to say, that could take all night, and sometimes it does! There were a few times while everyone waited as they set up the shots, Tyrese would say out loud, “Are we ready yet? What’s the hold up? C’mon lets go!” They were outside doing this scene all night! The walking scene was done at least 20 times. Riding humvees around the plane was shot in the day and later in the night.

The humvees had gunners on top, about 4 of those riding around and around the plane. They were definitely filming a fight scene.

I really don’t want to go into too much detail for fear someone I know that is working with DreamWorks will get into a lot of trouble. I would love to tell you the story line of which I’m sure you’d be surprise, but I truly do not want to spoil it for any true Transformer fan.

They start shooting tomorrow (22nd Sept) at White Sands for the entire week. Unfortunately I won’t be able to watch any filming while they are out there. Only the extras and crew are allowed. I hear they will be shooting here in Alamogordo, whether it be on base or at White Sands, they will be here till early October.

Here is what I’ve observed so far at Holloman. They had men and women and very few children dressed in Muslim costumes. The people looked very authentic I saw them early one morning walking to the trailers. Bumblebee was on base; however he was shielded from prying eyes as they covered him up with a car cover. Not a great job because his rear and sides were poking out of the cover and one could tell it was Bumblebee.

Some of the extras are Air Force guys portraying Army guys and some extra Army guys are portraying Air Force guys. I hear “some” of the Air Force guys were looking “tighter” in dress and haircut. The casting dept. thought they looked more of what someone in Army would look like? I know some Army guys won’t like to hear that, but it’s true.

Some where on base in a hangar, holds Ironhide, Optimus Prime, some of the “pimped” out humvees the primary cast will be driving. (Most likely Tyrese and Josh) The Corvette was there as well, it is silver in color. The people who were there at the time didn’t want any photos taken of the Corvette, they were adamant about that. Apparently GM would have a cow if that photo got out. Now I hear they are going to let [us] take photos of these vehicles tomorrow.

Also, the Can Am Spyder will be in the film too, but they’ve got it all decked out with a more futuristic look to it.

Anonymous in Alamogordo

More action! More excitement! More Transformers! ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ explodes into theaters June 26 ‘09, and only ET’s Mark Steines is blogging exclusively from his private jet ride to director Michael Bay’s top-secret set in New Mexico — where he’ll give you an unprecedented first look behind the scenes of the upcoming summer blockbuster!

Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel are reunited once again with the cast of the original blockbuster, which saw mankind caught in the middle of battling Autobots and Decepticons from another galaxy. Up until now, the ‘Transformers’ sequel set has been off-limits, but only ET got complete access to the closed set on Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Stay tuned to ET for our all-’Transformers’ Tuesday!

OK Well I work in the area and they have the whole area set up to be China, as you guys know. Now I did see Prime, Bumblebee, the silver corvette, 2 blue cars (small) and Ironhide. All were parked on the back lot behind Catalina Landing!

The scene I witnessed was a traffic scene where they were driving down Shoreline Drive and then 2 flatbed Trucks merge into traffic. THEN BOOOM!!! One of the two trucks blew in half.

NOTE: The Autobots were not in the blow up scene. That’s it the stunt guys got out the cars and the Helicopter flew off. But man that truck blue the trailer hitch right off. Then I heard that it may not have gone according to plan. Both trucks were [supposed] to blow up.

Got pictures? Send them in!

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.