Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an upcoming science fiction/action film due for release on June 24, 2009. It is the sequel to 2007's Transformers, which was the first live actionTransformers film. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, the most important of which is Egypt.
The main hurdle in getting the film produced was overcoming the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as well as possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Bay met his shooting date with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting from May to November 2008 predominantly took place in the United States, including the majority of scenes set in outside countries, a minimum of which was conducted in those actual nations.
Premise
Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers something about the origins of the Transformers and their history on Earth. The evil Decepticons need to capture him for information. The climactic battle takes place at the Giza pyramid complex, where a temple is located within. Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained the film will show the Transformers who visited Egypt before the pyramids were built, and "all our heroes end up here because of the Decepticons' master plan." Furthermore, Egyptian hieroglyphs resembling helicopters and other present day vehicles in real life will be explained in the film as being depictions of those Ancient Cybertronians who visited Earth.
Cast and characters
- Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky, the teenager who killed Megatron. He attends an East Coast college to learn astronomy. On July 27, 2008, LaBeouf was involved in a car crash and had to undergo hand surgery. The character getting burned in the story was an unrelated decision. LaBeouf said production was only delayed by two days after his accident because Bay made up for it by filming second unit scenes, and he recovered from the accident a few weeks earlier than expected, allowing him to return to the set. Bay had suggested the hand injury will be written into the story, but Orci said on-set rewrites were done to protect his hand for the remainder of the shoot. Towards the end of filming though, LaBeouf injured his eye when he hit a prop, which required seven stitches. He resumed filming two hours later.
- Megan Fox plays Mikaela Banes, Sam's girlfriend, who cannot afford to attend college with him. Fox had lost a lot of weight for her role in Jennifer's Body, and had to gain ten pounds within three weeks. She explained "Michael doesn't like skinny girls."
- Josh Duhamel plays Captain William Lennox, a U.S. Army Ranger and ally of the Autobots. Since the first film Lennox has become part of an international taskforce battling Decepticons with the Autobots.
- Tyrese Gibson plays Robert Epps, a U.S. Air Force Combat Controller and ally of the Autobots and member of Lennox's team. He has been promoted to the rank of Master Sergeant.
- John Turturro plays Reggie Simmons, former agent of the terminated Sector 7 unit, which monitored Transformer activity on Earth. Turturro was allowed to climb the real pyramids during filming.
- Matthew Marsden plays Graham, a member of the United Kingdom Special Forces who joins Lennox's team. Marsden grew up reading the comics and loved the first film. Bay was impressed with his audition and decided to increase the character's screentime.
- Ramon Rodriguez plays Leo Spitz, a new character who accompanies Sam and Mikaela all the way to Egypt.
- Steve Tom plays McClaren Robotics CEO. According to his website he has a "principal" role,.
