Michael Bay Dot ComOptimus shirt will get you arrested
Nelson here.
A passenger in the UK was not allowed to board a flight because he had on a FCUK Transformers shirt that offended the authorities. Below is the offending shirt. Read the whole here… [ Read more ].
Crews arrive in Bethlehem, Pa
From the Morning Call… [ Read more ]:
The beginning of a blockbuster?
By Michael Duck Of The Morning Call / May 29, 2008
Explosions, blazing lights and even military helicopters will all be part of making a Hollywood movie about giant, shape-shifting robots — but, as the Bethlehem neighbors of the ”Transformers 2” movie set will find out next week, it might not involve much sleep.
The movie’s crew will be turning the former Bethlehem Steel site into a nighttime war zone from 4 p.m.
The Ouija
From THR… [ Read more ]:
David Berenbaum and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes have been brought on deck to bring Hasbro’s supernatural game “Ouija Board” to the big screen. The project is set up at Universal, where Hasbro has a six-year strategic partnership.
Platinum Dunes’ Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller will produce “Ouija” along with Hasbro.
Although the specific log line for the film is being kept under wraps, the film will be a supernatural adventure with the Ouija board playing an integral part of the story.
Sydney Pollack: 1934 - 2008
LOS ANGELES — Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director, producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like “The Way We Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa” were among the most successful of the 1970s and ’80s, died Monday at home here. He was 73.
The cause was cancer, said the publicist Leslee Dart, who spoke for his family.
Mr. Pollack’s career defined an era in which big stars (Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty) and the filmmakers who knew how to wrangle them (Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols) retooled the Hollywood system.… [ Read more ]
Transformers 2 to pump $5 million into regional economy
From the Morning Call… [ Read more ]:
Bay’s last ”Transformers” movie featured ”one heart-stopping scene after another,” Callahan said. ”To have Bethlehem as a backdrop for all that is going to be spectacular.”
He also joked that he’s lobbying to get into the film, even if that means playing a corpse in a crowd scene.
Many members of the Lehigh Valley’s filmmaking community are eager to see a Dreamworks movie set spring up in their backyard.
”It doesn’t get any bigger than that,” said Kathy McAuley of the Lehigh Valley Film Office.
The Billion Dollar Club
There are only 13 directors in film history who’s films have grossed more than $1 billion at the box office (domestically). Michael Bay did it in seven. So did James Cameron. The list follows:
1 Steven Spielberg $3,447.9 2 Robert Zemeckis $1,802.9 3 George Lucas $1,700.5 4 Ron Howard $1,606.3 5 Chris Columbus $1,567.9 6 Gore Verbinski $1,308.5 7 Tim Burton $1,289.3 8 Peter Jackson $1,271.7 9 Sam Raimi $1,249.7 10 James Cameron $1,146.9 11 Michael Bay $1,093.7 12 Clint Eastwood $1,002.4 13 Andrew Adamson $1,000.6
Stats courtesy of Boxofficemojo.com… [ Read more ].
SAG negotiations end with no deal
Nelson here…
It appears that the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) negotiations with the AMPTP have resulted in no new contract… [ Read more ].
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood producers on Tuesday temporarily broke off contract talks with the Screen Actors Guild, calling its demands regarding DVD sales and online content “unreasonable.” “With SAG’s continued adherence to unreasonable demands in both new and traditional media, continuing negotiations at this time does not make sense,” the producers said in a statement. The guild responded in a statement by saying the producers’ decision to end talks after 18 days was unfortunate.