Preview releases by Paramount in NYC

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his evening in New York City Paramount, Michael bay, Dreamworks and Hasbro provided the press an extended preview of the Transformers Movie. They showed 4 clips from the movie, described below, as well as discussed the genesis of the idea for the film and how Michael Bay came to be the Director of the film. ENewsI Was on hand with an exclusive report.

The Transformers Movie Overview

Dreamworks wants "Transformers" to be their franchise line. They cited other movie franchies such as "The Matrix " and "Jurassic Park" as examples from other companies.

Spielberg really did play with the Transformers toys and is a big fan. He approached Michel Bay about doing the movie. Bay was reported to have decided within 5 seconds that he didn't want to do "a movie based on a toys."

Then 30 seconds later Bay recalled his time working at LucasArts on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when everyone thought it would would not do well - Except for Steven Spielberg. Thinking to himself that obviously Steven knew what he was doing. He to decided to learn more about their idea. Spielberg and Dreamworks put Bay through a what they call a "Transformers School" of sorts. After showing him clips from the Transformers, Bay decided he really wanted to get on board with the project.

Hasbro talked about the Transformers Brand. It was stated that that the Transformers is a $3 Million brand that is the number three ranked toy-line in the action figure demographic after Star Wars and G.I. Joe.

Michael Bay described two challenges in making the film. First he cited the need to make the robots "look real." In addition, he also described having to get the actors to work with a 35 foot tall robot. "it was really challenging because the robots were not really there."

It was stated tonight that this movie will be Dreamworks single biggest event they have done globally. Michael Bay also stated that it takes them something like 38 hours to render 1 frame of the film with the robots in it.

Finally, there were four separate clips from the film that were shown. Descriptions of each clip follows:


Blackout at the military base

Extended clip showing Deception helicopter Blackout at the military base. The clip shows the Decepticon attacking the military so that he can break into military computers to get more information on the humans. The classic transforming sound is used in the film when Blackout transforms. This scene is very action oriented with the U.S. being taken by surprise and the desert outpost destroyed.

Sam Witwicky gets his first car

After Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) gets his first car which turns out to be a 70s yellow Camaro. He goes looking for trouble with his friend. After confronting a football jock, he soon has an opportunity to make contact with the hot Mikaela (Megan Fox). Still not aware his new car is an alien robot, Sam is mysteriously aided by his car when it plays sappy music on the radio and then breaks down at what might be described as a make-out spot. The bumblebee air freshener on the mirror and the glitter ball are a nice touch.

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Sam and Mikaela

Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), Bumblebee and Ironhide along with Sam and Mikaela are on a journey to Sam's house to try and find some object Sam has. This scene is pretty funny as Sam tries to hide the from his dad that he's hanging out with 3 huge robots. Prime nearly steps on a dog who later shows is displeasure by urinating on Irongide who mutters something about lubricants on his foot. Prime speaks in this clip. Cullen's voice sounds good. The Robots are very well animated and look very life-like. Later some government organization who are on the trail of giant robots come to the Witwicky home.

Extended Desert Scene

An Extended Desert Scene was shown of the troops encounter with Scorponok. Having to borrow a cell phone from a bystander so they can call the pentagon while fighting Scoponok, Captain Lennox encounters a not so helpful phone operator who requires a credit card number for a collect call before he will put the call through. Eventually, Lennox makes contact with the Pentagon who send air re-enforcements to help send Scoponok back under ground. This gives the folks at the Pentgon their first look at the robots.

The scenes shown definitely had the feel of a Michael Bay movie with a nice mixture of action, explosions and humor. The special effects were also quite good. If the overall story plot is as good as the action and special effects we saw, then this may be one blockbuster movie that old and new Transformers fans alike will enjoy.