THE FIRST DAY OF SHOOT! There have been rumors that filming began in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, but today is officially the start of principal photography for Transformers 2! Production is currently taking place at the steel mill in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania...which is substituting for a Chinese city in the sequel. In terms of locations that will be used for TF2, Pennsylvania, numerous sites in Arizona (such as Sedona and the U.S. Air Force's 'Boneyard'), Washington D.C. and even the country of Jordan are reported to be places where Michael Bay will film for next year's summer blockbuster.



In terms of actors and actresses who are returning or will be playing new characters in TF2, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Jon Voight and Megan Fox (Thank God! She won a Spike TV Scream Award for 'Sci-Fi Siren', by the way... Yesterday, Transformers won the 2008 MTV Movie Award for Best Movie) will be reprising their roles along with Shia LaBeouf in the film. Rainn Wilson (from Juno and TV’s The Office) will be making a cameo as a college professor in the movie. Matthew Marsden (from Rambo and Black Hawk Down) will play a British Special Forces soldier who teams up with Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel's characters. Isabel Lucas—who apparently is replacing Rachael Taylor as the hot blonde Australian chick in TF2—plays a female character named ‘Alice’.



There are also rumors that Jazz is returning for Transformers 2! Cool. There are reports that 20 robots (10 each for the Autobots and Decepticons) will be featured in the sequel. And lastly, here’s hoping the Screen Actors Guild doesn’t screw things up come June 30. If a union walkout occurs by that time, then I guess Optimus Prime and robotic Co. will be the only ones working this summer, haha. Sorry Megan. I still love ya.



UPDATE (June 3): For more info, go to this Transformers Movie Blog. Someone who was lucky enough to drop by the Bethlehem film set last night sent this video over to Superherohype.com. Pretty cool.

MORE ON INDIANA JONES IV... Two of my co-workers and I were able to sneak into a midnight screening of the film today (despite the fact we wrapped up our work shift during a research screening two hours earlier), and the auditorium was packed! Obviously. There was one dude sitting nearby watching a *cough-bootlegged-cough* copy of Iron Man on his laptop, another moviegoer who was fully decked out in Indiana Jones attire (yep, plus the whip... Is it just me but being dressed as Indy is waaaay cooler than wearing a lame Harry Potter or Hobbit costume? But not as cool as wearing a Jango Fett outfit as one Star Wars fan did when I attended a midnight screening of Revenge of the Sith 3 years ago), his hot-ass girlfriend—who interestingly looked like, um, porn star Jenna Haze—who was also wearing a fedora and a light brown shirt (plus a really short, and tight, light brown short pants), another hot Indiana ‘Jane’ who was showing her abs with her light brown shirt rolled up, and lots of people with beach balls in hand. I feel sorry for the two security guys (whom the crowd was harassing and teasing by calling them ‘rent-a-cops’) and the cute female AMC employee who constantly had to go up and down the stairs to confiscate beach balls (plus an unused condom that was inflated into a makeshift ball) in the hour-or-so leading up to the 12:01 AM showing.



So what did I think of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you ask? It was good...but it was one of those films that you had to let sink in afterwards before you start to really appreciate it (a.k.a. "refrigerator logic". Look it up on Google). The climax, not to spoil it for y’all, was obviously very sci-fi-esque—which, in a positive way, made this movie stand out from the first three films. In a negative way, though, the climax also seemed kinda out of place. But keep in mind all three ancient artifacts that Indy searched for in the original trilogy (the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail) had great magical powers that helped those who were good and killed (or should I say, incinerate in a ball of flames? Not to spoil anything for y’all) those who wanted to use those artifacts for evil purposes. The Crystal Skull was no different. I’d say more about Indy IV, but today is barely opening day and I don’t want to be a jerk. However, I will tell you this: The rumors you’ve heard about Shia LaBeouf’s character since LaBeouf was first cast for the role a few years back are true. That is all.

FROM MOST FAVORITE TO LEAST:
-Raiders of the Lost Ark
-The Last Crusade
-Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
-The Temple of Doom


Paramount Pictures / Lucasfilm Ltd.

Next film to watch: The Dark Knight (July 18).

THIS THURSDAY, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comes out in theaters. Not that you needed a reminder or anything.


Paramount Pictures / Lucasfilm Ltd. / Drew Struzan

WHY THE DARK KNIGHT WILL KICK ASS... Or at least the next Batman Begins sequel... Assuming Chris Nolan helms a third flick.



Think the pic above is fake? Look closely at the outline of Harvey Dent’s face in this screenshot from the theatrical trailer:

MEGAN, MEGAN, MEGAN... Yesterday, Shocktillyoudrop.com and other websites released candid photos of Megan Fox showing some skin for her upcoming film, Jennifer’s Body. In this flick, Ms. Fox plays a cheerleader who becomes possessed and kills her male classmates. She uses her sexual prowess to seduce guys before she makes them sleep with the fish (just thought I’d place a Godfather reference in here). Does this sound familiar? Think back to Species and its two sequels, where Natasha Henstridge—and then Sunny Mabrey—go nudesy many times before killing their male prey. The only difference, other than being aliens-in-disguise in the Species films, is that Henstridge and Mabrey completely bare it all for their roles. Fox, on the other hand, is wearing pasties to cover up her goodies in these new pics. Don’t worry, though. One of these days The Foxy One will deliberately pose in the buff...and at the beach nonetheless, like Vanessa Minnillo (and Natalie Portman, Alyssa Milano, Courtney Cox, Kate Moss, Anna Kournikova, Cameron Diaz, Sienna Miller, etc...).



By the way, I’m well aware of the contrast between all the space-related stuff at the top of this page, and me trying to sound like Perez Hilton (minus the goofy hair and effeminate personality) here. That’s all. You think Shia LaBeouf is hoping Michael Bay has a similar scene for his co-star in Transformers 2?

THE DARK KNIGHT Theatrical Trailer... The new preview made its debut in front of Iron Man at theaters last weekend, and it shows more awesome shots of the Joker wreaking havoc on Gotham City, as well as Harvey Dent before he becomes Two-Face. Speaking of Harvey Dent, he had this one memorable line in the trailer: "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Ominous.





Warner Bros. Studios

IRON MAN... I saw the film on Friday, and it totally kicked ass! Robert Downey Jr. did a great job as billionaire/womanizer/metal-clad vigilante Tony Stark. A few of my favorite scenes were when Stark was developing the Mark II (plain-silver) and Mark III (final version with the red-and-gold paint) suits at his Malibu mansion, him flying back to Afghanistan to exact revenge on those militants, and that dogfight with those two F-22 Raptors. The climactic fight scene between Iron Man and Iron Monger was cool, but how Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges)—who controlled Monger—finally bites the dust could’ve been more intense. Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard had good performances, but Samuel L. Jackson should’ve spouted a few F-bombs here and there in his brief cameo as Nick Fury after the end credits. Just kidding. Sorry... Didn’t mean to spoil that cameo for those of you who didn’t watch the movie yet. What are you waiting for?? Get to the theater right away! Can’t wait for the sequel (to be released on April 30, 2010)...

One last thing— Does Tony Stark reveal to everyone that he's Iron Man in the comic books, like he did in the movie? Just wondering.

TONIGHT, a couple of friends and I are attending a 10PM screening of Iron Man... Hell yea! Though I was pretty tempted to catch an advance showing of the film yesterday, haha. Fortunately, there was a new episode of Supernatural on TV last night, so that deterred me from going.



Yea, I was bored.

THE NEW DARK KNIGHT POSTER... Did Batman start that fire so he could display his symbol on that building? What was he thinking?? Haha. The next theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight should be out soon...



UPDATE (April 28): This international poster was also released recently. Apparently, the Caped Crusader is escaping on his Batpod after he set that building on fire. Pretty cool, though.

WHAT I’VE DONE... This video was posted last August, but Transformers rocks, and so does the Linkin Park song made for the movie...so I’ll post the video here anyway.