Michael Bay is a notoriously rash man on-set. It’s rumoured that, while working on Armageddon, the authenticity of the plot was questioned (somebody said “wouldn’t it be easier to teach astronauts how to drill rather than training drillers to go to space”) he just said “shut up!”. A spat with his Transformers star Megan Fox lead to her leaving the development of sequel Dark of the Moon. He was involved in a recent fight on the set of his new sci-fi action sequel Transformers: Age of Extinction (the fourth the the series) but it appears that this wasn’t his fault. This was the report given by the production team:
“Contrary to several erroneous news reports, Bay did not get hurt in a fight on his set. The production company did have a rather bizarre encounter with a man (allegedly under the influence of a narcotic substance) who was wielding an air conditioning unit as his weapon of choice.
“The young man, who had earlier accosted several other crew members, barrelled onto the set in Quarry Bay and swung the cumbersome appliance directly at Bay’s head. The director ducked and wrested the air conditioner from his attacker, preventing what could have been a serious accident. The company’s security team quickly stepped in and subdued the assault. The police, who also scuffled with the assailant and two of his companions, ultimately arrested the three men. No one on the cast or crew was injured and the production immediately resumed filming without further incident.”
Joining Transformers, Battleship and many others on the list of films inspired by toy lines now is Hot Wheels. This miniature toy car producer really doesn’t seem like it has much of a story to it (Transformers spawned an animated TV series and a film before it’s 2007 rebooting) but Simon Crane is confirmed to be directing the film. Director McG (Terminator Salvation, This is War, We Are Marshal, Charlie’s Angels) and writer John Gatins (Real Steel, Flight) have both at some point been rumoured to be working on the film. Crane isn’t regularly a director but has served as a stunt co-ordinator in films like Titanic, Saving Private Ryan and World War Z so we can expect the action set pieces to be ones to savour. I’m guessing that previous development may have been halted by the Wachowski’s unsuccessful racing action Speed Racer so they’ll need to skip over next year’s Need for Speed and try and go in for 2016 or 17 for a release date.
Finally, we’ve got some more on one of the last Guardians of the Galaxy to be cast. This heroic fictional sci-fi team was created by Marvel and their film adaptation is fast approaching. It’ll be part of the same universe (owned of coarse by Disney) as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, the Agents of SHIELD, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, the Inhumans, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Loki, Ultron and the rest of the Avengers although none of the above will feature in GOTG, although we’re told that Thanos – the purple smiling guy from the post-credit-sequence from 2012’s The Avengers – will make another teasing appearance.
Bradley Cooper (Oscar nominee from Silver Linings Playbook and The Hangover) will be providing the voice for Rocket Raccoon but it’s his co-star, on a cast including Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Benicio Del Toro, Djimon Hounsou, John C Reilly and Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt (who plays the lead character Peter Quill/Star Lord) has told us more about Cooper’s character.
“You think it’s a cartoon character, but it’s not, it’s a very real creature,” the actor tells Access Hollywood. He’s referring to that fact that Cooper’s role will be partly motion capture from the set. “Rocket has been tortured his whole life and no one else likes him, so he’s lonely and he’s angry and there are all these elements to the character. You sort of forget about that, you wouldn’t think about, and hopefully will come to life. I think it will and that’s why they hired a really good actor to do the role. I could not be more excited that Bradley Cooper is voicing Rocket Raccoon. It’s a great character. It’s probably the best character in the movie, just because it’s not what you would expect.”
Transformers: Age of Extinction – July 10th 2014
Hot Wheels – 2016 or 2017?
Guardians of the Galaxy – August 1st
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