some trivia
The slogan for the movie "Their War. Our World", was the original slogan for the movie AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004), but at the last minute it was switched to "Whoever wins...we lose."
It took approximately [B]38 hours to render one frame of the CGI animation to portray the Transformers. This breaks the record set by Weta Workshop for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), where it took 20 hours to animate a frame of CGI to portray the Ent Treebeard.
Producer Don Murphy decided, after listening to feedback from Transformers fans, to use the voices from the "Transformers" (1984) (and its spin-off The Transformers: The Movie (1986)). Veteran voice actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who provided the voices for the iconic Transformer leaders Optimus Prime (Cullen) and Megatron (Welker), were auditioned personally by director Michael Bay, who feared that their aged voices would be noticeable. Cullen was confirmed to reprise his role, but Welker's voice had aged too much and besides didn't suit Megatron's new alien look, and so Hugo Weaving took the role of Megatron. However, Welker reprises his role as Megatron in Transformers: The Game (2007) (VG).
The Hasbro Toy Company released special "Transformers" (1984) toys based on the alien style in the film. These toys featured a new "Automorph Technology," where moving parts of a toy in transformations allowed its other parts to shift automatically.
While the film's scriptwriters experimented with additional characters, their scripts always included the Autobots Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and the Decepticons Megatron and Starscream.
In terms of characterization all the Autobots in this film are based on their Generation One incarnations. However, their alternate modes have undergone modern interpretations and overhauls for a realistic portrayal in the live-action film; in particular, all their modes, except for Optimus Prime's Peterbilt truck, are now owned by General Motors as part of a tie-in deal.
Out of all the Decepticons in this film, only Megatron and Starscream come from Generation One; the rest are a mix of characters from the various Transformers shows that have appeared over the years. Their alternate modes, consisting primarily of military vehicles and aircraft, were loaned by the U.S. Military to Michael Bay.
Michael Bay originally turned down directing the film, considering it "a stupid toy movie." However, as a young man he worked at Lucasfilm Ltd. and had the same opinion about Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which became a classic hit. Realizing he was wrong about that film and perhaps about this one, he signed on to direct the film. He also took the job because he desired to make a family film, though he wanted to make it edgier than usual.
Stan Bush is composing a song for this film. He also composed the songs "Dare" and "The Touch" for The Transformers: The Movie (1986).
The character of Arcee was included in the script, but poor fan reaction caused her to be cut out and replaced with Ironhide.
Bumblebee's classic alternate mode was a Volkswagen Beetle, but this was changed to a Camaro. This was because Michael Bay wanted to avoid comparisons with Herbie the Love Bug.
Megatron's classic alternate mode was a Walther P38 pistol, but Hasbro the owners, and official distributors of the toyline stated that they would not produce a gun of any kind for their characters (it's also illegal to make replica toy guns in several jurisdictions). Also the writers thought it was like "having Darth Vader transform into his own lightsaber and someone else swinging him around," so it was changed to an "interstellar jet."
As part of the promotion campaign for the film, the trailers show as little of the Transformers as possible. A lot of the robots have been left hidden to arouse interest in the film. They will not be seen in their full glory until the film release in July. This level of privacy was maintained to an extreme level; when images of Megatron's battle mode were leaked onto the Internet, an angry Don Murphy altered Megatron's head design, creating a new "crowned" battle mode and making the old battle mode the original mode.
Barricade's side reads; "To punish and enslave" rather than "To protect and serve".
The Optimus Prime portrayed in the film is a Peterbilt 379. In "Duel" (1971), directed by this film's executive producer, Steven Speilberg, the antagonist is a Peterbilt 281. This marks two Speilberg films with Peterbilt trucks as main characters, 36 years apart.
Don Murphy originally intended to do a "G.I. Joe" (1985) film in 2003, but he instead negotiated with the Hasbro Company to make a Transformers film.
The Decepticon Bonecrusher was originally named Devastator. The Decepticon Brawl was originally named Demolishor, while the Brawl name was originally given to the character who would later become Barricade.
The Decepticon Frenzy was originally named Soundbyte. The writers had also called him "Soundwave" in the original script, but decided to change him to his current name until they could "do Soundwave correctly."
The Decepticon Soundwave was originally in the script, but was replaced with Blackout (who had originally been named Vortex, and later Incinerator). He is to appear in the film's sequel.
Michael Bay did not want the VFX aspects of the film to overwhelm the live-action elements, and spent most of the film's $150 million budget on 15 practical action sequences.
According to Lorenzo di Bonaventura, working out the transformations was done with the help of a mathematical equation, which explained where each of the parts of the robot went when it become a vehicle.
Megatron was given a less humanoid face to make him more menacing.
Ironhide's gun is composed of 10,000 pieces.
At one point the Decepticon animal Ravage was included in the script, but he was removed and replaced with Scorponok, another robotic animal.
At one point the planet-sized robot Unicron was in the script, with James Earl Jones earmarked for the role. He is to appear in the film's sequel, with a larger role.
The Decepticons outnumber the Autobots eight to five. This was a deliberate move by the writers to emphasize the Autobots' teamwork, and the threat the Decepticons pose to the world.
According to producer Tom DeSanto, he originally intended Prowl, Wheeljack, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak, Rumble, Skywarp and Shockwave to be among the characters in the film.
The Transformers have been given a new design that reflects their alien origin. According to 'Lorenzo Di Bonaventura' , during the design process, Optimus Prime was designed in CGI in his classic boxy look (as seen in the 1984 series), but he looked fake and silly. So now, heavily stressed in their looks are advanced kinematics, realistic engineering and thousands of body parts (which all move during transformations and produce a better impression of mass). The Transformers were created with a mix of groundbreaking computer-generated imagery (by Industrial Light and Magic) and ten close-up props (by KNB Effects). The props built include Optimus Prime's head, Bumblebee's robot mode, Megatron's legs and Blackout's feet.
Don Murphy brought in screenwriter Tom DeSanto to write the plot, impressed with the way DeSanto had managed the many characters and storylines in X-Men (2000). DeSanto, a big fan of the series since childhood, carried out extensive research on the Transformers; he held several meetings with comic book writer Simon Furman; and he invited fans to discuss the film on Murphy's online message board. His treatment explored the Transformers' existence and history, as well as the real possibilities and consequences of "their war on our world," similar to a disaster film, which was what Murphy wanted the film to resemble.
Due to the partly animated nature of the film, Michael Bay wrote dialogue for the characters during the film's post-production.
As an in-joke for fans and a tribute to the original cartoon, a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, which Bumblebee originally was, can be seen at the car dealership where Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) buys the Chevrolet Camaro, that is later found out to be Bumblebee. Bernie Mac's character Bobby Bolivia, even attempts to sell Sam and his father, Ron (Kevin Dunn) the Beetle when they refuse to pay his asking price for the Camaro.
In another nod to the original series and the fans, the color of most of the Transformers' "optics" correspond to their allegiance: red for Autobots, blue for Decepticons, as it was in the original series.
During filming, Mark Ryan acted as a stand-in for the Transformers on set, to give the actors a physical presence to react to/act against. He also ad-libbed characters during the film's post-production.
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0418279/Ss/.../TBUMBLEBEE.jpg