Michael Bay’s future blockbuster Transformers is getting ready to film, and we’re starting to hear names of the people portraying characters whose alternate forms aren’t cars and radios and oversized handguns.
Gawky youngster Shia LaBeouf (Holes, Constantine) will play the main fleshling caught up in the war between Autobots and Decepticons, huge intelligent robots who can change shape into various vehicles and household objects with a familiar “hmm-hee-haa-hoo” noise.
Filmforce must be holding on to Optimus Prime’s toolbox, since they’ve managed to expose a lengthy list of other actors apparently planning to interact with the CGI contraptions, including veteran Jon Voight, man-mountain Michael Clarke Duncan, high-haired Las Vegas hunk Josh Duhamel, plus Bernie Mac, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, and several other vaguely non-robotic beings.
The megabudget Dreamworks/Paramount project, which as a Michael Bay movie will presumably feature energetic editing and periodic detonations as well as giant friggin’ robots punching each other, was penned by Alias scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and starts shooting soon with the intention of hitting theaters July 4th next summer.