USA Today sat down with director Michael Bay to discuss the thrid installment of the Transformers movie franchise. One of the first things they discuss was the let down of the second film:
"I'll take some of the criticism," says Bay, standing at a set built to resemble a dilapidated nuclear reactor. "It was very hard to put (the sequel) together that quickly after the writers' strike (of 2007-08)."
Film producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura also had some words on this topic:
"We tried to do too many things in the second movie, which didn't give enough time in any one of them. We were constantly jumping to the next piece of information, the next place."
Bay goes on to say that the villain the second film, The Fallen, was an "expletive" character. But the villain for the new film will make fans of the original cartoon very happy. Shockwave will take the forefront as the main baddie for this go round.
For those unfamiliar, Shockwave is a robot cyclops of sorts that transforms into a laser canon. He became the dictator of the robot world Cybertron after the Autobots and Decepticons moved to Earth.
Plot details are under wraps, but it delves into the space race between the U.S.S.R. and the USA, suggesting there was a hidden Transformers role in it all that remains one of the planet's most dangerous secrets.
Bay also mentions that Skids and Mudflap will not be aprt of the new film, as they are moving away from the "dorky humor," as he calls it. Though John Turturro will be returning to add a bit of comic relief.
The film will end his version of the franchise. Bay added this to the interview:
"As a trilogy, it really ends. It could be rebooted again, but I think it has a really killer ending."
Transformers 3 is set to release next summer and will star Shia LeBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who replaced Megan Fox as the love interest.