The upcoming sequel to 2007's Transformers which is due to be released on June 26 2009. Entitled Transformers : Revenge Of The Fallen it retains Michael Bay as the director. The sequel is produced by Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Spielberg (also reprising his role as Exceutive Producer). The writing team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are join by series newcomer Ehren Kruger.
The movie is said to have a bigger budget (compared to the first film which cost US1 million) with the intention of giving the larger cast of robots a better characterization. The main obstacle in the production of the movie was the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike as well as possible strikes from the Directors and Screen Actors Guild. However, Bay overcame this and shooting began on schedule in May 2008.
The sequel retains most of the actors and actresses used in the prequel. It revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) who is caught in the war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. LeBeouf was injured his left eye when some prop hit him towards the end of the shooting but filming resumed 2 hours later. Sam's love interest in the movie, Mikaela Banes' role is still reprised by Megan Fox. The rest of the cast include Josh Duhamel who plays Captain William Lennox, Tyrese Gibson as Robert Epps, an Air Force Technical Sergeant, John Turturro as Reggie Simmons, ex-agent of the now terminated Sector 7, Matthew Marsden as Graham, a member of the United Kingdom Special Forces, Isabel Lucas as Alice a new character and college-mate of Sam, Ramon Rodriguez as Leo, Julie White and Kevin Dunn reprising their roles as Sam's parents Judy and Ron and Steve Tom with a principal role. Among other actors and actresses are Rainn Wilson and Kym Whitley.
Among some of the Autobots in the prequel are leader Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) , Bumblebee (Mark Ryan), weapons-specialist Ironhide, medic Ratchet, Arcee - a motorcycle with feminine personality and appearance (Interesting!), "The Twins", Sideswipe - a Chervolet Corvette and Jetfire - a SR-71 Blackbird.
The Decepticons' ranks include leader Megatron - killed in the prequel, he is resurrected as a Cybertronian Tank, Air Commander Starscream ( who is said to have more dialogue this time around), Barricade - a modified Ford Mustang police car known as Saleen S281, Soundwave - one of Megatron's most loyal liutenants, Ravage - (one of) Soundwave's minions, The Constructicons - one of the many Gestalts ( a group robots that can combine into one giant robot ), The Fallen and many others.
It is rumoured that in the sequel, there will be roughly three times more robots than what was in the first film. This is interesting, given the fact that there were 13 Autobots and Decepticons in the first movie as well as 4 All-Spark mutated minor machines.
The filming process in the sequel, apart from locations in the United States ( Los Angeles, California, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New Mexico etc) will also include Egypt and Jordan, where the filming will end.
Transformers : Revenge Of The Fallen will also be released in IMAX theatres other than the regular theatres. It is said that at least 3 of the action sequence will be available in 3D.
Already, the excitement is in the air. Some of the actors and actresses who were involved and were fans of the series when they were younger had positive feedback about it. Whether the die-hard fans will approve of the sequel remains very much to be seen. There will be Much More Than Meets The Eye definitely!
