Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third film in the live-action film series. It is scheduled to be released on July 1, 2011 in the United States, and between June 29 and July 1 for other markets.

Japanese title: Transformers: Dark Side Moon (トランスフォーマー　ダークサイド・ムーン, Toransufōmā Dākusaidomūn)

Brazilian title: Transformers: O Lado Oculto da Lua (Transformers: The Hidden Side of the Moon)

Latin American Spanish title: Transformers: El Lado Oscuro de la Luna (Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon)

French name: Transformers 3: La Face Cachée de La Lune (Transformers 3: The Hidden Side of the Moon)

Confirmed information

Featuring a surprise appearance by Optimus Prime!

• June 20, 2009 — Michael Bay will be returning to directing duties.

• October 1, 2009 — "Day One" of preproduction work. A story has apparently already been worked out. The day begins with a meeting between Bay and Industrial Light & Magic which is followed by Bay and writer Ehren Kruger flying to Rhode Island to meet with Hasbro about new characters. Bay confirms a proposed release date of July 1, 2011.

• October 6, 2009 — Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman will not be returning to write the film. All writing duties have been given to Ehren Kruger.

• Michael Bay states on the video played at the end of the Revenge of the Fallen Blu-ray AllSpark Experiment game that the third film will go deeper into the Transformers' history (cue lots of Unicron imagery from Transformers: The Ultimate Guide) and that it will have more screentime for Bumblebee. But it does say in the message that he'll tell lies...

• January 5, 2010 — James Avery confirms he will be playing a new Autobot named Silverbolt. No word on if this is the same character as ROTF Silverbolt.

• February 7, 2010 — Tony Todd said that he would be back in some capacity On April 17, 2010, he hinted at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2010 that he will be playing a human character. However, on October 1,Todd stated that he is in fact not in Transformers 3.

• March 2, 2010 — Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are going to get updated/revised designs that in Bumblebee's case reflects his maturation.

• March 22, 2010 — Michael Bay announces that Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, and Ken Jeong have joined the cast, as well as that a Ferrari 458 Italia will become the "newest Autobot".

• April 7, 2010 — Variety reports that Kevin Dunn and Julie White will be returning as Sam Witwicky's parents.

• May 4, 2010 — Paramount Pictures confirms that Patrick Dempsey has been cast in Transformers 3 to play Mikaela Banes' boss.

• May 11, 2010 — Michael Bay claims: "The Twins are not back in T3." If you believe that, we've got a space bridge for sale.

• May 19, 2010 — Megan Fox is suddenly dropped from the cast. A new love interest for the Sam character is slated to be cast.

• June 2, 2010 — Bay officially announces Fox's replacement as Sam's love interest: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

• June 6, 2010 — Representatives of James Avery, responding to a bizarre rumour that he has passed away, confirm that the actor is indeed alive and will be playing Silverbolt in Transformers 3.

• June 10, 2010 — USA Today reveals that the villain for Transformers 3 will be Shockwave. Michael Bay and Lorenzo diBonaventura take some of the blame for the criticisms aimed at Revenge of the Fallen and acknowledge the problems the film had. Bay reveals that they will be getting rid of what he referred to as the "dorky comedy" seen in Revenge of the Fallen, and reiterates that the Twins were "basically gone", though John Turturro will return as comic relief. Additionally, the film will explore the Transformers' role in the space race and will be filmed in 3D.

• June 24, 2010 — Several sources, among them the Chicago Tribune newspaper, confirm shooting locations for the film, including Chicago, IL, and Milwaukee, WI, as well as repeat locations such as Los Angeles, CA, Washington, D.C., and Detroit, MI.

• July 20, 2010 — Nelson Lauren, the webmaster of Michael Bay's official website, visits the Chicago set and reveals some news: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's character is named Carly, former American footballer Lester Speight plays a soldier. He later posts an official video of the shoot, revealing the latest modifications to the Bumblebee Chevy Camaro prop vehicle, as well as three partially-transformed NASCAR vehicles.

• July 23, 2010 — An extended version of Nelson Lauren's official video depicts several more Transformer prop vehicles, including the Ferrari 458 Italia, a blue Mercedes-Benz E550 and a convertible version of Sideswipe.

• July 30, 2010 — In reply to a thread at TFW2005.com speculating on the identity of the NASCAR Transformers, Nelson comments that the vehicles are referred to on set as the "Wreckers".

• July 30, 2010 — Maile Flanagan announces at Otakon that she has been cast for the film, but due to her nondisclosure agreement can not discuss her role in the movie.

• July 31, 2010 — Nelson posts a picture of the Mercedes E550, seen on the set in Chicago, onto his flickr.com account, causing fans to misinterpret part of the photo title as a clue to the character's name ("Q"). He later clarifies that isn't the case.

• August 2, 2010 — A new Autobot taking the form of a red Rosenbauer Panther airline fire truck is spotted in Chicago and confirmed to appear by Nelson. He asserts it is not Inferno or Hot Spot.

• August 3, 2010 — Nelson confirms that Jolt is not returning.

• August 6, 2010 — Nelson confirms at the Shoot For The Edit site, that Wheelie returns in the third film and Carly's car is a Mercedes-Benz.

• August 15, 2010 — Lester Speight's character is named Hardcore Eddie.

• October 6, 2010 — Listings for childrens books on Amazon.com reveal the title of the movie to be "Transformers: The Dark of the Moon," further confirmed by a whois check for "www.transformersdarkofthemoonmovie.com".

• October 11, 2010 — In a second major on-set accident, this time during Washington D.C. filming, a police SUV responding to an emergency call intersects with a stunt, resulting in it being struck in the passenger-side door by one of Bumblebee's stunt vehicles. Luckily no one is seriously injured.

• October 31, 2010 — transformersmovie.com is updated to show the Transformers: Dark of the Moon logo as well as international release dates.

• December 8, 2010 — iTunes released the official teaser trailer.

• December 14, 2010 — Nelson Lauren mentioned Bay filmed "those NASA, astronauts walking on the moon, and Ark scenes" in the teaser trailer.

• December 14, 2010 — When asked if he would reprise the role, Corey Burton, the voice of the G1 and Animated Shockwaves, said he had heard rumors that David Warner, who inspired the character's voice, was being considered for the role. He added he had no interest in playing Shockwave for Dark of the Moon, stating he was too busy and had no interest "in that kind of mega-budget movie enterprise involvement".

• January 4, 2011 — An Idaho paper reported Bill Fagerbakke would be voicing a Chevy Impala with machine guns in the film.

• January 11, 2011 — PopEater.com mentions that Tom Kenny is recording voices for the film.

• January 14, 2011 — In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Bay reiterated that Dark of the Moon would be superior to Revenge of the Fallen, which was plagued by scheduling problems. It is stated there will be a digital version of John F. Kennedy and the archive-reel footage of Walter Cronkite from the teaser would also be in the film. He also talked about the complexity of filming in 3D on location. In an update of the article, it was confirmed Ramon Rodriguez would not be returning as Leo Spitz, a departure from Bay's previous announcement in 2009 that he would have a larger role in the third film.

• February 6, 2011 — A new teaser is shown during the Super Bowl.

• February 10, 2011 — Bay confirmed Sentinel Prime's existence in Dark of the Moon. In an interview with MTV, the director is quoted as saying "Sentinel Prime is great. He's great...I can't tell you anything else, other than he's great."

• February 11, 2011 — An Entertainment Weekly article showcasing some new toys confirms the roles of Sentinel Prime, Megatron and the Ark in the story.

• February 20, 2011 — As part of the promotions for Dark of the Moon, Michael Bay, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel and the film prop versions of the three NASCAR Autobot Wreckers (Topspin, Roadbuster, and Leadfoot) made appearances at the 2011 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20th. The Wreckers appeared both off the track as display cars, and on the track, participating in the ceremonial first lap. During the television broadcast of the race, a new television spot for Dark of the Moon was aired.

• February 21, 2011 — Nelson reaffirmed that the Twins were being removed from the final cut of the film.

• February 28, 2011 — The April 2011 issue of Empire hits the stands, with an exclusive story on Dark of the Moon. Depicted on the cover and inside the magazine are ILM's renders for Sentinel Prime and the redesigned Optimus Prime.

• March 31, 2011 — Entertainment Weekly's website announces that Leonard Nimoy will be voicing Sentinel Prime!

• April 10, 2011 — Micheal Bay commented on speculation that Soundwave was the silver Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG that had been seen on set by claiming: "Mercedes would never let us make their car into a bad Decepticon. Car company's [sic, recte companies] really frown on that - I can't say what the game company and comics do[;] that's their own thing. They don't have the same constraints movies do. It's Carly's car."

• April 14, 2011 — Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park confirmed that their song, Iridescent, would be the single for Dark of the Moon, a shorter version of the song would be used in the film and that they would be shooting a music video for it.

• April 15, 2011 — Michael Bay confirmed a trailer with Fast Five on April 29, and a 3D trailer with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on May 20. He also screened 20 minutes of footage to the press, as well as five minutes of 3D footage. Bay spoke about how hard it was to tap into the magic of the first film as audiences had grown desensitized to the wonder of the Transformers. He spoke of it being darker, mature and emotional, with the stakes higher due to it being set in American city. He and Kruger compared the film to Black Hawk Down, with no cavalry to rescue the heroes. He also spoke about blocking off a mile and a half of Chicago's streets for a scene involving stuntmen in wing suits diving off Sears Tower. Additionally, he reiterated that we shouldn't expect to see the Twins in this movie, and that Frank Welker will be returning for voice duties.

• April 15, 2011 — Lyricis Interactive uploads a promotional render of Sentinel Prime.

• April 16, 2011 — Carly's last name is revealed to be Miller via an image caption at AllMoviePhoto.com.

• April 16, 2011 — Nelson confirmed the trailer will be online on Apple on April 28, at 7pm (East Coast time).

• April 28, 2011 — The second trailer is released on Apple iTunes Movie trailers, as well as MichaelBay.com's accounts on Youtube, and Vimeo

• May 2, 2011 — Transformers.com is updated and the Vector Sigma Database is added, providing a plethora of new information (including some new characters). BEWARE OF PLOT SPOILERS

Main cast

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) Bumblebee Ironhide Ratchet Skids Mudflap Sideswipe Wheelie Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy) Topspin Roadbuster Leadfoot Brains Silverbolt (James Avery)	Shockwave Megatron Starscream Crankcase Laserbeak	Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) Carly Miller (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson) Hardcore Eddie (Lester Speight) Unknown, most likely Morshower (Glenn Morshower) Ron Witwicky (Kevin Dunn) Judy Witwicky (Julie White) Seymour Simmons (John Turturro) Simmons's assistant (Alan Tudyk) Bruce (John Malkovich) Neil Armstrong (Don Jeanes) Buzz Aldrin (Cory Tucker)

Posters

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Notes

• A 126-page script for the movie was leaked, causing much discussion among the fandom. It was later confirmed as fake.
• When word hit that Megan Fox was off the picture, Heidi Montag put an "audition" for her part on YouTube. Sir Ben Kingsley and Ashton Kutcher made fun of her, because life is rad.

External links

• Official Transformers: Dark of the Moon website
• Trailers.Apple.com Transformers: Dark of the Moon page