Michael Bay; the Director of Transformers: Age Of Extinction had a chat with South China Morning Post regarding his experience in filming Transformers 4 in Hong Kong.
Filming the fourth Transformers installment was a big operation involving at least 100 local crew. Bay said a lot of the equipment and at least 10 cars had to be shipped to Hong Kong – including some massive vehicles that were disassembled into smaller parts to fit in an air cargo hold.Bay said it took him nine months – with a lot of help from the government – to work out the Hong Kong shooting plan. And despite having made three Transformers movies and many big-budget action blockbusters such as Armageddon and Pearl Harbour, it was still a challenge.
Regarding the plot, he was cautious…
Bay managed to get 30 to 35 minutes of what will be a two hour blockbuster – including a Hong Kong set in Detroit that he blew up: “There was a lot of dynamite.”“We are not destroying Hong Kong.” He said the story started in the US and there was a reason to go to China. Is Hong Kong a great hiding place for the Decepticons? “I can’t tell you how they get here.” Are Autobots rescuing Hong Kong from something? “They are not rescuing Hong Kong but definitely rescuing something.”
Videos from the interview are interesting too. One of them reveals how the Bugatti Veyron came to be. You can check out the videos and read the full interview at South China Morning Post.
Construct
If this movie is going to be as explosion-filled as I expect it to be, I'll probably go see it on IMAX.
moreprimeland
Love the Plot one the best.
Just hoping this time, we'll get a good surprise.
MaxxieOD
I was thinking exactly along these lines lol
SmokescreenWRX
Cars… Check
Robots… Check
Hong Kong… Check
Plot… Uhh. Where did I put… Hrmmm…
Bumblebee1516
This is interesting. I wonder if they're trying to save Optimus by going to get something that can power him up, akin to Jetfire's power-up in ROTF?
That or they could be going to save Wahlberg and Co.
MV95
I made sure not to read your entire post but USE FREAKIN SPOILER TAGS
BeeOtch217
Oh, OK that make sense.
tonyformer
I doubt that. Dome thing like that being chipped yo China or Hong Kong would stick out and someone would have spotted it. The only vehicles that come to mind that I would think might need to be shipped over seas would have been the larger truck cranes that they would need to hold up green screens or drop cars from, that type of thing. Done of those are big enough that the crane itself would need to be taken apart and assembled on site.
BeeOtch217
Tony, I don't know about vehicles (Bay may have said that to throw us off), but as a film enthusiast I know that the previous movies all had props to represent the TFs when CGI wasn't enough to make them look "real". For instance Jetfire's cane, life-size models of bumblebee and frenzy, Blackouts legs, and Megatrons lower body among other things. Could this huge mystery shipment be a prop to represent the Dinobots, e.g. Grimlocks T-Rex Head?
Legendary Prime
Maybe the ship from DOTM?
Jigsaw25
What do you mean he didn't care in the previous movie? He refused to leave the planet when the humans turned their back on him and killed Sentinel and Megatron for all the people killed in Chicago. "The day will never come when we forsake this planet and its people." sounds like he cared a lot.
abc55abc55
At least we know Optimus isn't going to be all about killing random Decepticons this time.
, he seriously sounds like he cares, unlike the pervious movie.
PRIME TIME 8316
Optimus
It means Optimus is gone after this movie- LISTEN TO OPTIMUS ON THE HONG KONG ARTICLE ABOUT OP SPEAKTH> YOU DEFinatly hear optimus say its not safe for him to be here anyone and for the autobots to protect there earth family in his absence.
vrba79
Boom goes the dynamite!
tonyformer
Yes they did the Michigan Morion Picture Studio. It's the same studio they filmed the new Wizard of Oz movie in. The whole movie was filmed there. It's a massive studio. That's were I had first seen the 2 green Vettes at. But one was under a tarp so I thought it might have been sideswipe and got excited lol
black mamba
Hmm, did they film in an indoor studio?
tonyformer
You're right, we didn't see any but Bay said some big vehicles had to be disassembled to be shipped so something big was shipped that we didn't see.
black mamba
But we didn't see any?
tonyformer
The largest vehicles we seen on set were probably the garbage trucks. But I don't see them taking them apart to ship. Maybe we might see a few Constructicons again. I mean Demolisher was killed in China in ROTF so would China then have the rites to keep his corps or NEST? There could be any number of Chines military or other larger vehicles that Cons would have scanned as well.