Transformers 4 Age of Extinction director Michael Bay, updated his website with a VERY special announcement. Golden Globe winning actor John Goodman (The Big Lebowski) and Oscar nominated actor Ken Watanabe (Inception, Godzilla) will join the voice cast of the movie as Hound and Drift, alongside some returning voice actors, such as Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, John DiMaggio, Mark Ryan, Robert Foxworth and Reno Wilson.
DiMaggio (voice of Leadfoot from Dark of the Moon) will provide the voice of Crosshairs, while Mark Ryan (Bumblebee, Jetfire) will take the throne from Lance Henriksen as the voice of Lockdown. Welker will be the voice of Galvatron and Foxworth and Wilson will reprise their roles as Ratchet and Brains. Here’s what Michael Bay has to say;
“I am pleased to welcome two gifted and versatile actors, John Goodman and Ken Watanabe, to the world of Transformers. And to reteam with Peter and Frank, who have brought Transformers characters alive from the beginning. I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the best voice talent in the business, and together we will introduce several exciting new robots to fans of the franchise around the world.”
ChibiGingi
For the first time in awhile or ever, I'm actually happy to see news about AoE. Normally I'd push for more voice actors over actors when it comes to voiced roles, but those are some really good choices there. John Goodman can act AND voice act like there's no tomorrow, and I always need more Ken Watanabe in my life.
Now, here's hoping they don't get three lines between the each of them and spend the rest of the time playing second fiddle or silent in the BG. Otherwise, that'd be a waste of perfectly good talent.
UltraAlanMagnus
Or Even Whirl & Grimlock.
Spin-Out
Man, I love seeing John DiMaggio as another Autobot, but I still want to see him voice Wheeljack some day.
MandarinQuake
Excellent choices
Very Good. After all John Goodman did appear in The Monuments Men and Ken Wanabe from Batman begins does have the perfect voicce to harness Drift
LegendAntihero
Mark Ryan is back. Cool
TubbyChasis
Strange thing about this is that I think Wheelie looks fine. It's Brains that looks really fake here.
MnemonicSyntax
Yeah, all that money he makes. Nobody likes him.
I know *I* don't like it when other people speak for everyone else though.
RedAlert Rescue
I sometimes look at 20** CGI I wonder long it will be before people wil look back and laugh a how cheap it looks like they might at an 1980's special visual effect movie.
Perhaps Bay had the right idea in 2007 not letting you get a good look at them so you don't notice how cartoony they sometimes look when the lighting is even slightly off.
optimusprime42
lets not forget david,becky,mark,and darlene those will be cons except david
janeDoe001
I don't hate Michael Bay. I don't like Armageddon, I never watched Bad Boys, and I've never been interested in his take on Pearl Harbor, but I don't hate Michael Bay.
jD001
samurai drift
Good to see everyone still loves these two
samurai drift
I like Michael Bay
Psychoshi
Now we just need Strika voiced by Roseanne Barr
SPLIT LIP
Yeah. I don't really see how anyone can seriously expect that this announcement somehow coinsides with their actual casting, rather than just a press release. That's like saying they don't start work on a movie until the trailer is released.
Voice acting is usually one of the later aspects of a film like this to be finalised. They can start whenever they want, but when you realise the CGI can't be implemented until the scenes are shot, and the actual actors are not needed for the filming, and the voices are only recorded once the CGI is far enough to work with, you don't know if it's a sure thing changes won't be made. Much like how you don't CGI a scene unless you know it won't be cut before the film is finished, you don't record lines for that CGI until you know there's actually going to be a scene there.
It's all just stages of movie-making. Every single production does it. It's essentially the "measure twice, cut once" rule of film making so they don't end up wasting time.
Raiju
Crosshairs: "Bite my shiny metal ass!"
Shame about no Lance Henriksen. John Goodman as Hound, good call. Ken Watanabe as Drift? A bit typecast-y but he's a good actor, so sure, why not? Frank Welker as Galvatron; it'd be interesting to see what he does with the role (
).
TubbyChasis
Calm down man. They probably recorded their lines before ILM started the animation.
And besides, this is nothing new. The first movie's voice cast was released nearly a week before its premiere. The second's was scattered and even then, it wasn't until the film was released that everyone was revealed (Rampage, Demolisher and the Primes especially). The third was pretty much the same thing as the second. So I wasn't that surprised it took this long in the grand scheme of things.
The casting itself seems to be a mixed bag though. While I definitely can't wait to hear how Goodman sounds as Hound. I'm kinda skeptical with the casting of Lockdown and Drift. Plus the fact that 'Bee is still mute, which probably means he's never going to get a voice (and no, those sound clips don't count), has also got me worried. The Dinobots can go either way at this point.
Paxtin
I'm pretty sure there a lot of other reasons, really.
I don't think this would even make the list, honestly.
mondo
More reason why he should have been Bulkhead
hthrun
I like Michael Bay.
sh3rvin
I wonder how much presence Ratchet has in this film for the voice actor to be announced.