A R O U N D T O W N 發光的城市 17 TAIPEI TIMES • FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2009

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

DIRECTED BY: Michael Bay

STARRING: Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky), Megan Fox (Mikaela Banes), Josh Duhamel (Captain Lennox), John Turturro (Agent Simmons/ Jetfire), Tyrese Gibson (Sergeant Epps)

RUNNING TIME: 150 MINUTES Autobot leader Optimus Prime as a cinematic “leading man,” above, and as a toy, left. Below: The Baroness, a character from Hasbro’s G.I. Joe toyline. photos: ny times news service TAIWAN RELEASE: currently showing

hen Michael Bay, bring their battle to Earth a lot of interesting back story and cinema’s reigning from their home planet, interrelationships.” W champion of vehicular Cybertron. Assembling the Transformers carnage, thinks your idea for an Bay was sold. “I creative team took more convincing. explosive, special-effects-laden don’t consider this a Like Bay, the screenwriters Roberto blockbuster is lame, you’ve got toy,” he said. “It’s not. Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Star problems. A few years ago, Bay, To me it’s the furthest thing from Trek) were reluctant to be involved. the director of Armageddon, it. It was about the mythology and “There’s no win in a screenwriter The Rock and Bad Boys, was in that there was a story here.” for this,” Orci said. “It’s going to be his editing room when Steven For Hasbro, this summer will a giant toy commercial no matter Spielberg called to offer him a new see not one but two of its most what we do.” project: an action movie about lucrative properties spun into big- But they too were won over giant robots that metamorphose budget movies: the Transformers by the same weekend-long into cars, trucks and planes. sequel will be followed on Aug. 7 presentation that had captivated As Bay recalled in a recent by a live-action adaptation of its By DAVE ITZKOFF Bay in the summer of 2005. interview, “I’m like, ‘OK, great, G.I. Joe toys, called G.I. Joe: The NY Times News Service, New York In their Transformers screen- great, great.’ And I hung up the Rise of Cobra. play Orci and Kurtzman tinkered phone. And I’m like, ‘That sounds The pair of films is the more expansive.” with the origins of the robots and like a dumb idea.’” payoff of a strategy that the toy Under Goldner’s direction, the the war that drew them to Earth. What helped persuade Bay to company has been cultivating Transformers action figures and But they tried to remain true to the do the first Transformers movie for nearly a decade: infusing animation returned in 2002 to the spirit of characters like Optimus — which in 2007 took in more movie-friendly story lines into its characters and stories introduced Prime, a heroic Transformer who than US$700 million worldwide at popular playthings and teaching in the 1980s. After those toys turns into a big-rig truck. the box office, and whose sequel, Hollywood that these stories can became successful, Hasbro issued “Optimus was like an Arthurian Transformers: Revenge of the be translated to cinema screens. updated versions of its 1980s-era knight, and he was the noble Fallen, opened on Wednesday It’s an approach that many other G.I. Joe warriors and their Cobra leader of this resistance force — was a visit to the Pawtucket, toy makers are also taking. The movie industry’s new enemies. The objective, Goldner that was fighting against a much Rhode Island, headquarters As fans and collectors know, said, was not only to sell toys, stronger foe,” Orci said. “That led of Hasbro, which creates the the Hasbro toys have histories but also to show the film industry us to a lot of the key characters Transformers toys. that stretch back for decades. that, cinematically speaking, they that were the most known and There Bay, 44, was given The original G.I. Joe, a 30cm-tall were no different from Spider-Man loved by Transformers fans.” a thorough education on the soldier known as “America’s or Batman. The worldwide success of the narrative embedded in the 25-year- moveable fighting man,” was In 2003, Goldner learned first Transformers movie (despite old toy line: a back story about introduced by Hasbro in 1964. plaything that the film producer Lorenzo some scathing reviews) ensured warring factions of valiant Autobots After the Vietnam War, Joe’s di Bonaventura was developing that both a G.I. Joe movie and two and nefarious Decepticons, who connection to the US military an action movie called The Last Transformers sequels could move was played down, and in 1982 the toys, and their comic book and The success of Hasbro in 2000, the company Soldier and believed that the forward at Paramount. (The third soldier was re-commissioned as a cartoon spin-offs, dominated the was largely focused on Pokemon project could be adapted into a G.I. Transformers movie will come out pocket-size special missions force marketplace in the 1980s. But in Hasbro’s imitators and toys licensed from Joe film. Instead Di Bonaventura, a in 2011.) of numerous agents. The Joe team the 1990s their popularity faded, movies. The Transformers had former Warner Brothers executive Hasbro, meanwhile, is was also given a nemesis, Cobra, a as children turned their attention Transformers on become robots that turned into who had worked with Hasbro on continuing to expand its presence ruthless terrorist organization. to newer phenomena like the big screen opens wild beasts, and new G.I. Joe toys licensed from its Batman, in Hollywood. Last year it Two years later, Hasbro Pokemon and Mighty Morphin figures had been phased out in Harry Potter and Scooby-Doo announced a deal with Universal imported a series of action figures Power Rangers. the door for other favor of replicas of the vintage franchises, saw a potential film in in which at least four more of created by Japanese toy company The revitalization of the 1960s dolls. G.I. Joe’s roster of stylized soldiers its best-known brands, including Takara, consisting of robots that Transformers and G.I. Joe toys to make the “We had relegated these brands with code names like Duke, board games like Monopoly, Producers Ian Bryce, left, and Lorenzo Di disguise themselves as vehicles franchises began this decade leap from playpen to an experience that was limited Ripcord and Heavy Duty. Battleship and Candyland, would Bonaventura, right, on the set of the 2007 and other technology, calling under Hasbro’s chief executive, to the playroom floor or the The series “never really be turned into movies by industry film Transformers, directed by Michael Bay. them Transformers. Brian Goldner. to Hollywood kitchen table,” Goldner said. “The killed off any characters,” Di heavyweights like Ridley Scott and photo: ny times news service The G.I. Joe and Transformers When Goldner, 45, joined history of those brands was much Bonaventura said, “so there was Gore Verbinski.

TT-980626-P17-IB.indd 1 2009/6/25 07:18:10