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According a statement from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), global box office takings increased in 2009 to a staggering $29.9 billion – and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen was a key player in that rise.

The Motion Picture Association of America stated that the Transformers sequel was the highest grossing film of the year in the US and Canada, which helped box office takings inside the US increase by 10.1% to $10.6 billion, which is an all time high.

Box office takings outside of North America increased by 6.3% to $19.3 billion.

As well as Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, the highest grossing film of 2009 in North America, 3D movies also played a big part in the increased box office gross – led of course by Avatar. The reason 3D films play such a significant role is that they are more expensive to see at the cinema.

Bob Pisano, from the MPAA, stated:

Digital presentation and 3-D hold the promise of a dramatic game change in moviemaking and movie-going.

It’s also worth noting that while 2009 was the best year ever for box office gross in the US and Canada, it also saw fewer films released than in 2008 – just 558 movies, a drop of 12%. This was the first time that movie output dropped since 2003.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen grossed $402 million in the US and Canada in 2009. If you’re thinking that Avatar made much more than that – it did, but not in 2009’s figures. Avatar only made $283.6 million in North America last year – the rest of Avatar’s world record breaking gross came in 2010.

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According to news from the Hollywood Reporter, actor Kevin Dunn might be absent from Transformers 3. Dunn plays the role of Ron Witwicky, father of Sam – and one of the film’s comedic characters.

The reason that Kevin may miss Transformers 3 is that he is signed on for a new series with HBO, and the schedules may clash with filming of the third Transformers movie. Surely Michael Bay wouldn’t consider making Transformers 3 without Kevin? Who would say all of those inappropriate things to Shia LaBeouf?

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Auto Assembly 2010 Live Q&A On Twitter

Auto Assembly has expanded its online coverage once again and joining its website, Facebook and Youtube presence is our new account on Twitter! We’ll be updating our Twitter feed every day with all the latest news and mini-updates on the convention as well as our general thoughts and comments on Auto Assembly 2010 and past events and anything else to do with Transformers!

We’ll be checking the account constantly every day so you can use it to post questions about the conventions to us at any time and to start things off we’ll be holding a LIVE Q&A session this Sunday evening (14th March) at 11:00 pm GMT so you can put your questions to us and get immediate answers! If you can’t make it, feel free to post questions earlier in the day and we’ll answer as soon as we log on for the Q&A. Naturally, we’ll answer questions at any time, but we wanted to celebrate the launch of this new service with a chance to chat to everyone in this live setting.

You can find our Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/auto_assembly and it will only take a second to become one of our followers. If you don’t already have a Twitter account, it will only take a few minutes to sign up for your own free micro-blog of your own!

We will be making some rather big, exciting announcements on our Twitter page and Youtube channel soon about Auto Assembly 2010 that you won’t want to miss out on and Twitter followers will get to see all of this FIRST as every video and announcement will be linked straight away!

Auto Assembly 2010 is going to be our biggest and best Transformers convention yet. We are going to celebrate Auto Assembly’s 10th Anniversary in style and run the best Transformers event that Europe has ever seen! Over the weekend of Friday 13th – Sunday 15th August 2010 we will be bringing you AT LEAST three guests of honour (Garry Chalk and Derrick J Wyatt are already confirmed), a massive Saturday evening programme with a party, live band, costume competition and loads more, toy and art displays, dealers, comic guests, free autograph sessions, video games area, workshops, dedicated childrens programming, video screenings and so much more!

All this will be taking place at the The Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England. Tickets for the weekend are on sale now through the website for £45 for the weekend for adults and £35 for children, students and senior citizens, with under 5s admitted free. Single day passes will be made available for sale closer to the convention.

For more details on the convention, to see a full list of all the guests and activities taking place over the weekend, or to book your tickets, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk

We hope to see you all in August 2010.

The Auto Assembly 2010 Team

Web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
Youtube: www.youtube.com/autoassembly
Twitter: www.twitter.com/auto_assembly
Forum: http://autoassembly.proboards.com
Email: autoassembly@aol.com
Tel: +44 (0)7860 948296

Auto Assembly 2010 is sponsored by www.transformertoys.co.uk and www.transformersanimated.com whose generosity have made Derrick J Wyatt’s appearance at the convention possible.

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Shia Labeouf may have a squeaky clean image as Sam Witwicky in the Transformers films, but in real life he’s developing into something of a wild child. He’s so wild in fact that he’s developed a reputation for taking his own alcohol to showbiz events and getting royally bladdered (drunk, for our US readers).

This wouldn’t be a problem at most showbiz events, except that Shia had to accompany his girlfriend, English actress Carey Mulligan, to the Oscars this last weekend as she was nominated for her role in ‘An Education’. As Carey was also taking her brother and her parents, she’d warned Shia to be on his best behaviour.

(I’m taking) my mom, my dad and my brother.

According to the Daily Mail, Shia had caused an argument at the New York premier of An Education, after he’d sneaked in a bottle of whiskey and proceeded to crawl into it.

A source for the newspaper stated:

It was very awkward for Carey. Shia stayed in the bar drinking whisky all night and not chatting to anyone. It was very unchivalrous and they had a huge row.

Carey has said that he has to be on his best behaviour and support her at the Oscars – or not to come at all.

Carey didn’t win an Oscar on Sunday night, and Shia Labeouf didn’t turn up at all. Perhaps the ultimatum proved too much for him?

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According to reports, a press event has been scheduled in New York on March 16^th to announce the new HTC HD2 on T-Mobile. The HTC HD2 is the latest smartphone from HTC and looks set to compete with the latest iPhone in every possible way.

The best part is, according to sources, the phone will come bundled with both Transformers movies, Transformers and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

The press event is expected to announce a release date for the new phone of March 24^th in the US.

The HTC HD2, when it launches on T-Mobile, will have extra features to the regular versions of the phone. Features will include access to eBooks from Barnes and Noble, access to Blockbuster movies and of course the pre-loaded Transformers films on its SD Card.

Windows fans can rejoice too because the HTC HD2 will use Windows Mobile 6.5.

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It was the bookie’s favourite, and this weekend Transformers Revenge of the Fallen proved their faith by winning the ‘accolade’ of Worst Film of 2009 at the Razzies. It didn’t stop there either, as Transformers 2 also walked away with the Razzie for Worst Screenplay, and a special nod for Michael Bay with Worst Director.

Michael Bay didn’t show up in person to collect his award, but Sandra Bullock (who won Worst Actress for All About Steve) did show up to collect her award, and gave a speech!

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It seems that everyone thinks that giants robots and Transformers are cool, and pop-star Rihanna is no exception. Rihanna performed in Germany this last week with a sultry stage performance that involved giant robots, inspired by Transformers. One of the robots even spurted what we can only hope was water over her, in much the same was that Bumblebee did in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen when he cried.

Rihanna was performing at the Echo Awards, which took place in Berlin, where she gave a stunning rendition of ‘Rude Boy’ – accompanied by some giant mechanoids.

The giant Transformers style robots were rather lewd towards Rihanna too, as they pinched her bum and kissed her – it certainly wasn’t child friendly entertainment as you can by the photos!

You can also watch the video of Rihanna and the Transformers here.

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Is there no end to Michael Bay’s ego? According to reports, Michael Bay opted to return for Transformers 3 because he wanted to save jobs in the film industry, believing his movie would make the difference in the midst of recession.

Initially when asked about Transformers 3, Michael Bay said he didn’t want to think about it and wanted to work on a smaller film first, to get a break from giant robots. However, Paramount had other ideas and while Bay was working the PR circuit for Revenge of the Fallen, they announced the release date for Transformers 3 as being June 1st 2011.

Despite being angered by this, Bay has still agreed to work on Transformers 3 because he wants to save jobs – at least according to an interview he gave to Starz.

Michael Bay commented:

The true story is we went to Vegas to celebrate [Revenge of the Fallen] crossing the $400 million mark domestic. I said, “I’m excited to do my small little movie.” They said, “Well, we’re here to talk about that.” I’ve become friends with these guys that run Paramount and they [told me,] “We’re going to get fired if we don’t have a 2011 franchise,” so I’m like you can’t let these guys down.

The economy’s been so rough, it’s kind of important. When you say yes to [a] movie like this you automatically give 3000 people jobs. 1000 for the toys. 2000 for the filmmaking. I’m going to put [the small film] on hold and do it right after [Transformers 3].

Seems Bay’s making Transformers 3 to save the jobs of those he cares most about – nothing to do with the huge pay check he will have received from ROTF as it surpassed the money made by the first Transformers.

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One of the things that you can’t get away from with the Transformers movies is that they’re effects laden bonanzas. With this in mind, the most important people involved with Transformers 3 aren’t its human actors, Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf (although they may think they are) – they’re the geniuses behind ILM (Industrial Light and Magic).

Scott Benza, the animation supervisor on the Transformers movies with ILM, recently spoke with SCI FI Wire about what we can expect from Transformers 3. He stated that we can expect to see some cosmetic changes on Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, with Prime looking more, well, Prime like (he said heroic, but we’re reading between the lines).

Scott Benza commented:

Our two lead characters, Optimus and Bumblebee, needed to be updated for the next chapter in the Transformers series. Bumblebee’s matured a little bit, so I would just say look for subtle changes to his physique that have him look more mature. We always want the robots to look cooler than they did the last time, so [Optimus Prime is] going to look a little more heroic, I would say.

We always want the robots to look cooler than they did the last time, so he’s going to look a little more heroic, I would say

Scott Farrar, visual effects supervisor on the Transformers films with ILM, added:

[Prime will have] little tiny things that maybe the average viewer isn’t going to notice but probably the fanboys will. You actually will run into pieces that are maybe always in the way, and wouldn’t it be nice if that part wasn’t there? Maybe you make a shift in the shoulder, in the chest or what have you. So it might be proportioning, but it also might be for usability, so [the animators]‘ task could be easier, too.

The script for Transformers 3 isn’t complete yet, but the team at ILM are aware of some details that will impact their work – so they’re getting a head start. They also confirmed that they are working on new characters, but no mention of Dinobots yet…

We will keep banging that drum until Michael Bay listens too!

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