BARRICADE ON THE MOVE... The pics above have been making rounds around the Web last week, with speculation that Michael Bay might be starting some form of filming on Transformers 2 soon despite the fact principal photography isn’t officially set to commence till June 2. These Saleen Mustang prop cars of Barricade—who can safely be presumed to have survived in the first film, since he completely disappeared following Optimus Prime’s defeat of Bonecrusher on that freeway—were seen on a trailer truck in Culver City (where Sony Studios is located, and is around 40 miles from where I live). Of course, the pics above could've been taken during the first film's production back in 2006, but whatever. When was the iPhone (which supposedly was used to take these pics) released?



Bay starting filming sooner than expected would be understandable, since I read in today’s Los Angeles Times newspaper that there is a significant chance the Screen Actors Guild might go forward with a labor strike in June. Freakin’ unions. So it may be a while till we see leaked photos of Megan Fox looking hot once again for the sequel. Wait— She’s returning, right? I hope so.

TRULY INTERNATIONAL... Space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, and is now scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in about 4 hours. During its 16-day flight, Endeavour’s astronauts assembled and installed a giant robot (shown above) that will help the ISS’ crew conduct maintenance activities on the exterior of the outpost without resorting to dangerous spacewalks. The crew also attached the first of two pressurized modules that will make up Japan’s Kibo science laboratory (the main Kibo module is set to launch in May, and a science platform that will be attached to the outside of the lab will hopefully launch early next year). The robot, nicknamed Dextre and built by the Canadian Space Agency, and the Japanese module brings every international partner involved in the $100 billion project onboard. The United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada now have joint real estate orbiting more than 200 miles up in space.



UPDATE: Endeavour touched down at Kennedy Space Center today at 5:39 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.


Images courtesy of NASA / Gary Rothstein

G.I. JOE... SuperheroHype.com posted two new images from next year’s action-adventure film, which is being directed by The Mummy's Stephen Sommers. It will be one of two movies based on Hasbro toys to come out in 2009, along with (hopefully) Transformers 2. That’s assuming a strike by the Screen Actors Guild doesn’t take place this June...when filming for the Michael Bay sequel is scheduled to commence. The photo below is of the mercenary ninja Snake Eyes...who is being played by Ray Park, of Darth Maul fame in The Phantom Menace. Looks cool.


Paramount Pictures

THE BANK JOB... I saw the film yesterday, and it’s pretty amusing in that it reminded me of the whole Eliot Spitzer fiasco more than a week ago. Perhaps the former New York governor should’ve done research on the true story this flick is based on (It's about a group of robbers who pull off a heist in Britain, and end up having to save their own asses by blackmailing a group of politicians and other shady folks who kept evidence of their sleazy affairs in safe deposit boxes at the bank the robbers broke into. I typed this run-on sentence in case you never saw the trailer, haha) , and maybe then he wouldn’t have gotten it on with Kristen. Probably not. Also, I don’t think the guy Jason Statham portrayed in The Bank Job actually beat the crap out of those guys at the end of the movie. Or maybe he did. I should look it up on Wikipedia.

(Of course I know Terry Leather is a fictional character! Hahaha.)

TRANSFORMERS 2... Here are some things that we know of the sequel so far...

- There will be NO Dinobots in the second film.

- Starscream will have more English lines.

- Director Michael Bay completed a 60-page treatment (during the WGA strike) by which his screenwriting team of Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are using to write the script.

- The script is currently at 75 pages long, according to Orci on this thread March 11. His screenwriting team is aiming for the standard feature film script length of 120 pages.

- According to Orci, "(Michael Bay) never says he loves anything (in regards to the screenplay), even when he loves it. But to know him is to love him." Hahaha.

- Principal photography, a.k.a. filming, is set to begin for Transformers 2 on June 2nd of this year. Theatrical release is still aimed for June 26, 2009.

- Bay is planning to leak out fake info for the sequel once shooting commences, to throw fans off after the amount of spoilers that leaked out for the first Transformers film during its production in 2006.

- Bay is rumored to be scouting locations in Egypt.

- Filming is also rumored to take place in Philadelphia.

- Actor Shia LaBeouf ("Sam Witwicky") mentioned that he has already seen pre-visualization work (pre-vis) for the sequel, and that the film will be "massive".

- According to this thread page, Orci says that the pre-vis looks "AWESOME!"

- Bay stated that a "geriatric robot" (Kup?) will be part of the robotic cast.

- The tone of the sequel will be similar to last year’s film. There will be some humor but Transformers will more closely be in tuned with fan expectations. But this could change.

For more info, go to this Transformers Movie Blog.


Fan art courtesy of Transformers 2 dot net

SPITZER STEPS DOWN AS NEW YORK GOVERNOR... Taking his spot on Monday will be Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson, the first African American to become governor of the Empire State.

...

Not to sound racist or anything, but expect yet another scandal to emerge soon then. Juuust kiddin'. (Goes to MySpace to check out the profile for ‘Kristen’.)

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES... EOnline.com mentioned that there's a high chance that FOX will renew the hit sci-fi TV show for another season, which would totally be awesome. Anyways, shown below is a video clip of one of the most memorable moments in the second episode of last week's 2-hour season finale. Didn't know a Johnny Cash song could be used in a scene where a killer cyborg wipes out an entire SWAT team...

The New INDIANA JONES IV Poster...


Paramount Pictures / Lucasfilm Ltd. / Drew Struzan

And in case you missed this about a month ago, the official teaser trailer:

JUST YOUR AVERAGE BLOG... Wanna know what’s a real crappy feeling? Being around a girl you really like at work or some other place, being oblivious to everything that’s happening around me as I sit next to her talking to her (and if you want to get real sappy and lame about it: too busy staring into her eyes), and then all of sudden... I’m now at home and she’s 30 miles (give or take) away from me. And this is one of those situations where you’re moronic enough to fall for a girl who’s already taken. Son-of-a-bitch. Well— That’s all. Just felt like mentioning that...on a Saturday night, nevertheless.


By the way, this journal entry is in response to events that took place last Saturday. Later.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES... "CAMERON— NOOOOOO!!!!" Okay, that was a bit dramatic...but if you watched last night’s two-hour season (NOT series) finale of the FOX TV show, you would know that I was talking about that final scene (in the second episode) where a bomb went off in the jeep that Cameron was gonna use to go and buy a birthday cake for John Connor. Of course, overlooking the fact her beautiful, fake visage was probably burnt beyond repair (yea right...as if it’s gonna be a while before we see Summer Glau’s perfect face again), Cameron most likely survived that blast. Of course, unless FOX does the right thing and renews this show for season #2, we’ll never know for sure. And we won’t know what FBI agent James Ellison will do now that he just witnessed a Terminator in action (that underwater POV shot of the FBI officers falling lifelessly into that swimming pool was intense!), and almost died because of it. Please FOX, renew this show. Oh, and bring back Prison Break. Sucre needs to get out of Sona and reunite with Maricruz, and Michael Scofield needs to whup Gretchen’s ass for what she did to Sara Tancredi.



One last note... Do you think Megan Fox ‘congratulated’ Brian Austin Green for his exceptional performance in TERMINATOR: TSCC? Probably. Lucky bastard.

IRON MAN... You can check out the newest theatrical trailer below. As more new footage gets released, this movie looks cooler and cooler. Of course, even if the visual effects in Iron Man are so completely awesome (I gotta check online to see which effects houses—ILM, anyone?—worked on this film) that it gets nominated for a Best Visual FX Oscar next year, chances are the award will go to another friggin’ fantasy flick. Chronicles of Narnia 2, I reckon. Sorry... I’m still peeved that Transformers got totally snubbed at this year’s Academy Awards.



Screenshots from the new trailer are featured below.






Images courtesy of Marvel Characters, Inc. / Paramount