"Transformers" Effects Progressing but Not Done

by | March 5, 2007 | Comments

As the release of the live action "Transformers" movie approaches, some web sites have been strategically shown footage. While reports have improved some skeptical notions, the work is not complete, says producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura.

"We were very proud of what we’ve seen so far of the movie and we thought it was time to show some people so the hardcore fan base could relax a little bit," he said. "They’re not relaxing a lot but they’ve relaxed a little bit since we’ve put it out. It’s a lot of fun. It’s very true to these characters."

The filmmakers know it is a double edged sword of having a massive built-in audience, but a large number of equally difficult critics to please. "When anybody’s passionate about something, you have a certain responsibility to try to deliver what drove their passion. What is great on "Transformers" is that people have made a lot of assumptions about what they’re going to look like and they’re all wrong because we haven’t even seen ’em, so I don’t know what they think they’ve seen. There isn’t a single visual effects shot that’s finished in the movie yet. So what’s great is that it’s going to keep getting better and better."

With the film on the books for this summer, there’s still plenty of time to finish up. "This was planned. We’re right on schedule. So far everything has moved really sensationally. We finished on time, on budget and our visual effects are coming in on schedule. They’re just really complicated so they take a long time. We’ve seen the process so we’ve seen the evolution of a lot of the shots."