
Hey people, here's the second interview with Zack Ward, where we get down and dirty about Transformers... here's a little bit to whet your appetite. Enjoy! When you're finished reading, download it, there's much better stuff to hear yet! ;)
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Steve: Are you able to tell me, does Scorponok transform
into a robot at any point, or is he just a giant robot scorpion?
Zack: He's pretty much just a giant robot scorpion. He
always was, and he always is. I think he comes attached to a giant helicopter.
Steve: Man, I'm not a giant transformers geek but I've been
keeping tabs on the movie because it's something I watched when I was a young
kid? I don't share the opinion these fucktards on IMDB have, "Optimus Prime has
flames on him they've ruined the movie!!!", I think it looks fucking awesome.
Zack: Oh dude, it DOES.
Steve: The robots Ive seen so far, the footage, the trailer,
had me creaming in my pants practically.
Zack: When you see the vision for Scorponok? When people are
watching and looking at Scorponok and you see his POV? They did something
interesting, they try to do as much in camera as they can before it goes to
post. What they did here, was the vision for Scorponok, was a 3700mm lens for a
camera! There's only one in existence. It's roughly 3 feet long, comes in a
giant case, and it's one of the first shots we were shooting, you see it out in
shiprock when Scorponok is circling us. This is a lense that can enable you to
see a half mile away that has a depth of field that meaning that from the edge
of your nose to your eye will be in focus perfectly, but everything else is a
blur. It's gonna be AMAZING. So for those people who wanna nerd out and know a
little bit more than their buddy sitting next to them when they watch the
movie, and you see Scorponok do this super close zoom in? They can go "You know
that's a 3700mm lense!" and that'll make you sound reeeeeeaally reeeeeally
smart.
Steve: *laughs* That is fucking unreal, the thing I wanna
ask you about, do you get sort of stalked a bit like in Jaws?
Zack: Yes! Well that's what it is, any good horror movie, I
mean if you just brought out the robots it'd be just TADA here they are. And
you wouldn't care. But what you wanna do is tease the audience, a strip tease,
you wanna make them see another little bit of scorponok, a little bit more of
that big reveal!
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Zack: Any kid under 8? They're gonna crap their pants. It's
pretty *laughs* it's a pretty violent movie. The stuff that goes on? You'll be
jumping out of your skin. You'll be doing the "Oh my god! Oh jesus!" thing.
Steve: The reason I asked you about Jaws, is because when
you see it leap in and out of the sand, I just envisage this bit where you see
the sand shift, and a part poke out, and go back in!
Zack: Mmmmmhmmmmm!
Steve: You guys going "What the fuck is that?" kinda thing!
Zack: Mmmmmhmmmmm!!!! It's just like Jaws in the desert!
Steve: That's exactly what I'm hoping it is! The real cool
part, I should've tacked on earlier, is the fact it's based on a real instance
where the military had to go and use a mobile phone to ring through to their
base of command or something?
Zack:About what?
Steve: Something about in the script, I don't know if you
did it in the final movie, where you have to go to a village in Qatar?
Zack: Ah yeah the Bedouin village.
Steve: Yeah and you have to use one of their mobile phones
and a credit card? And its apparently based off a real life military situation.
Apparently that really did happen.
Zack: Okay? It could be possible, cause they've got great
gear but sometimes stuff goes down.
Steve: I'm not saying there was a real scorponok that
attacked or something that attacked *laughs* cause the LAST time Megatron
invaded!
Zack: It'd be great if they did like at the end of the DVD,
if they did like those PIXAR cartoons, where you'd have the transformers
hanging around the Craft services tables eating and you hear Scorponok report
to makeup!
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Zack: The cool thing Michael
Bay does, is he tries to do
everything practical, not in a cgi effect, do you understand the difference?
Steve: Yes, and that's fucking awesome.
Zack: So a lot of the stunts that go on? They're *real*
stunts. Some of the time we had real robots out there in the desert, under the
sand, coming out of the sand, real explosions going on, real F117A's flying
overhead, real A-10 Warthogs these are tank killers. We had REAL Ospreys. Two
of them. There's only 4 of them in the ENTIRE USA airforce.
Steve: Yeah they were saying on an interview, it's the first
movie to shoot an F22 Raptor on film instead of using CGI?
Zack: Yeah! Yep!
Steve: That is so cool.
Zack: That's BEYOND cool motherfucker! Like, we had, we got
probed by the US Govt. before we were allowed near the (Name was kinda
incomprehensible, so it'd be wrong if I tried to write one...) Airforce base
before we could get on. We had to be asked credentials, backtaxes,
fingerprinted, retinal scanned, DNA, back taxes, everything. Because this is
one of only three places in the USA
where the F117 can land. This airforce base IS Area 51. Understand that.
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I don't know about you lot, but to me, that's some pretty INTENSE shit right there. F22's on screen in the FLESH (Or metal...) for the first time, Ospreys, F117's, A10 Warthogs! Giant Metal Scorpions! DNA! A budget exceeding Russias annual turnover! Giant robots beating the SHIT out of each other, standing around catering tables, drinking coffee, hanging out for sitcom pilot season... And MICHAEL FREAKIN BAY YELLING AT THEM ALL, FIRING THEM, THEN RE-HIRING THEM!!!! Sweet I tell you. Sweet.
I'm sold. Count me there, first day, first session, first in line.
I'll clarify something though as far as Tyrese goes:
Whilst I AM skeptical as far as people of various talents crossing over into others, I DO like Tyrese as an actor. Tyrese has proven himself with solid work in 2f2f, Four Brothers and a few others, he's built himself a solid standing as far as his work goes. Andre Benjamin? That cat is just brilliant. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson? Just truly fantastic. I'm well aware some people liked 'Get Rich or Die Trying', I just didn't. My disliking of GRoDT doesn't mean I dislike 50 as a person, I don't know the dude personally. But as far as not liking 50 as an actor in GRoDT? That's my choice and I stick by it.