Film director Michael Bay has been blowing up stuff in his movies since his early days in the chair during the 1990’s. Chalk it up to being inspired by George Lucas when Bay was interning at the set of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” This trait had only become prominent when he segued into big-budget action franchise flicks like Hasbro’s “Transformers.”
Despite a rise of detractors regarding this cinematic style, Bay has embraced his reputation for making explosions galore in his film sets. He even parodied that reputation of his in an ad for Verizon.
And speaking of “Transformers,” he’s at it again on the latest installment of the franchise, “The Last Knight.”
Monumental Damage
One of the upcoming movie’s cast, English actress Laura Haddock, talked about filming for “Transformers: The Last Knight”, especially with regards to the efforts Michael Bay undertook in getting a workaround to having none other than the iconic ancient monument of Stonehenge destroyed in a big bad boom during an epic battle sequence.
Since of course, the UK wouldn’t stand for such an eventuality, Bay instead had set designers to build up an actual full-scale replica of the standing stones in southern England.
“Michael’s sets are practical,” explains Haddock. “So you would think that maybe 90 percent of this film is done on green screen, and it’s not.” The star spoke further of the director’s absolute fascination for explosions that she has seen firsthand but adds that Bay has always emphasized safety on the set even when blowing things up.
Despite the numerous measures in place to prevent injury, Haddock does admit that filming any one of the action sequences for “The Last Knight” will inevitably end with some scratches and bruising. Nevertheless, she and her cast members are game for what Bay has planned next. She also mentions that despite full knowledge that he’d get turned down Michael Bay did cheekily ask permission to explore the real Stonehenge.
Legendary connection
“Transformers: The Last Knight” has new characters and reunites the principal actors from both the first “Transformers” trilogy and the fourth film “Age of Extinction,” which is thematically distinct. A crisis looms on Earth when Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) leaves to find the origins of his robotic race which may have ties to King Arthur.
Without his mediation conflict arises between humans and Autobots.
Aside from Laura Haddock, the film also stars Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro and Anthony Hopkins. “The Last Knight” is announced to be Michael Bay’s farewell directing stint on the “Transformers” franchise and will premiere this coming June 23.
