Lorenzo di Bonaventura is a power-hitting producer in Hollywood.  He produced both Transformers movies and one of the summer’s surprise hits G.I. Joe.  He’s currently working on Salt starring Angelina Jolie and Red which stars Bruce Willis and pretty much everyone else in Hollywood.  According to IMDb, Di Bonaventura has 31 other projects in development and he’s about to make it 32-38 as he’s just acquired the six-part fantasy series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, which has been compared to the Harry Potter series.  Hit the jump for more details.

While the first look at director Phillip Noyce’s “Salt” happened a few days ago due to a leaked Russian trailer, Sony has wisely posted the official trailer so we can all stop trying to decipher Russian.  If you saw the Russian trailer, the official release is exactly the same.

As Matt said the other day, “Salt” looks like Jason Bourne in a dress.  And that’s a good thing, especially when it’s Angelina Jolie wearing the dress.  If you like action movies, check out the trailer after the jump.  “Salt” hits theaters on July 23^rd, 2010.

Yesterday I posted the first part of my exclusive interview with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and after the jump is part two. In this part, Lorenzo and I discussed “G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra”, what’s up with “Beverly Hills Cop 4″ and Jack Ryan, and he told me all about a project called “Red” - which sounded like it’s getting ready to move forward.

The big news on “G.I. Joe” is the film is 1 hour and 47 minutes. He also said since the movie comes out so close to Comic-Con, don’t expect to see too much footage there. He also talked about why people should be excited to see it.

Regarding “Beverly Hills Cop 4″ and Jack Ryan, it’s all about the scripts…which aren’t ready to go yet.

Finally we talked about a project he has at Summit called “Red”. The film is based on the Warren Ellis graphic novel and it’s about an over the hill gang of CIA agents that have been put out to pasture and a situation occurs that brings back the gang. Lorenzo compares it to “Oceans 11″ and “Sneakers”.

For more on all the projects, you can watch the interview after the jump. Take a look:

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has been a friend of Collider’s for a long time. In fact, it was over a year ago that I posted a great interview with him about the “G.I. Joe” movie. Now, with his new film “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” set to arrive in theaters, I got another chance to talk with him. Except this time it’s on camera!

Since the interview covered a number of movies, I’m breaking it into two parts. The first part - which is after the jump - covers the making of “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen”, and the next part is about “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and the status of all his other projects. Look for part two Tuesday.

During our time on “Transformers” we covered how the film was just finished, what was the studio like making the sequel versus the first film, what’s up with a third movie, will Michael Bay come back, and what’s his thoughts on IMAX and 3-D. If you’re a fan of the giant robots franchise, you’ll really dig the interview. Take a look:

Just a few hours ago, Paramount/DreamWorks held two press conferences here in Los Angeles to promote “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen”. Since I’m not going to have the time to transcribe the interviews tonight, for all the people that wanted to hear what the cast and filmmakers said, I’m offering you the audio files right now.

The first press conference was Scott Farrar (ILM), Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

The second press conference was director Michael Bay, Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Kevin Dunn, and Ramon Rodriguez.

While the first one will be informative if you want to hear what went on behind the scenes at ILM and how the script came together, the second one is where it’s at. That’s because the cast was saying some very funny stuff and Michael Bay is…well…Michael Bay. You can never go wrong listening to Bay.

So if you’d like to hear them, here’s the link for the first one, and here’s the link for the second. Look for a lot more from today’s junket very soon.

This is one of those days where Internet journalism creeps me out.  It appears that a message board poster with the handle “Endtimes” (full name: Robert Endtimes) has gone out to say that director Stephen Sommers has been booted off “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”.  Of course, this isn’t calm, level-headed reporting by a message board user.  Instead, you get choice quotes like:

“after a test screening wherein the film tested the lowest score ever from an audience in the history of Paramount,”

Meanwhile producer Lorenzo whose turkey IMAGINE THAT explodes this weekend as the new bomb in theatres (also championed by Weston) was told his services were no longer needed on the film either.”

“Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, who turned down other offers from the property to go with the script that was rushed in 8 weeks by Stuart Beattie because of the writer’s strike is frantic that this will destroy the brand and is distancing himself from the pending catastophe.”

“And the hapless hack Sommers? Where did he come from?”

I’m pretty sure legitimate sources don’t refer to folks as “hapless hacks”. That’s my job.

But LatinoReview picked up the story and to their credit, I’ve heard that it is true about there being a rough time in the editing room which is absolutely bizarre.  What creative differences can you have on “G.I. Joe”?  Was Sommers crying, “No!  This scene of a rocket dissolving the Eiffel Tower with green goo does not honor my original artistic intent!”  If anything, the biggest problem may be a disconnect between the marketing and the actual film where the marketing is trying to make the film look like “Transformers” (and really just succeeding at making it look like “Team America 2″) instead of a kids film for 10-12 year-old boys which is apparently the intent.  Sure, man-children who have some weird notion of what the property should be will get their Snake Eyes underoos in a twist, but who cares?

Check out producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s response to this kerfuffle after the jump.