Hollywood is known, and some would say loathed, for the “me too” attitude studios adopt in order to ride the coat tails of money-making trends. When Transformers made a bazillion dollars a few years ago, studios scrambled to secure the rights to every imaginable toy, board game, and absolutely anything that children were interested in during the early 1990s.  We now have two Transformers movies, a G.I. Joe movie, we’re getting Candyland and Battleship movies, and of course Ridley Scott’s (I seriously have to do a double take every time I read this) Monopoly.  I could go into a lengthy discussion illustrating the differences between giant weapon-wielding robots that transform into jets and tanks and a boring (that’s right, I said it) board game designed to teach children the thrilling world of property management, but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume I’m preaching to the choir.  Instead I’m here to reveal to you the plot behind this whopper of a bad idea straight from the mouth of story writer Frank Beddor.  You really need to follow the jump for this.

While all the movie studios are struggling to deal with falling DVD sales, one studio is smiling.  Paramount Home Video sold 7.5 million DVD/Blu-ray copies of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” in its first week of release including 1.2 million Blu-ray’s, making it the year’s highest selling HD title. To put that in perspective, “Twilight” was the year’s biggest selling title and has sold 8 million copies since March 21st.  So if you were wondering why Michael Bay jumped right into making “Transformers 3″, it’s because the movies make a lot of money.  Sorry to dispel the notion that Bay does it because he deeply believes in the “Transformers” mythology and the soul-searching questions it raises.

Of course, the big question is whether or not Bay will listen to outside voices on TF3, because from what I heard, he was left completely alone when making the sequel.  While I didn’t hate the movie like some people, I was definitely let down.  But I can’t think of another filmmaker I’d want to see making “Giant Fucking Robots That Punch Each Other 3″*.  So Michael, if you’re reading this, your visuals are awesome but please get a good script and try to listen when people give you helpful advice.

*Not the official title.

With Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” now out on DVD and Blu-ray, we’ve been given 10 copies to giveaway. So if you’d like to enter to win a copy, hit the jump to see what you need to do:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned over $820 million at the box office and become the #1 movie of the year in North America and throughout the world. Star Trek is the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2009 and has become the highest-grossing film in the series.

The writers responsible for both of those films, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talked about their DVD releases, during a recent press day at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica. The two compared their processes for each of the films, along with their approach to making existing material interesting and new for audiences. They also talked about their history with “Star Trek” and covered a lot of subjects the fans will find interesting. Here’s what they had to say:

From the horse’s mouth, it seems that The Man with the Hat is gearing up for another global adventure in the next few years. Harrison Ford says that work on the story for the fifth “Indiana Jones” film has started and that George Lucas is currently at work on a treatment after the he, Steven Spielberg, and Ford agreed on a general story idea. Ford says, “If the script is good, I’ll be very happy to put on the costume again.” Another film was almost a no brainer financially after the strong box office showing of 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, which had an opening weekend gross of over $126 million and a final gross of $317 million on an estimated $185 million budget. Money is one thing, however, as the critical and fan response to the film was lackluster at best. Grab your whip and hit the jump to read more.

This is a good one.  While out promoting her new movie, “Jennifer’s Body”, Megan Fox let some unflattering comments about Michael Bay escape her perfectly-penciled lips. It was something about the “Transformers” director being “like Hitler” to work for.  How silly, right?  She was obviously kidding because - everyone knows - Obama is way more like Hitler than some random movie guy!  Not everyone found the funny in Fox’s comments, however.   Three “Loyal Transformers Crew” members channeled their rage into over 1,000 venomous words posted Friday night on Bay’s website.  They start by calling her “dumb-as-a-rock” and, trust me, it only goes downhill from there.  Get your bitch-on after the jump.

Paramount has just announced an October 20^th release date for the DVD/Blu-ray of Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”. While the film was beaten up by both critics and fans, the movie has already made over $820 million dollars at the worldwide box office. I think every filmmaker would take that kind of box office no matter what people say. Anyway, if you’re curious what extras are coming on the home video release, or just want to see the cover art, it’s after the jump:

In the end, I guess it all comes down to nostalgia.  If you played with G.I. Joes or Transformers and watched their Saturday morning cartoon shows, then a movie works off your nostalgia and hopefully will be the cinematic equivalent of Frosted Mini-Wheats.  I was never excited for those films because they weren’t really a part of my childhood.  Even “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” I kind of left behind.

But then there are Legos.  And they’re getting a movie.  And I get to become a hypocrite.  Hit the jump to build rose-tinted glasses.

A few days ago I attended the New York City press junket for “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”. While there, I got to speak with some of the cast, director Stephen Sommers and producer Lorenzo de Bonaventura. While I’ve already spoken to Lorenzo a lot about “G.I. Joe” and “Transformers“, you can never go wrong asking a few more questions as he producers a lot of other movies.

So after the first few questions on “G.I. Joe” and “Giant Robots That Like to Punch Each Other in the Face”, I asked him about some of his upcoming projects and he told me the status on Jack Ryan, “Red”, and also why he wanted to make an “Asteroids” movie. Take a look after the jump:

If you didn’t see the The Late Show with David Letterman the other night, you missed a very unusual Top Ten. That’s because Dave had Optimus Prime doing the “Top Ten Things That Sound Cool When Spoken By A Giant Robot.” While I won’t say all ten were funny, the first 5 or 6 were. Take a look at the clip after the jump:

As of Sunday the estimates for Michael Bay’s “Transformers” sequel put the film at over $201 million - just shy of the all-time five day box office record.  By Monday afternoon, however, it appeared that Paramount Pictures had been a bit over zealous in reporting their weekend estimates (they’re called estimates for a reason).  The actual weekend numbers for “Transformers 2″ came in at $198.2 million - three million under what had been reported.  But here is where it gets really complicated - Paramount also apparently UNDER reported its grosses for Wednesday and Thursday.  In the end the domestic five day total for “Tf2″ stood at about $200 million so it all evened out - pretty much.  Now on to better news for you robot lovers - Monday’s $14.8 million estimate, when added to the film’s international box office haul of $204 million brings “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” above $418 million total!!  Those fabled first five days have also given the film the biggest June debut of all time as well as the highest grossing non-holiday, non-Friday opening and the seventh biggest debut weekend overall.  I know this is getting kind of confusing so I have included an updated chart to help make sense of all the crazy:

They had me at hello. Okay, maybe that isn’t quite right.  They didn’t have me at hello, as this is a DVD release and not a Cameron Crowe film.  But the sentiment is right on.  I love the Transformers.  And not the G2, or beast machines, or the silly animee style series.  I’m talking G1 baby. Transformers the Complete First Season 25^th Anniversary edition is it!  I’m talking voiced by Peter Freaking Cullen, Frank Damn Welker and Chris bloody Latta!  This was my favorite cartoon as a kid.  And seeing a beautiful collection like this kind of makes me salivate.  More after the jump:

If you’re a fan of “Transformers”, MichaelBay.com has posted a cool article that lists some fun facts about the “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” movie. While you can learn all about the new robots and technology it took to bring “giant robots that punch each other in the face” to the screen, here’s one that they don’t list….

Tomorrow night, here in Los Angeles, is the very first time anyone will be seeing the final version of the movie. Yes, you read that right.

Even though Bay and company have been promoting all over the planet, the film is just now getting its final coat of paint. It could be that the version they’ve been showing is a normal print and tomorrow night’s is the first showing in IMAX, or it could be that the final shots are just now going in. Either way, the junket press are seeing the finished film at 7:30pm and I’ll be there. While I might be under embargo from writing more than a few words…follow me on twitter for my immediate reaction.

Until then, after the jump are some cool facts about the movie and the complete image gallery.

Paramount/DreamWorks has just given us an exclusive image from director Michael Bay’s upcoming blockbuster “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen”. As you can see, it shows Optimus either getting ready to battle someone with sword in hand, or he’s just defeated someone. Either way, it looks awesome.

But I’m biased. I thought the first “Transformers” movie was incredible, and I think Michael Bay was born to helm these movies. Mo matter what you think of the guy, he knows how to film action. And what better franchise is there than giant f*cking robots punching each other.

While this summer has been filled with great movies, the end of June brings up “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen”. And I can’t wait.

And one last thing, while movie studios have been embracing the online world with more and more viral campaigns, I think “Revenge of the Fallen” is going to be the first one that uses the movie to help promote the campaign. If you saw the recent trailer, the back of Shia’s shirt has a website url on it and it’s for an actual site - therealeffingdeal.com

On top of that one, gianteffingrobots.com has also launched and according to movieviral.com, the site is run by Jon Turturro’s character in the movie. While I usually don’t care about viral stuff, I think the angle they’re taking with this one is kind of cool. If you’re into viral campaigns, you might want to take a look.

Here’s Optimus: