Optimus Prime and other robot Transformers – in their car disguises – descended upon NASA's space shuttle launch site in Florida this month to shoot scenes for their third, and reportedly final, live action movie due out next summer, called "Transformers: The Dark of the Moon."
The robots in disguise appeared at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., the home port of NASA's shuttle fleet, and launching site for the agency's manned space missions for decades. The filming session occurred last week before moving to Washington, D.C. [Photo: Optimus Prime Truck at NASA]
The Transformers films are based on the 1980s cartoon series of the same name, which featured well-intentioned robots – the Autobots – in a war against the evil Decepticons. Earth serves as their battleground.
"It's an opportunity for us to show ourselves to an audience we wouldn't necessarily always get an opportunity to show ourselves to," NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel told SPACE.com.
The two previous "Transformers" movies raked in megabucks overseas, so the potential for a worldwide audience has Beutel excited.
"In reality, [Transformers] is a science-fiction action film, but for us we do real space-exploration, science-fact stuff," Beutel said. "It's a chance for us, if a kid sees a NASA facility, sees the space shuttle on the launch pad, maybe they'll look into that, maybe they'll go to NASA.gov and see what's going on."
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is not the first film to feature the Kennedy Space Center. [Gallery: NASA's Sci-Fi Inspired Mission Posters]
The NASA spaceport has also been featured prominently in other science fiction blockbusters as the launching ground for the asteroid-smashing Earth rescue spaceships in "Armageddon" and the site of the first Machine built in the film "Contact" based on the novel by astronomer Carl Sagan.
Bay has said in interviews that the third Transformers film will hearken back to the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. The director has hinted that the trilogy's warring extraterrestrial robots will turn out to have played a significant behind-the-scenes role in mankind's entering the final frontier.
Journalists on hand at Kennedy Space Center last week for the delivery of cargo to Discovery reported seeing some of the movie's stars, including Shia LaBeouf, John Turturro and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who replaces Megan Fox from the previous two films as the love interest for LaBeouf's character, Sam Witwicky.
Beutel said that some 600 space center employees auditioned as extras per the moviemakers' desire for realism in depicting NASA operations and personnel.
"[Bay] likes to cast extras in roles who are familiar with the venue they are in," Beutel said. "They work there and are actually experts, so it's 'act like a rocket scientist,' and they'll have rocket scientists on the set."
Optimus Prime's famous earthly disguise is an eye-catching, chromed-out, deep blue-and-flame-colored semi-trailer truck, while Bumblebee masquerades as a sporty yellow-and-black Chevy Camaro.
Beutel and other observers noticed various other vehicles cruising around the space center, including tricked-out, rally car-style racers, any or all of which might portray more-than-meets-the-eye Transformers onscreen.
As for the rumors of NASA's iconic shuttle morphing into a colossal robot, fans of the Transformers mythologies need to look no further than Astrotrain, an evil Decepticon that can assume the form of the space shuttle as well as a steam locomotive.
Beutel said he recalls Astrotrain well from his childhood, though he does not know – and even if he did, he could not say per contractual agreements with the filmmakers – if Discovery duplicitously turns out to be this menacing machine.
Regardless, Beutel looks forward to seeing the movie when it hits theaters and enjoyed having "Transformers" come to KSC.
"It's cool having a touch of Hollywood here on the Florida Space Coast," he said.
