Hunted Species and other TF fictions

According to eiga.com and yahoo.co.jp, the premiere took place succesfully yesterday (July 24) at Tokyo Big Sight, in the presence of nearly 4,000 fans. Michael Bay and Josh Duhamel, the two Ambassadors of the movie, entered the exhibition area walking on a blue carpet, and under the clapping of the crowd and the flashes of the journalists. Michael Bay declared he was happy that “the Transformers come back to Japan, given that the concept was born in this country more than 20 years ago”. Duhamel explained that acting in this movie was really fun, but that Bay was very demanding and asked sometimes to replay action scenes fifteen times.

As announced previously, Franz Harary performed the special event; the illusionist arrived on stage in a yellow Camaro, which he “transformed” in a 5-meter tall Bumblebee robot…

Some pictures of the premiere are available on eiga.com : http://eiga.com/buzz/show/8112

Personally, I was not there, since I didn’t get any invitation (didn’t really try, actually . But anyway, I already bought tickets in advance, and I am waiting eagerly the release of the movie on August 4 (at last!).

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While almost all the other countries in the world already enjoy the latest movie of « Transformers”, in Japan, we have to satisfy ourselves with the articles posted on the foreign sites of yahoo and Co.; the release here is scheduled for August 4^th! It is not the first time that the release of a movie in Japan happens more than a month after the worldwide release. Japan is said to have not enough theaters to absorb several blockbusters at the same time, which explains this summer, the big flagships of the American movie industry will be realized one after one (here, the latest Harry Potter will be on air from next week-end, and 3 weeks later, the TF 2007, so that they don’t “bump” into each other…).

Anyway, there has been some trace of marketing and promotion agitation since the beginning of this month. The Premiere for the TF movie will take place on July 24, 2007, in the trendy bay area of Odaiba, Ariake (near the International Ariake Exhibition Center?). Spielberg announced at the end of June that a special attraction would take place with the participation of the “magician” Franz Harary, well known in Japan for his illusions (and the brief disappearance of the Rainbow Bridge). The attraction would be “the transformation of the ridge of the stage (4 assembled reversed pyramids – 58 meter high x 100 meters) into a robot. The idea would have come from the Japan distribution team, and Spielberg found it was the best idea of the world. Cost of the operation: 200 million yens (1.64 million US$)”. Well, if I haven’t mistaken the Japanese article on yomiuri… Wow!

Don’t tell me they are talking about that

I would like to get some tickets for this premiere, but they are available upon drawing lots… I had better wait the pod cast on yahoo.co.jp

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I had the surprise to find last Monday in the Kinokuniya Bookstore of Shinjuku the Movie Adaptation Comic, published by IDW Publishing (a kind of Premiere, because usually, Japan is quite late in matter of US publication).

It took me actually one night to read it. The drawing is quite good, very dynamic, and there are lot’s of suspense and actions (It’s a movie by Michael Bay after all!). However the end of the story doesn’t impress me that much (but I will wait to see the movie to have a final opinion). The comic enables also to get a clear picture of the new design of Autobots and Decepticons. I didn’t like them the first time I saw pictures on the Internet, last year, but 10 months later, I have to say that they are quite realistic, and fit very well the story line.

Only thing that I find confusing; Megatron and Starscream look almost like each other, and I have some hard time to figure out who is who. But maybe this impression will stand only for the comic?

Bellow, the cover of the comic, and the dream team of Optimus Prime…

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Two weeks ago, I managed to get my hands on the prequel of the 2007 up-coming Transformer movie, introduced at the novelization of the comic prequel published by IDW. Alan Dean Foster, famous for his novelizations of several films including Star Wars, the three Alien films, and Alien Nation, has written the book.

Here’s bellow a summary of the nine first chapters. If you plan to read the book, or don’t want any spoilers, don’t click on the link!

And the good news is that the novelization of the movie will be realised on May 29! (In the United-States… Will take more time to find it’s way to Japan, I guess…)

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