When Michael Bay was first offered the role of bringing the Transformers franchise to life in live-action by producer Steven Spielberg, he wasn't interested in making a movie based on 1980s robot toys. However, Spielberg's pitch of an action epic themed around a young man buying his first car won Bay over, and the continued opportunity to work with cutting-edge cinematography and effects technology has reportedly kept him coming back for two more sequels, in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
Bay was also at the helm on the fourth Transformers installment, a soft reboot of the franchise titled Transformers: Age of Extinction. IMAX has long been a key element of Bay's filmmaking approach on these movies by this point - and with his next (and supposedly) last Transformers film, Transformers: The Last Knight, Bay is doubling-down on the IMAX-sized spectacle.
Individual scenes shot specially for giant-sized IMAX screens have been a staple of the Transformers franchise since Revenge of the Fallen, yet such scenes have taken up more of each Transformers film made since then. The Last Knight, which was shot using the ultra high-end Alexis 3D IMAX cameras and the powerful RED unit, will feature more plus-sized action than ever before. As Bay explained during our visit to The Last Knight's set:
"We're going to do a lot more [full screen IMAX] in this one. It can't be consistent but we're be able to keep it big a lot. More than Transformer 2. It's because of the camera we're using and it's because we're framing wider. The Alexis 65 houses so much information. You can blow it up a little bit, full your whole screen, With our RED as well, the weapon, we blow it up to fit the screen bigger."
The Last Knight continues the story of the Autobots attempting to survive while staying hidden from a human race that has come to fear all Transformers (regardless of their alignment) and has assigned a vicious paramilitary uni to destroy them. The top-secret storyline for the film also involve Optimus Prime's search for the Transformers' "Creators" and the legends of King Arthur and Excalibur.
Mark Wahlberg is returning as inventor Cade Yeager from Transformers: Age of Extinction, alongside Josh Duhamel (reprising his role from earlier Transformers films) and newcomer Isabella Moner as a teenager - orphaned during The Battle of Chicago in Dark of the Moon - who is partnered with a Vespa scooter Transformer named Sqweeks. The film is set to be followed by further sequels and spin-offs (not directed by Bay), starting with a solo movie for the autobot Bumblebee.
